The Austrian national team (minus a couple of key members we’ll discuss below) convened for it’s annual Summer Biathlon National Championships at their summer home in Obertilliach. The Austrian federation was blessed by very nice conditions with perfect temperatures, mild breezes, and no rain in sight. For the summer champs they really couldn’t have asked for much more!
As noted above we were missing a couple of key individuals from the competitions. No surprise, Lisa Theresa Hauser, who has been quite certain in her separation from her national team, continued training with Coach Sandra Flunger and the Swiss team. Felix Leitner missed out on the competitions as well. He had a fairly good competition at the City biathlon event so I imagine this was related illness but I can’t confirm that. Speaking of illness, Anna Gandler raced the opening Short Individual but skipped the Sprint. She had a tough final lap in the Short Individual so while I can’t confirm illness it would not surprise me if she was a little under the weather as well.
Take Aways
- Really nice week for Lara Wagner. Top ski time in both races and hitting 17/20 in the Short Individual was a good day for a young woman who consistently hits around 75%. She confirmed again that she has ski potential and if the shooting is there she can do some fun things. She can push for one of the Olympic positions.
- Similarly very nice week for Fabian Muellauer. The young man showed some really solid potential last year on the IBU Cup, even as a Junior. Excellent skiing this week being fastest in the Sprint and 2nd fastest in the Short Individual. If he hits he’s competitive and could see some World Cup run.
- Anna Gandler only competed in the Short Individual and didn’t look like she was on the front foot. Hopefully just a minor thing. No real worries here
- Fredrik Muehlbacher shows why he chose biathlon over cross country skiing by medaling in the Sprint. He took home two European Championships medals last winter so this is nothing new. Clearly he has the ski speed, just needs to be more consistent shooting. Huge ask though as it’s half the sport!
- Anna Andexer with a 5th and 6th. Not seriously concerned. With her build she’s going to struggle more on roller skis. No concerns.
- No concerns about David Komatz and Simon Eder. At this stage of their careers we aren’t expecting the world but they showed they are still going to be steady and dependable.
Short Individual
The Austrian Summer Biathlon Championships got started with a bang as Lara Wagner came away with a glorious gold medal performance. She may not have had the best shooting performance of the field as she missed three targets, but she put in a terrific effort on the roller skis including an explosive final lap, to come away with the top spot on the podium. The 23 year old Wagner is coming off her most consistently successful season of her career. So far she has two Junior European Sprint titles but last year she was consistent as she eight IBU Cup top 20’s including the first three top 10’s of her IBU Cup career. A solid skier, hitting 17/20 would be very good day for her this coming winter. Would love to see more of this in the upcoming season as she pushes for one of the spots on the Olympic roster.
Wagner’s big time late push allowed her to just sneak over Anna Gandler’s effort. Gandler had a sterling day shooting as she had just a single miss. But she clearly was not quite where she wanted to be in ski prep. She ended up with the 8th best ski time in the field, clearly not where she would want to be. Maybe taking care of her boyfriend Emilien Claude after his recent back surgery has set her back! (I’m obviously just kidding.) Honestly with Anna Gandler I’m not going to be too worried about this result at all. I’m going to be much more positive focusing on the 19/20 shooting!
Tamara Steiner was the bronze medal winner in the Short Individual as she also hit 19 of 20 targets. She was just 20 seconds back of Lara Wagner showing a very tightly bunched field.
Following Steiner were Djuna Zdouc and Anna Andexer within three seconds of each other. This put the top 5 all within 39 seconds which is a nice race for a Short Individual! Andexer with 3 misses had a single miss more than Zdouc, but made up the time with the third best ski time just 11 seconds back of Wagner compared to Zdouc who was 5th fastest. Anna Juppe hit 15/20 and rounded out the top 6.
