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Biathlete Franziska Preuss
Photo: MICHAL CIZEK / AFP
Biathlete Franziska Preuß made it onto the podium in the pursuit race at the Biathlon World Cup in Nove Mesto.
In the victory of the Norwegian Tiril Eckhoff, Preuß took third place (+40.2 seconds) behind the faultless Dzinara Alimbekava (+34.6 seconds) from Belarus.
For Preuss it was the third podium this winter and the first in a hunting race since 2015 in Khanty-Mansiysk.
Preuss, who had already been promising fourth place after the sprint race, showed a consistently good race on the trail as well as on the shooting range.
In the second prone shooting and the second standing shooting, the 27-year-old missed a target each and went on the final lap behind Eckhoff and Alimbekava, but tied with Italian Dorothea Wierer.
There Norwegian Marte Olsbu Røiseland caught up with Preuss and Wierer.
Preuss decided the three-way battle for the last podium place on the last climb: The DSV athlete stepped out of Wierer 's slipstream, pulled past and did not allow Røiseland to overtake her on the home straight.
You have "learned about tactics," said Preuss after the race: "Last time I tried to do everything from the beginning and then I was the one who was overtaken in the end."
A curious series comes to an end for Preuss with third place: In the previous eight individual races, fourth in the overall World Cup was the only athlete to always finish in the top eight, but never made it further than fourth.
"I'm incredibly relieved that this hurdle with the stupid podium has finally been overcome," said Preuss.
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