The biathlon world championships in Lenzerheide enter their second week with the individual competitions on Tuesday and Wednesday. With the exception of Lena Häcki-Gross, all the Swiss have something to make up for.
18.02.2025, 05:00
18.02.2025, 07:10
SDA
Lena Häcki-Gross missed out on her first Swiss medal at a biathlon World Championships twice on Friday and Sunday by a whisker. She will get her next chance in the 15 km individual on Tuesday. "My form is good, which gives me confidence," said the Obwalden native, looking for positives after the two competitions. She will once again be one of the hot outsiders for a medal.
All the other Swiss athletes can only be partially or not at all satisfied with the first half of the home World Championships. Amy Baserga in particular, who finished on the podium for the first time in the World Cup in January, failed completely in the sprint and was not even allowed to start in the pursuit of the top 60. The 24-year-old from Schwyz is actually one of the absolute best shooters in the field. She has now spent the days off working on this again and hopes to make amends in the shooting-heavy individual event.
She shoots twice each in the prone and standing positions, and mistakes are penalized with one minute instead of a penalty round, which costs a good 20 seconds. That's why this discipline is also Sebastian Stalder's best chance of a top result on Wednesday. He shot perfectly in the sprint, but was too slow in the cross-country.
Niklas Hartweg, the best Swiss athlete this season, has also not fared as well in the shooting range. The actually excellent shooter was only able to start training late in the summer due to a shoulder operation. Perhaps because of this, he had more trouble than usual and was often unlucky with marginal hits that did not trigger. With a little more luck, a top result is possible for the man from Schwyz.
For the Swiss apart from Häcki-Gross, it's also about qualifying for the mass start race for the top 30 at the end on Sunday with a good race.