David Zobel demonstrates it at the start of the season for the biathletes, he storms straight onto the podium. His teammates can’t quite keep up. Vanessa Voigt narrowly misses, Denise Herrmann-Wick is fast on the track, but misses.

After the successful start of the season, Denise Herrmann-Wick’s glass was half full. With a smile, the biathlon Olympic champion analyzed her sixth place in the Kontiolahti singles on the ARD microphone – and indicated what else is possible. “It was solid but not good enough,” she said, referring to the two misses that cost her a podium. Even on the trail, where she was the third best in the 90 field, not everything was right: “There’s still a little bit missing in the last lap.”

Thanks to four clean shooting bouts, Vanessa Voigt finished fourth ahead of her teammate (1:00.5). “With the shooting time, unfortunately, only the flower pot was in it,” she told ARD: “I’ve now arrived at the top of the world.”

Herrmann-Wick was about a minute and a half behind winner Hanna Öberg from Sweden, who was able to miss a shot thanks to her excellent running form. Norway’s Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold (0/36.5) and Lisa Vittozzi from Italy (1/39.7) completed the podium.

In the absence of the ailing Franziska Preuss, who is only scheduled to start in the sprint race on Saturday, another German made me sit up and take notice: In only her sixth World Cup race, Sophia Schneider stormed into eleventh place with just one shooting error and a strong time (2:12.1). “I was a good runner when I was young, but then I often get cramped,” she said.

While Voigt and Herrmann-Wick already have the internal standard of the German Ski Association (DSV) for the home World Championships in Oberhof (February 8th to 19th), the 25-year-old Schneider has already fulfilled half of it. Juliane Frühwirt as 23rd (1/3:20.9) with her best career result and Anna Weidel as 26th (2/3:42.4) rounded off what was a successful start from a German perspective.

The day before, the DSV men had already presented: David Zobel managed a surprise coup with third place, his first podium in the World Cup. Behind them, Roman Rees finished fourth, with a total of five of the six Germans finishing in the top 20.

Herrmann-Wick and Co. will be challenged again on Thursday: First the men will go to the cross-country ski run (11 a.m.), then the women will follow from 1.35 p.m. The two sprint races will take place on Saturday (10.45 a.m. and 1.45 p.m./all ARD and Eurosport).