Lucas Fratzscher has secured the last Olympic starting place in the German biathletes' squad. Although the 31-year-old from WSV Oberhof 05 did not meet the internal Olympic standard, he prevailed over Danilo Riethmüller in the coach's decision. Riethmüller had also previously failed to meet the criteria - one top-eight or two top-15 finishes. Veteran Johannes Kühn had had no chance from the outset.
In total, national coach Tobias Reiter's team has five starting places for the Winter Games in Italy. Philipp Nawrath, Philipp Horn, Justus Strelow and David Zobel had qualified directly.
Riethmüller (26) had delivered a strong performance at the World Cup in Ruhpolding, finishing third in the relay. After a weak sprint (55th), he showed a good pursuit race (25th) and finished third in the isolated daily ranking. Fratzscher finished 28th (sprint) and 24th (pursuit). Fratzscher is 36th overall in the World Cup, Riethmüller is 39th.
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