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With a bit of carelessness at the end, biathlete Lisa Hauser managed to climb to the fourth consecutive podium at the World Cup on Sunday. After the last shot of Oberhof’s massive start competition, the zip line dropped to third place and finally fell back to twelfth place, 33.4 seconds behind winner Julia Simon from France. In the men’s race, Felix Leitner took the podium of the World Cup for the first time as second in the mass start.
Like his fifth-placed colleague Simon Eder, Leitner remained flawless on the first podium of the season for the men of ÖSV and only had to admit defeat to Norway’s Tarjei Bö by 3.6 seconds in Thuringia. Simon Weger from Switzerland completed the podium. The 24-year-old Tyrolean had his best result to date in fourth place in the Oslo chase in March 2019. For Eder, too, fifth was the best result of the season. As 18th overall, still the best Austrian, Leitner is 23rd.
“I am very happy that I crossed the finish line in second place, I never expected it,” said Leitner. “Two days after this bad season, Simon and I found it all. It can happen so fast, it’s crazy.”
The race had a completely different kind of madness in store for Hauser. The 27-year-old, recently third on three occasions, endured the 12.5 kilometers excellently and, as a member of a group of six, took the podium after the latest shooting despite a total of three failed attempts. Third behind Simon and Germany’s Franziska Preuß, however, she fell on a descent and had to let several runners pass. Finally Preuss was second, the Swedish Hanna Öberg third.
“Lisa was great again and could have fought for second place. Unfortunately this mishap happened, but thank God she is doing very well,” lamented female head coach Markus Fischer. “Of course, in the first moment you are a little disappointed to miss the podium. It would almost have been the next big step towards second place, because Lisa felt really great. But that’s biathlon – score and fight again.”
