German victories and podiums
Eisenbichler strong, Herrmann unbeatable
03/05/2022, 7:17 p.m
Biathletes and ski jumpers are impressive in their competitions on Saturday: while Markus Eisenbichler narrowly misses victory in Oslo, Olympic champion Denise Herrmann wins the first World Cup after the Beijing Games. Ski jumper Karl Geiger, on the other hand, has to cope with a small setback.
Ski jumping world champion Markus Eisenbichler has conquered a podium place in the first individual at the Holmenkollen in Oslo. The 30-year-old Bavarian jumped 130 meters twice and took second place. Eisenbichler was only beaten by Marius Lindvik from Norway and showed excellent form a week before the Ski Flying World Championships in Vikersund. Third place went to Norway’s Robert Johansson. Eisenbichler had already shown a strong performance on Friday in mixed, on Saturday he had led after one round.
In the duel for the yellow jersey of the overall World Cup leader, Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan increased his cushion against Germany’s Karl Geiger. Kobayashi (128 and 129.5 meters) took sixth place and thus landed one place in front of the violinist from Oberstdorf, who only partially showed his full potential with jumps of 126 and 132 meters. Behind the top German duo, Severin Freund (19th), Andreas Wellinger (25th) and Constantin Schmid (26th) also scored World Cup points. On Sunday there is another singles in Oslo.
Victory and podium in biathlon
Individual Olympic champion Denise Herrmann meanwhile won the first biathlon sprint after the Beijing Winter Games. The 33-year-old won the World Cup in Kontiolahti, Finland, over 7.5 kilometers with a shooting error. For Herrmann it was the eighth World Cup victory of her career, two years ago she had won this race at the same place. Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff secured second place, five seconds behind, ahead of Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (both with one penalty). The 2018 Olympic sprint cross-country champion was just 0.2 seconds behind.
Saxon Herrmann impressed with the third-best time on the 2015 World Championship courses and was able to compensate for her penalty loop after the standing stage. Only about a month after her gold coup over 15 kilometers in China, the ex-cross-country skier made it to the top for the second time. Vanessa Voigt also showed a strong performance without shooting errors and finished sixth. The flawless Vanessa Hinz also got a very good starting position for the pursuit race on Sunday (12.45 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport) in twelfth place.
Johannes Kühn then fought his way to the podium for the second time in the Olympic winter. The 30-year-old Bavarian made just one shooting error in the sprint and finished third. After ten kilometers, Kühn was 29.7 seconds behind the day’s winner, Quentin Fillon Maillet from France, who shot clean. Filip Fjeld Andersen of Norway secured second place in the forests of North Karelia, also without a penalty.
After his victory in the Hochfilzen sprint in December last year, Kühn made it onto the podium again. For the German men it was only a small consolation after the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing without a medal. The second best German in the first individual competition after the Olympics was Philipp Nawrath (1 mistake) in seventh place, Erik Lesser (1) made it to twelfth place shortly before the end of his career.