The Oberhof party train has brakes: The German biathletes around Denise Herrmann-Wick clearly miss the podium and thus the third medal in the individual event when Hanna Öberg wins. Herrmann-Wick misses four times - and still finds a reason for optimism.
Denise Herrmann-Wick shook her head in disappointment as she knelt exhausted at the finish line. Then she stomped away, gesticulating. Four shooting errors in the individual over 15 km - the festival of the 34-year-olds at the home World Cup in Oberhof experienced a break. "In singles you can only make one mistake. You have to be lucky on the shooting range. The two standing mistakes annoy me, it hasn't happened to me for a long time. Of course I'm not satisfied," said the Olympic champion from Beijing on ARD after rank 15.
Previously, Herrmann-Wick had won gold in the sprint and silver in the pursuit and triggered huge euphoria at the home World Championships in Oberhof. But first the German party train was slowed down. It should pick up speed again in the single mixed on Thursday and especially in the relays on Saturday.
The Swede Hanna Öberg ("It's so wonderful") became the singles world champion despite a shooting error ahead of her teammate Linn Persson (0/ 10.3 seconds). Italy's Lisa Vittozzi (1/28.0) took bronze. Öberg became Olympic champion in singles in 2018 and won the world title in 2019. Herrmann-Wick was 3:25.1 seconds behind the world champion.
The best German in spring-like temperatures of around ten degrees and a low distance was Sophia Schneider in 13th place in front of 16,000 spectators in the Arena am Rennsteig, although she also made four penalties on the shooting range (3:17.6). "We wanted to fight for a medal. It's positive that Sophia and Denise had very good times. But that's how it is. We keep fighting," said DSV coach Sverre Olsbu Röiseland.
The hitherto strong Schneider will continue to fight. "Unfortunately one of them always stopped. That's annoying, it wasn't that easy to shoot. But I'm happy that I'm in such good running form. I feel extremely good," said Schneider, who was already fifth in the pursuit , after the fourth-best running time.
With Vanessa Voigt, who had experienced severe disappointments in the sprint and pursuit, the curve went up a bit in the individual with 19th place. "I'm satisfied. I think the hole was deep enough. I don't know if I'm out yet, but at least that was a ray of hope," she said after two shooting errors.
