Franziska Preuß has at Biathlon World Cup in Hochfilzen/Austria celebrated their first win of the season.
Im 7,5 km Women’s sprint Despite a shooting error, she left the entire competition behind and won by 7.7 seconds Sophie Chauveau (FRA) and Karoline Knotten (NOR, +10.1 seconds).
“I’m very satisfied, it was really surprising that I won today. I won it on the track, I had really good legs,” said Preuß after the race on ZDF. As an additional reward for the victory, she won the yellow Jersey of the leaders in the overall World Cup.
Preuß took to the track with start number 62 and took the lead in the classification with a perfect prone shooting.
However, in the standing position she missed her first shot and had to go into the penalty loop.
Preuss entered the last 2.5 kilometers 5.4 seconds behind the leader Chauveau. That seemed recoverable.
“First I tried to go into the penalty loop at full throttle. Then I tried to keep a little loose and get the skis to work,” she explained her tactics afterwards.
And the 30-year-old German’s tactics actually worked.
Before the last climb, she had already overtaken the Frenchwoman in the time comparison. Preuß even extended his lead right up to the finish.
Shortly afterwards, when the error-free Knotten failed to match the German time, Prussia’s victory was certain.
It was the second success in an individual race for the Bavarian after her victory in the mass start in Ruhpolding in 2019.
She has repeatedly been set back by health problems in recent years. But at the start of the World Cup in Kontiolahti she had already indicated her potential for this season with places three, four and five.
In Hochfilzen she received the reward for never giving up despite all the setbacks. She dedicated the victory to her brother, who celebrated his birthday on Friday (December 13).
The 20 year old Selina Grotian rounded off the German day of success in fifth place with her best result of the season.
Your teammates Vanessa Voigt and Julia Tannheimer will go into the pursuit on Saturday from positions 12 and 29. Julia Kink and Marlene Fichtner will start from positions 40 and 46.
