The German biathlon ace Franziska Preuss gets the overall World Cup victory in a crazy finish. Rivalin Lou JeanMonnot plunges in the final round.
Excitement until the last minute – and in the end Franziska Preuss is the winner! The German biathlon ace ran first at the mass start in Oslo and thus secured the overall World Cup in front of its great rival Lou JeanMonnot, who fell unhappily in the final round.
“There is no. A fall at the wrong time. Incredible. That was by no means the fault of Franzi Preuss. That cannot be made up for,” said ARD commentator Wilfried Hark.
Prussia trembles protest
JeanMonnot had wanted to pass Prussia on the left, but got stumbling – also because she drove very closely on the gang. At first, it was not possible without any doubt whether Prussia had touched her. “She has ten centimeters too little,” said Hark.
After racing ends, the French initially made use of their right to protest. This was confirmed by IBU sports director Daniel Böhm. Shortly afterwards it became known that the protest was withdrawn – Prussia remains the winner without doubt.
“The situation was exactly as the videos showed. It was unhappy, but a competition situation. There is no fault by Franzi. It was of course a lot for her. Of course, she noticed that something happened,” said sports director Felix Bitterling in the ARD .
The two opponents “spoke to each other and then she cried. I was 100 percent sure that nothing was. And I stood next to it. You can’t write a drama.”
Prussia, which at the finish shot tears, initially ends the overall World Cup with 1278 points. JeanMonnot is at 1258.
Prussian drama the day before
Prussia is the sixth German winner of the big crystal ball. Before Preuss, Martina Glagow (2002/03), Kati Wilhelm (2005/06), Andrea Henkel (2006/07), Magdalena Neuner (2007/08, 2009/10 and 2011/12) and Laura Dahlmeier (2016/17) won the overall World Cup.
A drama had taken place for Prussia on Saturday. The 31-year-old shooted two mistakes on the penultimate and fell back to tenth place. In the end, Preuss only finished fifth and fell five points behind Jean Monnot.
The day before, Preuss had won the sprint in the sprint and thus expanded her lead on Jean Monnot.