Dorothea Wierer and Lisa Vittozzi brought a double victory for Italy in the women’s 15km individual start at the Swedish winter center Oestersund, where the penultimate round of the Biathlon World Cup season is being held.
Both squad members were flawless in their shooting, knocking down all 20 of their targets. Thus, they were practically unreachable for their rivals, who made at least one mistake.
In the final, the difference between the winner Dorothea Wierer and the second Lisa Vittozzi was 25.5 sec, and the podium was completed by Denise Herrmann-Wick. The German finished 1:38.8 min out of first place after missing a target.
Fourth was overall World Cup leader Julia Simon (France), who finished just 10.7 sec behind Denise Herrmann-Wick, despite having two faults from her second shoot. On 5th place was Canada’s Emma Lunder, who was 2:11.9 min behind Dorothea Wierer, although she too was flawless at the shooting.
Hanna Oeberg (Sweden), who was considered a favorite, finished in only 23rd place with a total of three faults, all from the prone position. Her younger sister Elvira Oeberg finished in 20th position with two shooting misses.
With his second place today, Lisa Vittozzi guarantees himself the small crystal globe in the discipline for the season with a total of 225 points. In addition to her second place today, the Italian has one win in Ruhpolding and one third place in Kontiolahti during the season. Julia Simon finished second in the standings with a deficit of 70 points, and Hanna Oeberg completed the top 3 with a deficit of 72 points.
In the general standing, four starts before the end of the season, Julia Simon is the leader with 943 points, Lisa Vittozzi is second with 795 points, and Dorothea Wierer completes the Top 3 with 769 points. Julia Simon will be able to guarantee himself the big crystal globe already on Sunday during the mass start of 12.5km. For this purpose, she will have to win by at least 63 points more than Lisa Vittozzi, which means that if Julia Simon triumphs, Lisa Vittozzi should not enter the top 13.
