As in the last relay in Hochfilzen, last year’s junior world champion Voborníková started the race. “I was unpleasantly surprised that I would be starting for the second time in a row. I’m always terribly nervous about the first sections. It feels like a terrible responsibility,” she confided.
She performed excellently on the range, reloading only once lying down. She lost something to the best on the track, but despite a forty-second loss, she passed in sixth. “I’m glad that there was zero in the stand-up and I was able to pass it on in contact,” praised the youngest member of the Czech quartet.
Jislová was not good enough in the run in the first round and dropped to ninth place before the shooting. “I suspected that it would go really fast here, and I’m still not sure what I’m up to. I was hoping that I would meet someone and he would set the pace for me,” said the biathlete, who then lost less in the run. And she performed excellently on the shooting range, not once did she make any repairs. “It fit me well on the range. I think it also shot well fast. I’m completely satisfied with this,” she praised.
Team number one Davidová took over the baton from her in fifth place with a twenty-second loss to the podium. When she had to recharge lying down twice, she did not improve. “I’m a little disappointed with that lie. I think I’ll go to solve it with Egil today, because I don’t know about those wounds and I didn’t even know about them in the individual. There will be a mistake somewhere, but I don’t know where,” she said, before leaving for a consultation with coach Egil Gjelland.
Standing, Davidová made one mistake and moved to third place. However, she could not keep it in the fight with the German Sophia Schneider and passed in fourth place.
The finisher Charvátová managed her role this time. She quickly fell behind the Swiss quartet on the track, but otherwise ran solidly after the illness. She also managed an unpleasant situation when shooting while standing, when she missed twice out of the first five shots. But she corrected both the first time, so she avoided the penalty round this time. “I’m glad because it was exciting again on that stand. I was so on the edge with my strength that I stopped thinking, which actually helped,” she breathed. She also praised her teammates. “I think we can be very, very happy with this result,” she added.
The French women started the first half of the relay the best, but then Sophie Chauveau, the debutant in this discipline, paid for two penalty rounds. This put the Norwegians in the lead, who were leading by almost three quarters of a minute after Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold’s last shot. In the final lap, German finisher Denise Herrmannová-Wicková came within fifteen seconds of them. Italian women finished third.
The World Cup in Ruhpolding will culminate on Sunday with mass start races.
