Without Wierer: Italy's biathlon relay team impresses

At the end of the Biathlon World Cup in Hochfilzen, Lisa Vittozzi made Italy dream of a surprising podium place with an incredible performance. Even if it wasn't enough in the end, it was a brilliant day for Azzurre.

10 December 2023

From: fop

Italy's head coach Alex Inderst sent Lisa Vittozzi with the young Rebecca Passler (22 years old), Samuela Comola (25) and relay debutant Beatrice Trabucchi (23) into the final competition in North Tyrol and gave Dorothea Wierer a break. She had been in poor health over the past few weeks and had been running behind the competition in the previous days.

However, the absence of the superstar did not slow down the Azzurre in any way. In fact, all four glided across the trail as if on a wing, only incurring five spare rounds and not a single penalty lap. No other nation was as good at the shooting range. But it wasn't enough to reach the top: Italy took fourth place behind Norway, Sweden and France.

Starting runner Comola was able to maintain contact with the top straight away, then came the legendary performance Vittozzi. The exceptional expert from Friuli took over in fourth place, 8,5 seconds behind, and a short time later she handed over the lead to Norway, half a minute ahead. Trabucchi, who only collected her first World Cup points on Saturday, kept Italy in third place with flawless shooting, but lost some time.

Passler excels in the finish

final runner passler Then temporarily fell back to fifth place, but fought back and passed the German Vanessa Voigt in the last shooting. The 22-year-old from Antholz took an incredible 20 seconds off her rival in the final standing test and finally crossed the finish line in fourth place.

At the front, the Scandinavians were literally in a league of their own from halfway through the race. In the end, Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold led Norway to a confident victory with a lead of more than half a minute over Sweden. Julia Simon secured third place for France as the final runner.