As of: February 15, 2024, 1:57 p.m
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Finished a strong fourth place in the World Cup singles: Selina Grotian.
© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa +++ dpa-Bildfunk +++
The last weekend of the Biathlon World Championships in Nové Město is coming up.
Selina Grotian from SC Mittenwald, who celebrated her debut in the individual race and came sensationally fourth, is also there.
Now the women's relay race will take place on Saturday at 1.45 p.m. and on Sunday at 2.15 p.m. the mass start will conclude.
Nové Město - On Tuesday the German women's team could really celebrate.
Janina Hettich-Walz gives the team its first World Cup medal in the Czech Republic.
It was the first podium ever for the Black Forest woman - and then directly at a world championship.
But there's more: Grotian in fourth place and Vanessa Voigt in fifth were completely convincing.
“To be honest, I didn’t believe it.
"It's unbelievable, it's a crazy day for the Germans, you can't even understand it," Grotian said happily, "it was like a movie." In the individual over 15 kilometers, the 27-year-old was only beaten by the Italian Lisa Vittozzi, who finished 20th seconds was faster.
The previous World Cup dominator Julia Simon from France, who had already won gold three times, came third.
The last German individual world champion to date was Laura Dahlmeier from SC Partenkirchen in 2017. Two years ago in Beijing, Denise Herrmann-Wick won Olympic gold in the oldest biathlon race.
The trainers chose Grotian in the individual race: “Selina trained very well, both in preparation in Ridnaun and here.
She is very stable, very lively and was also really good at the shooting range,” said sports director Felix Bitterling about the nomination.
Grotian traveled to the highlight of the season without fulfilling the World Cup standard.
The five-time junior world champion had been running in the World Cup from the beginning of the season.
After mixed performances with places between 21 and 77, she was no longer part of the A team in Ruhpolding and ran again in the second-class IBU Cup before returning to the elite league at the World Cup dress rehearsal in Antholz.
“She has also shown several times in the World Cup that she can run well.
She just hasn't quite got it together yet that the shooting and running performance were really top on one day.
But Nové Město wouldn’t be a bad place to put that together,” said Bitterling before the race.
And it happened like this: “I wasn't that excited before the race.
I was more excited in front of the spectators,” emphasized Grotian.
“But when it started, it was better here than in Oberhof with the excitement.” And then the Mittenwald native shot zero four times.
“I’ve never managed that in an individual race,” she was amazed.
“I did a test competition here in the first week of the World Cup, a sprint.
“I scored zero twice,” she reports.