Decision at Birxsteig: Sweden wins mixed relay ahead of France and Norway
An outstanding Elvira Oeberg led the Swedish mixed relay team to victory at the BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon 2025 in Oberhof. In front of 16,000 spectators in the ARENA am Rennsteig, the world champion went on her final lap 7.0 seconds behind the pursuit winner Lou Jeanmonnot from France. On the Birxsteig, which is known for being a decisive factor in tricky duels, Oeberg, who needed one spare round in the standing position, passed Frenchwoman, who had no misses, in impressive style. Despite two penalty loops and ten spare rounds, the Swedes finished 12.8 seconds ahead of France, who only had one penalty loop and needed seven extra cartridges.
Sebastian Samuelson, Martin Ponsiluoma and Hanna Oeberg were overjoyed as they embraced their teammate and were beaming as much as the sun in fantastic conditions on the Rennsteig. Norway finished 1:11.4 minutes behind Sweden and France (line-up: Fabien Claude, Eric Perrot, Jeanne Richard, Lou Jeanmonnot) with final skier Maren Kirkeeide. Sturla Holm Laegreid, Tarjei Boe and Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold ensured that it looked like a battle of three for a long time, but Kirkeeide had to let her two opponents from France and Sweden pull away without mistakes, while she needed three spare rounds at the penultimate shooting. And yet: with three podium places in Oberhof, the 21-year-old Norwegian showed impressively why she is considered to have a very bright future in Norway.
The same applies to Julia Tannheimer in Germany. After impressive performances from Danilo Riethmüller and Philipp Nawrath, she was sent into the race on the third lag in leading position. However, the race was not to have a happy ending for the 19-year-old, who has shone with consistent (top) performances so far this season. She fluffed her prone shooting and had to go twice into the penalty loop. Germany dropped down in between to 9th place. ‘I wasn't actually that excited. Maybe I misjudged the wind,’ commented a disappointed Tannheimer on her race. However, she swam herself free again earlier in the race. ‘I'm glad that at least the standing shooting went quite well. And the frustration even helps when you're running, you can just let your anger out.’
Philipp Nawrath tried to find comforting words on TV: ‘It happens. Everyone does penalty laps in their relay career.’ This statement turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The final skier and World Cup leader Franziska Preuß also had to accept 150 extra metres in the final standing stage and finished in fifth place, 2:21.0 behind the Swedes. Three penalties and ten reloads were simply too many on this day to be able to compete at the top. ‘Nothing helps there, that's biathlon. Sometimes it goes better, sometimes it doesn't go so well,’ said Preuß, who was in Oberhof unable to match her top performances of the season so far.