„Fourth medal, third gold – it is an incredible feeling! At the moment I am able to show my full potential.”

After winning her third gold medal in the women’s individual competition, Laura Dahlmeier can be regarded as the outstanding athlete of these Biathlon World Championships. In a very disciplined way she managed to control her competitors during each phase of the race, demonstrated her high performance level and kept her permanent rival Koukalova at a distance of 24,7 seconds on place two. South-Tyrolean athlete Alexia Runggaldier  surprisingly won bronze. Koukalova showed her respect, “Currently Laura is in excellent form. At the moment it is almost impossible to beat her.”

Bronze medallist Alexia Runggaldier was more than happy. The 25 year old athlete delivered a fast and clean shooting combined with a solid performance on the track. “I competed with the best athletes worldwide and didn’t expect this result – I am very happy about the first medal for Italy in the course of these World Championships.”

With regard to Dunja Zdouc’s great performance also the Austrians had a reason to celebrate: “Today I shot in a controlled way without thinking too much – this is how the four clean series came about. On the track I was able to match myself with the Canadian which further pushed me. I am very satisfied with this result.” In front of 12,500 fans, the Carinthian athlete sensationally shot clean and in the end was the best Austrian placed 11^th. In consideration of the fact that her team colleagues Christina Rieder, Lisa Theresa Hauser and Fabienne Hartweger did not perform well especially at the shooting range and only achieved the places 60, 61 and 78, for Zdouc that result is more than she had expected.