Biathlon World Championships

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Lisa Hauser and her teammates just missed out on a medal.(Bild: GEPA)

In the absence of Anna Gandler, Austria's women's relay team achieved an excellent fourth place at the Biathlon World Championships in Lenzerheide on Saturday and even fought for bronze. The quartet of Lea Rothschopf, Lisa Hauser, Tamara Steiner and Anna Andexer were only 5.6 seconds short of bronze after the 4 x 6 kilometers with a total of one penalty loop and five reloads. Gold went to France after 1:07:23.9 hours ahead of Norway and Sweden.

This performance was completely unexpected for Austria's quartet, which had actually been weakened by the absence of Gandler. Even Hauser had said before the race that they were not a medal candidate in their current form. But things turned out differently thanks to very good shooting performances and outstanding running performances from Hauser and Andexer in particular.

"It was really exciting, I have to say. It's unique to come fourth here, I'm absolutely delighted," said Hauser. She was almost the most happy of the team with the result, she said in the ORF interview, while Rothschopf initially had to be consoled because of the somewhat botched standing shooting. "It was a huge honor, unfortunately I messed it up a bit," said the starting skier. The head played a role after all. "I always shot really well standing up in training, so it hurts all the more that it didn't work out at all."

Not much was missing in the end
Final skier Andexer even had the medal in her sights. "It's a shame that I missed out on bronze by a few seconds, but I'm really proud that Franzi (Franziska Preuß/GER) didn't catch up with me," explained Andexer. Nobody in the ÖSV team had expected that they would leave Germany behind at the World Championships.

They even equaled the best ever women's World Championship relay result for the ÖSV. They finished 1:50.1 minutes behind the French world champions, but only 5.6 minutes behind the bronze medalists from Sweden.