Finally, the German biathlon men also have a medal. In the men's relay there was bronze, runner-up Doll awarded the quite possible title coup at the World Cup in Antholz at the shooting range.
Antholz (dpa) - Benedikt Doll shook his head and was heartbroken. With the last shooting, the Black Forest awarded the relay gold - but there were no reproaches from teammates Erik Lesser, Philipp Horn and Arnd Peiffer in Antholz for third place behind France and Norway.
"I'm totally happy that we were able to reward ourselves. Benni made it exciting in the end, but it was enough," said Olympic champion Peiffer. As ARD expert, record world champion Magdalena Neuner said: "With teammates like this, you can quickly find your way. In the end, he will celebrate bronze."
"I will definitely be happy later, but now I am terribly annoyed," said Doll, feeling sorry for his colleagues: "They made it outstanding and gave me a huge lead. Somehow my self-confidence at the shooting range is minus 10 and that makes it difficult for me. It wasn't my race today. "
The German quartet was 36.2 seconds behind a penalty loop and eight spare rounds behind France (4 spare rounds) and 14.2 seconds behind the dethroned world champion Norway (1 penalty round / 12 spare rounds). Before the final on Sunday in the South Tyrol Arena with the two mass start competitions, it was the fifth German medal after four silver medals - the first for the German men.
Previously, Karolin Horchler, second-placed Vanessa Hinz, Franziska Preuss and second-placed Denise Herrmann had won relay silver. Preuss and Lesser had been successful in single mixed.
Lesser laid the foundation stone for the medal coup. The Thuringian, who was actually only nominated as a substitute for the title fights, once again showed a sparkling clean performance. "Erik has run so many seasons, he knows what he has to do," said coach Mark Kirchner. Two days after winning silver in the single-mixed relay together with Preuss, the 31-year-old showed that he was far from being an old iron.
Ex-world champion Lesser was the only starting runner to make two clear mistakes next to the American Leif Nordgren and was the first to leave the shooting range - 2.2 seconds ahead of the French Emilien Jacquelin. "I am extremely happy that I handed over at one," said Lesser.
It was 0.6 seconds when switching to Philipp Horn, while the top favorites from Norway were already a good 40 seconds behind after a penalty loop by Vetle Sjastad Christiansen. World championship debut Horn got second in position with single world champion Martin Forucade, stayed on the biathlon superstar despite a spare load and was the first to hand over to Olympic champion Peiffer. "I was preparing for Fourcade games," said the 25-year-old.
The second change was also 0.6 seconds ahead. Defending champion Norway as third was 1: 04.4 minutes behind - but the Bö brothers Tarjei and Johannes Thingnes ran in the last two positions.
Also in the fifth shoot Peiffer and his opponent in third position, Simon Desthieux, were alone in the hallway. Almost at the same time after each reload, the German and the French went into the last kilometers. But Peiffer took off on the cross-country trail and handed over to Benedikt Doll for the big showdown with a lead of 12.6 seconds. "The running went well," said Peiffer and praised the ski technicians: "We had good equipment."
At the first shooting everything was open again - France's runner-up Quentin Fillon Maillet remained flawless, Doll needed three spare cartridges. The last time the Black Forest had to go into the penalty loop and was also overtaken by Norway's runner-up Johannes Thingnes.
Hours before the men's relay, there was a doping raid on sprint world champion Alexander Loginow - the 28-year-old brought the quartet from Russia in fourth place as the runner-up. Loginow was interrogated by a special police force in Italy.