Norway’s comeback repelled
Herrmann fights relay to bronze
02/16/2022, 09:59 am
Only one medal stands for the German biathletes up to the women’s relay race in the statistics, the weakest Olympic performance ever threatens. But gold medalist Denise Herrmann saved the German quartet the bronze medal from Norway.
The German biathletes have won an Olympic relay medal for the first time since 2010. Vanessa Voigt, Vanessa Hinz, Franziska Preuss and Denise Herrmann were only beaten by Sweden and the Russian team at the Winter Games in China on Wednesday and won bronze. Overall, the quartet of the German Ski Association allowed six spare rounds and after 4 x 6 kilometers in Zhangjiakou they were 37.4 seconds behind the new Olympic champions.
In Sochi in 2014 and in Pyeongchang in 2018, Germany went empty-handed, in 2010 in Vancouver there was bronze. The ski hunters last won gold in 2002 in Salt Lake City and have been waiting for another big coup since the 2017 World Championship title in Hochfilzen. Now, in an exciting final round, Herrmann secured the bronze medal against the oncoming Marte Olsbu Røiseland, who grabbed precious metal for favorites Norway. After several penalties, the Norwegians were at times more than two minutes behind the winners. In the end, Herrmann saved a ten-second lead to the finish. Co-favourites France, 2018 gold medalists, like Norway produced two penalties to finish some more than two minutes behind Sweden.
For the Skijäger it is the second medal in the ninth of a total of eleven races. Denise Herrmann surprisingly won gold over 15 kilometers in the first individual race. On Friday and Saturday, at the end of the Olympic competitions in the mountains in northwest Beijing, the mass starts for women and men are still on the program.