Antholz: Italy's men's relay surprises at the end

Without Lukas Hofer, who is still injured, the Italian men's relay team achieved a strong 5th place in Antholz. Starting runner Patrick Braunhofer & Co. have confirmed the surprising result from Ruhpolding. As expected, Norway (Lægreid, Tarjei Bø, Johannes Bø, Christiansen) won with a one minute lead over France (Guigonnat, Claude, Jacquelin, Fillon Maillet). The Germans (Zobel, Kühn, Doll, Rees) took third place.

For Italy, starting runner Patrick Braunhofer had to reload twice. The man from Ridnaun, who struggled in the final lap, handed over to Tommaso Giacomel in 14th place. The Trentino native then gained ten places and led the Azzurri to fourth place. Giacomel even caught up with the time at the top - an outstanding performance by the strongest biathlete from Italy at the moment.

The South Tyrolean starting runner Patrick Braunhofer. © Nordic Focus

But Didier Bionaz also impressed and kept Italy in fourth place. In the meantime, however, the gap to the top had increased from 50 seconds to two minutes - also because high-flyer Johannes Bø was in Norway. Finally, Elia Zeni came in for Italy. The 21-year-old stayed cool in front of 15.000 spectators and only had to reload once. For a short time, the home fans were even allowed to dream of a podium because the German Roman Rees had to go into the penalty loop in the last standing stage. But Zeni took a little too long at the shooting range and had to let the Swede Martin Ponsiluoma pass on the final lap. Italy crossed the finish line as the fifth nation.

World Cup in Antholz over This means that the World Cup in Antholz is history for 2023. The local biathletes will complete a training camp in Ridanna starting next Friday to prepare for the World Championships in Oberhof (February 8th to 19th).

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Antholz: Italy's men's relay surprises at the end

Italy's men's relay team pulled off a surprise at the end of the World Cup in Antholz. For a short time there was even hope that a podium was possible.

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