Preuss only took fifth place in the persecution on the Holmenkollen – the drama around the large crystal ball continues.
Franziska Preuß collected a bitter damper in the fight for the overall World Cup and lost the yellow jersey on the home stretch of the season. In the victory of her competitor Lou JeanMonnot, Germany’s best biathlete in the chase on the Holmenkollen took fifth place after three penalty rounds (+26.3 seconds). In the dramatic duel around the large crystal ball, Preuss is now five points behind the French before the crucial mass start on Sunday (1:15 p.m./ARD and Eurosport).
Preuss had conquered the jersey of the overall leader on December 14, after 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) she would be the sixth German World Cup winner. In the mass start, she definitely has to achieve the goal in front of JeanMonnot in order to be able to fulfill her big dream.
After Preuss’ victory with a two tenth of a second lead over JeanMonnot on Friday in the sprint, the duo started the persecution together – and the French woman immediately took the lead. At the first recovery shooting, Preuss then made an atypical mistake, JeanMonnot set off. However, because this failed, the competitors were on the same way again at halftime, and Julia Simon had also closed the gap to the top.
The preliminary decision about the day was then standing. While JeanMonnot showed a clean series, Preuss was only in tenth place after two mistakes. During the last shooting, the German was nerve -wracked and improved by important places forward.
The other DSV athletes were far behind. Behind Prussia, Anna Weidel took 23rd place (+1: 56.8 minutes), all other Germans missed a place in the first 30.