Antholz: Dorothea Wierer puts her hands out.
The words of Dorothea Wierer
Dorothea Wierer returns to the World Cup stage a month and five days later in her native Antholz. The South Tyrolean champion collected her last appearance on the circuit on Dec. 14 in Lenzerheide, with a 32nd-place finish in the sprint that does not do credit to the talent and history of the nearly 34-year-old home finisher, who stopped to finally recover from the series of influences that undermined her performance. On Friday, Jan. 19, she will reappear at the start of the short individual, over the distance of 12.5 km (instead of 15 km), with 45" of penalties for each target hit instead of 1'.
“I’ve had the flu four times, I hope not to get sick again between now and the end of the season to try to get into shape,” Dorothea told official FISI channels. In this stage, I can’t expect much, because I haven’t competed for five weeks and for ten days I’ve been completely stationary, starting my preparation again in stages. It will be; mostly a competitive test. I read comments around about my eventual last participation in Antholz, but I donè t care much about that. I know very well whatò awaits me in the coming years, certainly not è this last month to change my plans".
"Here we start with a short individual, personally I do not mind, becauseè it changes little from the historical format. It’s more’s strange that there are three individuals per year: either you increase the number, or’s better not to do any more. In the short individual I will tryò to grab the qualification for the mass start, this is an unprecedented situation: at the moment I am 29th in the overall ranking and I have to earn my place, I prefer to be optimistic and think that despite all the absences this month, I am still in that position" concluded Wierer.
Along with Wierer on Friday will be Samuela Comola, Michela Carrara, Rebecca Passler, Sara Scattolo (all’s absolute debut on the maximum circuit) and there will be, of course, Lisa Vittozzi, third in the overall. "I came from an exciting victory in the Ruhpolding pursuit – explained the Sappada forestry carabiniere -. I had a hard time falling asleep the next night because it was a victory that is hard to forget, happy to have won even with one more mistake than the direct opponents. In Oberhof I was aware that I did not have the best form, I did not get down trying to do my job in the best way possible and in Ruhpolding I succeeded. I am in Antholz to continue having fun, the short individual personally does not excite me, shortening it seems unnecessary but we have to adapt. From a tactical point of view è like doing another format, surely there’s a difference with 2.5 kilometers less and a lower penalty".
