Giacomel celebrates another victory in Oberhof
In front of a sold-out crowd at the ARENA am Rennsteig, Tommaso Giacomel completed his double victory at the BMW IBU Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof. After a highly dramatic race, the Italian beat Norway's Martin Uldal and Sweden's Sebastian Samuelsson – and, following his victory in Thursday's sprint, also took the yellow bib as the overall World Cup leader.
Giacomel with a strong finish
Giacomel showed great nerves in the pursuit. Although he had to go a total of six penalty loops in the first three rounds, the Italian remained strong in the decisive fourth shooting round: he needed 19.4 seconds for his clean rapid-fire performance – the key to victory. On the final lap, he was just able to hold off rushing Uldal and crossed the finish line first (37:15.4 minutes, six penalty loops).
Uldal squanders victory in final shooting round
Before the final shooting, everything looked set for a Norwegian victory. Uldal had built up a lead of around 40 seconds. But the fifth-placed from Sprint Competition showed nerves, had to complete three penalty loops and finished second (+4.5 seconds, four penalty loops). Third place went to Sebastian Samuelsson, who left behind numerous top runners on the final lap (+8.8 seconds, six penalty loops).
Nawrath loses touch after a strong start
Germany's hopes rested primarily on Philipp Nawrath, who finished second in the Sprint competition on Thursday. After the second shooting, the DSV athlete was even in the lead at one point and caused great euphoria among the 20,500 Oberhof fans, who were in high spirits. However, in the standing shootin, the biathlete from Nesselwang lost touch with the lead with five misses and finished 14th (+45.5 seconds, seven penalty loops) as the best DSV athlete. "It wasn't that windy, it was manageable. I wanted to push hard, but maybe I was a little too aggressive and neglected my own race a bit. I've been doing well in the standing shooting so far, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be today," Nawrath explained at the finish line.
Further German results
David Zobel finished as the second-best German in 22nd place (+1:32.6 minutes, six penalty loops). Lucas Fratzscher from Oberhof finished in 27th place (+2:00.0 minutes, four penalty loops). Justus Strelow and Johannes Kühn started the race well behind after the sprint. However, both were able to improve significantly. Strelow moved up eleven places to finish 35th (+2:26.1 minutes, three penalty loops). Kühn improved from 60th to 37th place (+2:29.7 minutes, four penalty loops). Philipp Horn did not compete, as he is unable to take part in any further races this World Cup weekend due to a recent infection.