The German women's relay won silver at the Biathlon World Championships in Antholz. It was the first podium of the season.
Antholz (dpa) - They were almost beaten, but in the end Denise Herrmann, Franziska Preuß, Vanessa Hinz and Karolin Horchler were still cheering for relay silver.
After a completely crazy women's relay, the German quartet in Antholz, Italy, was 10.7 seconds behind defending champion Norway after nine spare rounds. For the German team, it was the fourth silver medal of this year's title fight in the South Tyrol Arena.
Ukraine took bronze over the 4x6 kilometers, 18.4 seconds behind the Norwegians. The team around Tiril Eckhoff and Marte Olsbu Roiseland was even able to compensate for one penalty round and nine extra cartridges in the new title triumph.
"It was a great race, really crazy because the others missed so much. We rocked it," said Denise Herrmann, who was second in pursuit after the women's season's first podium this season on ARD. The 31-year-old praised her teammate Franziska Preuß. "The Franzi really got the season back into business." Because in between it didn't look that good. Even record world champion Magdalena Neuner, the ARD expert, "was not quite as optimistic anymore".
"I was trembling brutally standing, I was extremely excited before," said start runner Karolin Horchler. The 30-year-old needed four spare cartridges and handed them over to the long-running Italians to Vanessa Hinz as 19th, 70 seconds back. The silver medalist in the 15-kilometer individual shone at the shooting range, but there was no time to make up for the Italian Dorothea Wierer on the track. "I tried to run my race and didn't even look where we were," said the 27-year-old from Schliersee in Bavaria.
After all, Hinz handed over to Franziska Preuß as tenth, 1:38 minutes behind. The 25-year-old, who had won silver in the mixed relay with Erik Lesser on Thursday, had painted her teammates' fingernails black, red and gold on the evening before. First she needed a reload in the prone position, then she shone with a flawless standing series.
And because the leaders around the Italian Federica Sanfilippo with their reloaders couldn't get by and had to do penalties, the medals for the German team were suddenly possible again. With a 43-second lag, Preuss passed fourth to runner-up Herrmann. "I realized that a miracle would have to happen if we wanted to get involved up front," said Preuss and was therefore "completely at risk".
After the last change, the Poles, who were trained by three-time Olympic champion Michael Greis, were in front. But the 40-year-old runner-up Magdalena Gwizdon could not withstand the pressure. Hermann kept his nerve at the shooting range and brought the German squadron to silver thanks to its running qualities. The Italians, who had long been superior, ended up being tenth.
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