Biathlon: German Shooting Debacle! "The Mood is in the Basement"

Shooting Debacle Prevents Podium

After several weak shooting results, the German biathlon relay narrowly missed the podium. Johannes Kühn missed six targets.

The German biathletes missed the podium at the end of the World Cup due to multiple poor shooting performances. In the men's relay, David Zobel, Philipp Nawrath, Johannes Kühn, and Philipp Horn finished in fourth place.

After 4x7.5 kilometers and ten reloads, resulting in four penalty laps, they were just under twelve seconds away from a podium finish.

The French team (0 penalty laps + 4 reloads) won decisively ahead of Norway (1 + 8 / +1:26.6 minutes) and Ukraine (0 + 7 / +2:45.4 minutes). This was France's fifth win in the previous five relay races of the World Cup season. Only at the World Championships did Norway lead.

The first runner of the German team, David Zobel, had major problems at the shooting range. During his first standing shot, he incurred the first penalty lap. "The wind was the main reason, but four mistakes shouldn't happen," Zobel said on ARD. "The athletes next to me also managed it. I just wobbled brutally and did a real disservice to my team."

Biathlon: Kühn Shoots Six Times Past

Even worse was Johannes Kühn's performance, who incurred three penalty laps. Kühn, who was the third runner, initially faced issues during the exchange and fell. However, with a strong prone shoot and good running performance, he fought his way back toward the podium.

But then he delivered a catastrophic standing shooting performance. Kühn missed all five shots. "We don’t need confirmation here," complained ARD commentator Wilfried Hark, who had previously mentioned Kühn's weak 70% rate in standing shooting: "Erik Lesser is frowning. This can't be true. There are already two penalty laps."

The first reload also missed the target. With the last two reloads, he at least limited the damage but still had to head to the penalty lap three times.

"Phew, the seventh shot was the first hit. That's a rare record," Hark said and immediately wrote off a podium finish: "Incredible. Just a moment ago running in third, now it’s all in vain."

The disappointment was palpable for ARD expert Erik Lesser: "The mood is obviously low now. We really had the chance to hit the third place again."

Kühn: "That was very, very bad"

Kühn himself had a clear explanation for his poor shooting: "I arrived as the third person at the shooting range and thought for a long time about whether I should pass the Italian. I actually wanted to stay behind, but he almost stopped, and then I had to pass. The wind then came from right to left, and I wobbled badly."

Because the two leading runners from France and Norway had already left the shooting range, he was fully exposed to the wind as the first target.

"In the end, the wind was gone, and then it went, " Kühn regretted but also showed self-criticism: "That was, of course, very, very bad."

For Erik Lesser, the wind cannot be an excuse, as he explained after the race: "Others were also in the wind at the same time, who shot significantly better."

At least in the World Championships, Kühn had managed to control his major shooting problems and broke his curse. After having cost the team medals in previous major events due to multiple mistakes, he contributed to the bronze medal at the championships.

Final Runner Horn Nearly Reaches the Podium

Anchor runner Horn suddenly caught up after the errors of the Swiss and Italians and had realistic chances for the podium during the final lap. "There is a glimmer of hope for third place again. Wow. That was twice already written off," commentator Hark rejoiced.

But on the final lap, Horn couldn’t catch up to the Ukrainian and had to settle for fourth place.

In the individual competitions in the Czech Republic, no German athletes made it into the top 15. Horn’s best position in the pursuit was 19th, while Strelow, who was absent from the relay due to mild throat pain, also finished in that place in the sprint.

With contributions from Sports Information Service (SID)