As of: February 13, 2024, 6:34 p.m
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The German team has finally won its first medal at the Biathlon World Championships in Nove Mesto.
Janina Hettich-Walz won silver in the individual.
Nove Mesto – Janina Hettich-Walz surprisingly won the first medal for the German team on the fifth day of competition at the Biathlon World Championships.
The 27-year-old secured silver in the Nove Mesto individual event, her first ever World Championships individual medal in the best race of her career.
Hettich-Wald wins silver at the Biathlon World Championships
Hettich-Walz hit all 20 targets and after 15 kilometers was only 20.5 seconds behind the Italian Lisa Vittozzi, who also made no mistakes and took gold.
Bronze went to the French Julia Simon, who failed to triumph for the first time at the World Cup in the Czech Republic after a penalty minute.
Janina Hettich-Walz takes silver.
© IMAGO/Lubos Pavlicek
For a short time, Hettich-Walz even seemed within reach of the title with her flawless performance, but she ran out of strength on the final lap.
The last German individual world champion to date was Laura Dahlmeier in 2017. Two years ago in Beijing, Denise Herrmann-Wick won Olympic gold in the oldest biathlon race.
Strong team performance in women's individual biathlon
World Cup debutant Selina Grotian and Olympic fourth-place finisher Vanessa Voigt also narrowly missed the podium without any shooting errors, taking fourth and fifth place.
The duo was a good half a minute short of bronze.
Medal candidate Franziska Preuß incurred two penalty minutes and, as the weakest of the German quartet, surprisingly missed out on the top ten.
(dpa)