Alright, here are some of my points on today's race, which was very packed with excitement
Firstly, Herrmann picked off 23 seconds off of even Makarainen in the course time, so when she gets her shooting in a better shape, or on a better day, she seems likely unstoppable and podium potential even with 1 miss in a sprint race.
Other than that, Germany was pretty under the weather, Hildebrand still seems pretty slow, Hammerschmidt doesn't look at her best as well as Preuss with Hinz, that performed way below expectations on the skis. Props to Karolin Horchler, her being the second best German tonight will certainly make the team scratch their heads.
Another team that does well in this competition, but was non-existant is Italy. Wierer's shooting is not at where it has to be, very poor performance for the famous 20/20 shooter Runggaldier, Sanfilippo ruined her chances in the first prone, saving grace was Vittozzi.
Another team that Eurosport did not even show once today was Russia. Slivko managed a 27th with 1 miss, 2015 world champion Yurlova 33rd, with recent season podium contenders Virolaynen, Podchufarova out of the points.
All in all, Hauser is still pretty slow, as well as other Austrian girls (Zdouc 42nd with clean shooting).
Surprisingly, not a single Pole in top 40.
Very bad USA performance accompanied with a tragic performance from Lithuania.
Now for some praise,
Skardino yet again shows that she is always a factor in the individual races.
Ukraine with two girls on the podium, 3 in top 30 with 60/60 shooting.
Another year of improvement for Sweden with 6th / 15th / 25th
Fialkova's performance, Canada's top 10, Solemdal's clean shooting, great ski speed from Braisaz and best performance of the French, Finland duo not bad either, Amanda Lightfoot making a strong impression on that Olympic quota.
I'd say this race was mostly about the underdogs, so I'm interested to see how the leaders answer in the sprint.