The sloping bird of the biathlon World Cup wears purple pants. Lenzi is the mascot of competitions in Lenzerheide, and Lenzi is an auer tap. None who is bursting with strength, but one with colorful plumage and a casual attitude, although the Auerhuhn in Switzerland is threatened with extinction. Well, this casualness may also be an expression of the attitude to life here in the Graubünden Alps. In order to give it a little, a plush leni is also one of the trophies at the award ceremony. And this means, among other things, for Franziska Preuss: one or the other Lenzi can still accumulate at this World Cup.
With the bronze success of the mixed relay on Wednesday, four mini mascot has already moved into German team hotel on Wednesday, a welcome starting start to this World Cup. And a good basis for the most important race for Franziska Preuß in Switzerland: If she wants to crown her outstanding season as a World Cup, then the sprint on Friday is the basis for everything that could follow. A portion of tension has already dissolved in the 30-year-old through the successful start with the team. “After the race, I really felt how the pressure from me fell,” said Preuss.
It has been six years ago that laughing German faces pulled through the arenas right at the beginning of a World Cup. The place of action was Austrian and in Sweden. For Prussia it was a used World Cup at the time, she had to watch others fulfilled her dreams. Denise Hermann-Wick, for example, Laura Dahlmeier or Arnd Peiffer. And now? “Everything that is still coming is certainly easier than winning the first medal,” said sports director Felix Bitterling in Lenzerheide. With Franziska Preuß, the peculiarity is added that despite now eight World Cup awards in her career, she was only able to dust off in a single race. And that was ten years ago.
JeanMonnot won four of the last five races in front of the World Cup
But now the signs are more likely to be repeated, Prussia is now the hunted. The sprint on Friday is expected to run above all at a show of strength with her worst competitor: Lou JeanMonnot from France, the four of the last five races before the World Cup. And on Wednesday you could see what the 26-year-old French woman is doing this season. On the route she was the fastest on the road from all women who started two, at the shooting range, she only made one mistake and was quickly deducted. Instead, Prussian struggled with her two releases. “A mistake happens quickly. But to be top in the individual races, that shouldn’t happen, ”she said.
Nervousness was probably also in the game, because Preuss turned her diopters to reauffing the visor line when shooting, and the wind vanes waved up at that time. “I reacted too quickly to the wind, I shouldn’t have turned,” said Preuss. Finally, she was all the happier that she only had to try an additional cartridge to completely sink the windows. “That was good. I have had my problems in the past, ”she said. She has not become a new person due to the successful series this winter, despite her ten podium places in 14 individual races, one or the other failure of the past few years is still buzzing around.
Even if you are careful in the German Ski Association (DSV) before, to charge Prussia too many expectations, the Bavarian is the woman that everyone is now looking at. During the season, the experienced Vanessa Voigt also had podium, but she could not recover after a illness in the Christmas season until the title fights in Switzerland. Selina Grotian, 20 years old, still enjoys a kind of puppy protection at her second World Cup, but has already indicated her potential with her first World Cup victory in December.
The situation is a completely different for the French: five of them are currently in the top ten in the overall ranking. JeanMonnot enjoys the advantage that not all hopes culminate in her person. Especially since France also has several title aspirants in the team for men. “I don’t feel like a leader because we are all really strong. We drive each other, ”said JeanMonnot. Now being decorated with gold from the mixed relay is not the worst prerequisite for going to the sprint on Friday with strong nerves.
Of course, they would like to have it in the German team if you could simply take the swing from the successful Wednesday from day to day. “In all competitions that are still coming, we will certainly go in with another mindset than if it hadn’t worked today,” said Felix Bitterling. Then it fit that despite the rest day on Thursday, a joyful event could be celebrated: Philipp Nawrath had her birthday, he was 32 years old. The supervisors sang for him, there were also cakes. The motto is now: stay in practice when celebrating.
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