Doll sprints onto the podium: At the end of the season, the biathletes really turn up the heat

Doll sprints onto the podium
At the end of the season, the biathletes really turn up the heat

The Olympic Games are unsuccessful for the German biathletes, the men do not win a medal. Well, just after the competitions in Beijing, the form is there. Three Germans make it into the top seven in Estonia. Erik Lesser still quarrels with himself.

In the penultimate sprint race of the winter, the German biathletes were able to come up trumps again. After the Olympic bankruptcy, ex-world champion Benedikt Doll made it onto the podium in third place in Otepää for the third time this season. Roman Rees finished the race in Estonia’s winter capital as a strong fifth, Erik Lesser was seventh – that’s how it should have gone for the ski hunters at the Winter Games in Beijing.

“The competition was perfect,” said Doll on ARD. The Black Forester was 11.1 seconds behind Quentin Fillon Maillet. The two-time Olympic champion from France prevailed with a lead of 7.2 seconds over the Norwegian Sturla Holm Laegreid and is about to win the overall World Cup for the first time. The 29-year-old, who was recently decorated with a total of five medals in China, celebrated his eighth World Cup victory this season – the big crystal globe is practically impossible to take away from him.

His dominance this winter is almost reminiscent of that of Martin Fourcade, who has long set the tone in biathlon. After 18 of 22 races, Fillon Maillet is in the overall standings with 816 points ahead of his compatriot Emilien Jacquelin (591) and Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson (564).

Lesser quarrels because of a mistake

Like 22 other ski hunters, Doll shot clean on the shooting range. Rees was also zero. “A really, really good result,” said the 29-year-old. Lesser, on the other hand, had to go into the penalty loop once – the ex-world champion was half a minute behind the winner after ten kilometers. “With the one mistake standing, I’m really at odds, otherwise I would have gotten another podium place today,” said Lesser. The 33-year-old had recently finished second in the pursuit in Finland – hunting races are not part of the competition program in Estonia.

“The entire team is still in good spirits,” said Johannes Kühn, who came in 23rd after two misses. “We achieved a very good team result,” he said. Philipp Nawrath (2/1:30.3) was 33rd and David Zobel (4/2:18.7) was 60th.

The women’s sprint continues in Otepää on Friday. “It would be nice for me if I could build on the results from last weekend, but I don’t expect myself to be on the podium every weekend now. I’m just trying to do my stuff on the shooting range and take that good feeling with me when I’m running “, said individual Olympic champion Denise Herrmann.

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