German biathlon surprise!

Doll sprints onto the podium in Ruhpolding

Created: 01/13/2022Updated: 01/13/2022, 5:07 pm

Benedikt Doll already knows at the finish that he has managed a really good race.

© Sven Hoppe / dpa

The German biathletes are making an impressive return shortly before the Olympics.

Benedikt Doll shoots flawlessly for the first time in two years and comes in second, Lesser impresses in sixth.

Ruhpolding - Benedikt Doll * looked at the results table with wet eyes and clenched his fist overjoyed.

At the home World Cup in the German biathlon mecca in Ruhpolding, Doll achieved the long-awaited liberation with a second place in the sprint on Thursday. Less than four weeks before the Olympics, the German ski hunters gained plenty of self-confidence.

"Finally free of mistakes," said the 31-year-old with delight: "It gives me a lot to see that my running is good and that I can shoot without a mistake."

This is "the greatest" and gives confidence before the Olympic Games in Beijing *.

Biathlon in Ruhpolding: Doll gets in Olympic shape on time

Doll's relief was clearly noticeable, immediately after crossing the finish line and also during the interviews afterwards.

The 2017 sprint world champion had to admit defeat to the equally flawless French overall World Cup leader Quentin Fillon Maillet by just 7.2 seconds, an excellent starting position for the pursuer on Sunday (2.45 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport).

Bernd Eisenbichler was also happy about that.

"Finally the knot has opened with Benni, great!", Said the sports director of the biathlon of the German Ski Association (DSV *).

For the first time since January 16, 2020, Doll remained flawless in a World Cup race, at that time he also finished third in a sprint in Ruhpolding.

"It hasn't happened that often. I hope I can get it back in the next few races," he said and grinned.

Biathlon: Benedikt Doll "runs really well"

Doll also impressed with the second-best time on the trail.

"It was really good running," he said.

When shooting, he made "the biggest step" mentally.

However, only a few helpers waving flags in the stands celebrated an excellent team result of the DSV athletes this year because of the Corona regulations.

They saw how Erik Lesser showed his best performance of the season in sixth place and also showed his fist.

"It made me want to kill me properly," said Lesser, who was bothered by this one darned mistake in standing shooting: "It doesn't have to be, then there would have been more. That annoys me."

Biathlon: Lesser completes strong DSV appearance

The joy of the good result and the outstanding doll outweighed the fact that during the joint photo in the finish area, Lesser nodded appreciatively at his team-mate and patted him on the shoulder.

"Today we joked about it a bit with the trainer when we were shooting," said Lesser of Doll's long dry spell on the shooting range.

With success.

Fillon Maillet celebrated his fourth win of the season in 23: 23.7 minutes in the absence of the Norwegian stars around Johannes Thingnes Bö and Sturla Holm Lägreid, who are currently doing a training camp.

Third was Anton Smolski (1 / + 32.1) from Belarus.

Roman Rees could also be satisfied after finishing 20th, David Zobel impressed in his first World Cup race this winter as a strong 24th and narrowly missed half the Olympic standard.

The strong runner Philipp Nawrath (3 / + 1: 24.7) placed 41st with three shooting errors, Philipp Horn just made it into the pursuer in 59th place.

The good German result was important in two ways.

In the Nations Cup, the team of national coach Mark Kirchner claimed third place ahead of Sweden, a sixth quota place for the Winter Games in Beijing can hardly be taken from the DSV men.