Wierer's fabulous comeback: only the icing on the cake is missing

You should never write off Dorothea Wierer. After botched sprint on Saturday , in which she ended up in 20th place, more than a minute behind, not many experts had the speedster on their list to pursue. But then Wierer started a furious race to catch up - and with her fourth place she only narrowly missed out on a medal.

Based on her sprint result from Saturday, Wierer started the pursuit 80 seconds behind and in 20th position. But she didn't let that deter her and played to her strengths, especially on the shooting range. Through flawless performances, she fought her way forward, gained position after position and finally made it to the final standing stage in seventh place. Because her better-placed competitors almost all gave up and had to go into the penalty loop, Wierer was even allowed to dream of a medal that was no longer considered possible - also because the Puster woman managed to drop the last five targets perfectly. Finally the power runs out Wierer started the final lap in fourth place, five seconds behind the Austrian Lisa Theresa Hauser. But there was no longer enough strength on the cross-country ski trail: there was no longer a decisive attack on the medal ranks. So while this year's sensation Hauser threw everything into the balance and also caught up with the Frenchwoman Anais Chevalier-Bouchet, Wierer managed her fourth place. Even if the icing on the cake, i.e. a medal, was missing: Anyone who works their way up from 20th position to fourth place can be more than satisfied with their performance.

Medal collector: Tiril Eckhoff. © APA/afp / JURE MAKOVEC

Tiril Eckhoff, on the other hand, was in a league of her own and is unstoppable at this World Cup. After the triumphs in the mixed relay and in the sprint, the Norwegian also confidently won gold in the pursuit. Nightmare afternoon for Vittozzi Lisa Vittozzi also started the pursuit with medal hopes; after all, she had an ideal starting position after her fifth place in the sprint. But the biathlete from Sappada/Plodn experienced a nightmare afternoon: she missed four out of five targets in the first shooting session, and in the following three shooting sessions she made six more mistakes. With a total of ten “tickets”, Vittozzi fell back to 48th place.

Things didn't go as planned for Irene Lardschneider from Val Gardena either after the solid sprint (24th place). The Wolkensteiner had to struggle with major problems on the cross-country ski trail, and she also made three shooting errors, so she fell back to 51st place. Michela Carrara was the best Azzurra in 38th place behind Dorothea Wierer.

The World Championships on the Pokljuka continue on Tuesday with the women's individual race (12.05 p.m.). The next day the men are in action in this discipline (14.30 p.m.).

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Wierer's fabulous comeback: only the icing on the cake is missing

After the botched World Cup sprint on the Pokljuka, Dorothea Wierer started a brilliant race to catch up in the pursuit on Sunday. In the end, all that was missing was the crowning glory, i.e. the medal.

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