Dorothea Wierer ahead of all in Antholz: “I didn’t think it would go so well.”

Wierer first, Vittozzi 13th

Extraordinary Dorothea Wierer won the opening women’s sprint of the World Cup stage hosted in Antholz. In one of her best performances of the season, the South Tyrolean, galvanized by the home crowd, showed all her class with a test of precision and courage to celebrate her first success of the season. A victory that came waiting for the French Chevalier-Bouchet, recovering with two very fast poles, but in trouble on skis taking from “Doro” a good 8 seconds in the final lap.

The greatness of the 32-year-old Yellow Flames bearer came out immediately, thanks to two perfect polygons in which she found the zero when it counted, in a day conditioned by unstable wind that rewarded with the podium only those who were surgical in the shot, then confirming her supremacy with an excellent time on skis. The Rasun biathlete’s final time was 20’59″6, an even more extraordinary result if we think that the sprint was the last race format that Wierer lacked to complete the “grand slam” of victories on her home slope. Second was France’s Chevalier-Bouchet, who came in at 2″8 with no mistakes on the shot, and third was Elvia Oeberg at 8″7, also with no mistakes. 13th Lisa Vittozzi.

“I am very happy for today, I didn’t think it went so well. On the skis I didn’t feel so good, my legs were heavy and I didn’t have a super feeling. In the end the important thing was the polygon, where I worked well with the double zero, but I was very worried because, at the beginning of the race, the wind put some anxiety. Seeing the difficulty, I tried to control every shot, and I am very happy. Definitely winning at home is always nicer, with friends and my family,, Memories of past years come back to me and it is very nice. I didn’t think to win at the end because Chevalier is very strong on skis, but today we take only the positive things,” Wierer’s words after the victory.