Lisa Vittozzi’s triumph in the 15 km in Östersund

Lisa Vittozzi’s triumph in the 15 km Östersund

The Women’s Biathlon World Cup at the individual level could not have started better for Italy. A fabulous Lisa Vittozzi, after her third place in the mixed relay yesterday, triumphs in the 15 km individual event on the Swedish snows of Östersund also with a bit of luck since, despite a mistake on the third polygon on the ground out of 20 targets, è managed to overtake by only one tenth with an extraordinary finish the German Franziska Preuss, who instead of mistakes did not commit even one.

The 28-year-old from Sappada è her fourth career victory in individual competitions and the second in this distance, in which moreover è she is on her fifth consecutive podium and of which she holds the specialty cupà. On the lowest step was another German, Vanessa Voigt, who was also error-free and 10″1 behind Vittozzi

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Fourth with an error at 46”5 was Norway’s Karoline Offigstad Knotten, fifth again a German, Sophia Schneider, sixth Austria’s Lisa Theresa Hauser, seventh and eighth were Norwegians Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and Marthe Krakstad Johansen, ninth was Poland’s Anna Maka and tenth was Norway’s Marit Ishol Skogan.

The other azzurre: seventeenth with two errors at the last standing polygon a Dorothea Wierer still not at her best due to the flu of the past few days, twentieth with an error at the third polygon Rebecca Passler, twenty-seventh also with an error but at the first grounded polygon Samuela Comola, thirty-fifth with two errors Hannah Auchentaller, out of the points zone, seventy-fourth with five errors, Beatrice Trabucchi.

“It was the longest five minutes of my life,” Vittozzi told fisi.org. È it was obviously a beautiful race from my point of view, I put everything I had on the track, I’m sorry for the one mistake but in this competition it can be. I am happy to have started the season this way, I make a nice effort in the race and when this happens, it means I feel good. I knew I had a competitive last round and that Preuss could lose the 10″ she had when she came out of the range, becauseé without shooting errors she had a slight advantage over me and could have kept up with me. I realize that I am among the favorites for the overall World Cup standings, I had a summer preparation where I experienced sensations like never before, I am aware that compared to the others there’è is no difference, I can play my cards becauseé I feel in balance mentally, technically and physically”.

The words of Wierer, 17th: “I still feel I’m not at my best physically, but è it went better rorespect to Saturday’s mixed relay. I have to be patient with my body, è everything went well until the ’last polygon, I è lacked a bit of concentration and made two mistakes”.