Women's relay: The medal dream bursts early

Dorothea Wierer ran a very intelligent race as the starting runner. She followed her own rhythm on the cross-country ski trail and was not deterred by the attacks of her competitors. “Doro” was relatively safe at the shooting range in difficult wind conditions. After the first shooting with two spares, the 23-year-old racer left the stadium in fourth place. In the standing stage, she gained a position despite having one spare, and in the final lap she took advantage of her top material and even handed over to Nicole Gontier as the leader with 6,6 seconds Lead over Russia.

But the 22-year-old from Aostan was disillusioned with her first shooting. Still in the lead, Gontier showed nerves and missed four times. Despite three spare rounds, she had to go into the penalty loop once. That took a lot of time. In the second shooting, Gontier had to reload three times again and the gap to the now leading Ukraine grew to 1.23 minutes.

Michela Ponza was the third biathlete on the Italian team and started the race from eighth position. The 34-year-old from Val Gardena was able to hold on to eighth place with a perfect performance at the shooting range, but the gap to the still leading Ukraine grew to 1.48,6:XNUMX minutes, with Russia and Norway fighting for silver.

In order to win a medal, Karin Oberhofer would have had to catch up by a minute. The 28-year-old from Feldthurn showed a good performance, but none of the three sitting teams at the front made any mistakes. Oberhofer ran strongly and was also quick at the shooting range, hit all ten targets and led Italy to sixth place. But nothing came of a medal.

In the end, gold went to Ukraine, ahead of Russia and Norway. An Olympic diploma was on the horizon for Italy - but the quartet will mourn a very big, wasted opportunity...

Winter Olympics in Sochi (RUS) – Biathlon, women’s relay:

1. Ukraine 1:10.02,5 hours/0 penalties + 5 spares 2. Russia +26,4 seconds/0+4 3. Norway +37,6/0+5 4. Czech Republic +1.23,2/0+14 5. Belarus +1.30,9/1+8 6. Italy +1.40,8/1+9 (with Dorothea Wierer, Nicole Gontier, Michela Ponza and Karin Oberhofer) 7. USA +2.11,7/0+13 8. Canada +2.19,0/2+12 9. Switzerland +2.31,8/0+9 10. Poland +2.32,9/4+8

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Women's relay: The medal dream bursts early

After starting runner Dorothea Wierer, the South Tyrolean biathlon fans were briefly allowed to dream of a medal. But when Nicole Gontier had to go into the penalty loop after four errors in the prone position, her dream of winning precious metal was shattered.

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