At the end of the first Biathlon World Championships in Lenzerheide, a real party can be expected once again this weekend. Four sets of medals will be awarded.
22.02.2025, 04:01
22.02.2025, 08:23
SDA
With the two relays on Saturday and the mass start races on Sunday, there will be a full program - and Swiss hopes.
The arena will once again be packed with up to 15,000 fans. Many of them want to finally see the first ever Swiss World Championship medal. With the two relays and the mass start races, in which the 30 best women and men take to the track at the same time, four extremely spectacular formats are on the agenda at the end of the home World Championships.
However, the stakes are high for the Swiss. Not least in the relays, where other nations are more evenly matched. Surprisingly, 21-year-old James Pacal will be making his World Championship debut in the men's event after Jérémy Finello had to withdraw due to health reasons. Pacal is naturally the uncertainty factor in the Swiss quartet. He came to Lenzerheide from Andermatt, where he was preparing for next week's Junior World Championships.
A crazy affair
"Stani" - as he is called by his teammates because of his middle name Stanislas - has only competed once in the World Cup, and in the relay in Ruhpolding in January. "I'll certainly be nervous, that's normal," believes the Fribourg native from Vaulruz. "It's a pretty crazy thing for me."
Dreaming of a medal would probably be presumptuous for the quartet with the in-form Niklas Hartweg, Sebastian Stalder, Joscha Burkhalter and Pacal, but that would have been the case even with a top line-up. The Swiss women go into the race with significantly more experience. Together with the Gasparin sisters Selina, Elisa and Aita, Lena Häcki-Gross has stood on the podium three times in the World Cup. Amy Baserga is now running in place of the retired Selina Gasparin, who won silver in the individual race in Sochi in 2014, the only Swiss medal at a major event to date.
Elisa Gasparin, who will compete in her last World Championships competition on Saturday, has not been able to get up to speed in Lenzerheide so far, and Baserga, who is usually such a strong shooter, has struggled with nerves with the many fans "breathing down her neck". Swiss head coach Sandra Flunger suspects that there are stronger nations in terms of skiing in the low and difficult conditions expected in view of the heat, and that they will have to make the difference with fewer reloads in the shooting.
Chance for Häcki-Gross and Hartweg
The two mass start competitions on Sunday probably offer the best chance of a first World Championship medal. Pleasingly, three Swiss men and two women are among the top 30 athletes at these World Championships. Häcki-Gross in particular, who proved her excellent form with 4th, 5th and 16th place, loves competing against women. She also has an outstanding final sprint.
Niklas Hartweg is probably in the best running form of his career, and if he can find his usual pace in the shooting range, he is also good for a positive surprise.
