On the final round, the German is on par with Rivalin Lou JeanMonnot, then the French rushes.
Biathlete Franziska Preuss crowned her outstanding season in a dramatic final with the winning of the overall World Cup. At the final start of the mass on the Holmenkollen, the 31-year-old celebrated her fourth win of the season and thus passed the third-placed French Lou JeanMonnot in the fight for the yellow jersey. In the final round, both rivals were dangerously close to each other, JeanMonnot fell, Prussia had free rail.
The French took protest against the rating after the race, but pulled it back a little later – Prussia was allowed to celebrate. “I stood a meter next to it, but the situation was as the videos showed: it was an unfortunate situation, but it was a competition situation, Franzi was not to blame,” said the German sports director Felix Bitterling of ARD.
She 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. Prussia had gone into the race with a gap of five points on JeanMonnot, in the end she was a 20 -counter ahead.
For Prussia it is by far the best season of her career. In the World Cup she celebrated four individual victories, secured the small crystal balls in the sprint and the mass start and shone with four medals at the World Championships in Lenzerheide.
At the final start of the mass, she made a mistake on the shooting range like JeanMonnot, both fought hard for victory – with the better end for the German. After her fall, it was only enough for JeanMonnot to third behind the Swede Elvira Öberg.