Icon: enlarge
Arnd Peiffer in the finish area
Photo:
Sven Hoppe / dpa
At the end of the World Championships in Pokljuka, biathlete Arnd Peiffer finished twelfth in the mass start.
The 33-year-old Olympic champion took three penalties on Sunday and was 1: 09.2 minutes behind the new world champion Sturla Holm Laegreid after 15 kilometers.
One day after his 24th birthday, the Norwegian relegated his team-mate Johannes Dale (2 errors / + 10.2 seconds) and the French Quentin Fillon Maillet (2 / + 12.8) to the other medal ranks with a mistake.
With his fourth gold, Laegreid is the best ski hunter of the World Championships.
The 30-year-old Benedikt Doll had to be satisfied with the disappointing 23rd place after six mistakes.
But the co-favorites Johannes Thingnes Bø from Norway and Émilien Jacquelin from France could not be satisfied either: Bø was only eighth, Jacquelin quasi gave up after five shooting errors and only finished the last lap under the encouragement of supervisors and coaches.
His gap to Laegreid was over seven minutes.
After two faultless prone positions, Peiffer fell back through a penalty loop after the first standing stage and then made two more mistakes in the final attack.
For Doll the race was over early after three penalty loops after the first shooting.
“You invest so much and then you get so little.
I can be sad for a few days now, "said Doll afterwards.
The German team finished the World Cup after silver by Peiffer and the women's relay with only two medals.
On Saturday, after starting runner Erik Lesser's performance slump, he only made it to seventh place in the men's relay.
The team thus missed the target of four to five badges.
Most recently there were only two German medals at the 2013 World Cup in Nove Mesto.
Erik Lesser, Roman Rees and Johannes Kühn had missed the qualification for the mass start of the 30 best athletes.
Icon: The mirror
ngo / dpa / sid