Mountain running adventure: Laura Dahlmeier enjoys her World Cup premiere

Eight months after her last race in the Biathlon World Cup, the Bavarian made her World Cup debut in mountain running on Saturday. She covered the altitude difference of 2100 meters in 4:20:27 hours. 27th place was more of a minor matter for her. “It was a brutally good atmosphere, it was a lot of fun. But of course the route was extremely tough,” said Dahlmeier. Except at the start and in the last 500 meters, there was not a single meter of tarred road. “Exactly as you would like and imagine,” she praised the organizers.

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The time roughly corresponded to her expectations, “exactly my performance level,” she added. But she had to “fight well” from the start. “Happiness to the world’s best, they are really, really strong,” said Dahlmeier. The Romanian Cristina Simion won the title in 3:49:57 hours. She reached the finish line more than half an hour earlier than the former top biathlete.

The seven-time biathlon world champion described the mountains in Patagonia as “extremely impressive”. The runners were mainly on downhill routes. “It's just really beautiful, even though you walk a lot in the woods. It almost feels like you’re in the jungle.” No pressure to perform Dahlmeier had previously described the fact that after years of competition with skis and a rifle she was suddenly a track and field athlete as more or less a “coincidence”. “First I had to google what it was and then said to myself: Why not? Being able to represent Germany internationally is always something very special.”

Even before she started, Germany's "Sportswoman of the Year" in 2017 saw being nominated for a summer sports World Cup as an "award for a winter sports athlete". Unlike previous times, she had not felt any pressure before the strenuous race.

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Mountain running adventure: Laura Dahlmeier enjoys her World Cup premiere

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