Biathlon World Cup 2 (2015-2016) -Women's 10km Pursuit Race

BMW IBU Biathlon World Cup 2 (2015-2016) -Women's 10km Pursuit Race 12.12.2015, Hochfilzen Dahlmeier Wins Women?s Pursuit 1-2 Finish for Germans Laura Dahlmeier of Germany won today?s women?s 10K pursuit 28:23.3 with one penalty. Her teammate Maren Hammerschmidt with two penalties, finished second 13.3 seconds back. Gabriela Soukalova of Czech Republic with one penalty finished third 18.5 seconds back. Franziska Hildebrand battled Soukalova for third place, but finished fourth with two penalties, 25 seconds back. Tiril Eckhoff of Norway had two penalties and finished fifth, 29.7 seconds back. Juliya Dzhyma of Ukraine was sixth with one penalty, 32.1 seconds back. First Two Loops: Dominance of "German trio" The women's Pursuit opened the second day of competition in Hochfilzen with great weather conditions: sunny weather and comfortable -3 degrees Celsius temperature. Sixty women lined upon the starting line, the pressure from thousands of German fans was high for the "German trio": Hildebrand, Hammerschmidt and Gössner, who started in this order. The first two laps of the race were déjà vu from yesterday, with the German women in the lead. Hildebrand looked confident, cleaning the two prone stages and setting bar high again with the gap of more than 10 seconds over her teammates. The first two laps looked more like a German team training session with Hammerschmidt, Gössner, and Dahlmeier following each other. The Yellow-Bib-wearing Soukalova was batting the German dominance in the fifth spot. Last Seconds Battle for the Podium Things changed after the first standing stage, with Dahlmeier taking the lead, as Soukalova broke through to second position followed by Hildebrand. With situation getting more intense towards the end, penalties started to show up. At the decisive fourth stage Dahlmeier had one penalty which did not prevent her from crossing the finish line first, as Hammerschmidt, Soukalova and Hildebrand each had single penalties. Dahlmeier commented, "I knew it was important to have a clean last shooting, and from the very start I made a mistake. It was OK, as others made one mistake as well." Rushing to the Podium Soukalova was rushing to make the podium after the second standing stage and dropped her ski pole on the mat, grabbing it the last second. She blamed it on her personality: "I am light-headed a little bit; I have it in my character." She and Hammerschmidt battled for second place. Hammerschmidt who matched her second place from yesterday commented on the rivalry with Soukalova just before the finish line. "I was surprised today that I could repeat the second place form yesterday. I had a good shooting and I felt good on the skis. Gabi made my last round very hard." Soukalova was happy about her third place. "To be again in the top ten is amazing. I enjoy skiing in Yellow. I tried to improve in a shooting and have clean targets, but sometimes you need a longer time to achieve this."