| Women’s Top 10 | Men’s Top 10 |
| 🥇Lara Wagner (17/20) | 🥇David Komatz (16/20) |
| 🥈Anna Gandler +8 (19/20) | 🥈Patrick Jakob +2 (16/20) |
| 🥉Tamara Steiner +20 (19/20) | 🥉Simon Eder +12 (16/20) |
| 4) Dunja Zdouc +36 (18/20) | 4) Dominic Unterweger +43 (16/20) |
| 5) Anna Andexer + 39 (17/20) | 5) Daniel Glasser +1:37 (17/20) |
| 6) Anna Juppe 1:09 (15/20) | 6) Leon Keinesberger +1:42 (16/20) |
| 7) Lea Rothschopf +1:23 (17/20) | 7) Sami Mesotitch +2:30 (15/20) |
| 8) Julia Leitinger +2:09 (19/20) | 8) Fabian Muellauer +2:35 (11/20) |
| 9) Kristina Oberthaler +2:34 (19/20) | 9) Magnus Oberhauser +2:44 (15/20) |
| 10) Marina Sauter +3:00 (16/20) | 10) Fredrik Muhlbacher +2:55 (13/20) |
The men’s Short Individual was a wildly close affair. David Komatz, Patrick Jakob, and Simon Eder all hitting 16/20 and all finishing within 12 seconds. David Komatz made the difference on the course. However, Patrick Jakob very nearly made up the time with his shooting speed. After being 8 seconds slower on the course he finished just 2.8 seconds back overall. Simon Eder, meanwhile, was both 12 seconds lower on the course and overall.
Dominic Unterweger, also 16/20 as each of the podium finishers, was ultimately 43 seconds back after being 23 seconds slower on the course and slower with his shooting. Daniel Glasser finally broke up the 16/20 shooting streak as he hit 17 targets and rode that to 5th place overall. Finishing the top 6 was Leon Keinesberger, who once again hit 16/20.
Sprint
On Saturday the team came back for the Sprint races. As for the Short Individual the weather was once again beautiful.
The women’s Sprint taken by Anna Juppe with a solid if not spectacular performance by Anna Juppe. You certainly can’t argue with it because she’s the national champion. However, you could certainly see how in a different year, with this exact race, she would have finished in 3rd at best. Juppe was 8/10 on the range with the 2nd best course time just 3.1 seconds behind Lara Wagner’s time.
Juppe took the title by 10 seconds over Lea Rothschopf who was a perfect 10/10 with the rifle. She just didn’t have enough speed on the day to overtake Juppe as she ran 20 seconds slower than Juppe on the course. Lara Wagner followed up her gold medal in the Short Individual with her 2nd medal of the weekend, this time taking bronze. As noted above she had the fastest time on the course but with three misses she just put herself in too much of a hole to overtake Juppe. The data that we have from this race does not include shooting time, but it would be really interesting to see how Juppe and Wagner compared. Clearly with just 1 extra miss and fairly similar ski times you would expect Wagner to be roughly 25 seconds back of Juppe. However she was a full 38 seconds back. Was Juppe fast or Wagner slow with the shots? Unfortunately we’ll never know but I would be curious!
Rounding out the top 6 we had sharp shooting Tamara Steiner hitting 9/10 but just not finding the speed needed for the podium. Equally sharp shooting Dunja Zdouc finished 5th with two misses on the day. Finally young potential star Anna Andexer was 6th with a 7/10 day. Even with having a build that traditionally doesn’t set her up well for success on roller skis Andexer still found the 3rd best ski time for the day.
| Women’s Top 10 | Men’s Top 10 |
| 🥇Anna Juppe (8/10) | 🥇Dominic Unterweger (9/10) |
| 🥈Lea Rothschopf +10 (10/10) | 🥈Fredrick Muehlbacher +16 (8/10) |
| 🥉Lara Wagner +38 (7/10) | 🥉Fabian Muellauer +20 (7/10) |
| 4) Tamara Steiner +59 (9/10) | 4) David Komatz (+41 (8/10) |
| 5) Dunja Zdouc +1:06 (8/10) | 5) Simon Eder +1:08 (8/10) |
| 6) Anna Andexer +1:19 (7/10) | 6) Raphael Steiner +1:11 (9/10) |
| 7) Kristina Oberghaler +1:58 (8/20) | 7) Patrick Jakob +1:15 (7/10) |
| 8) Julia Leitinger +2:04 (8/10) | 8) Leon Kienesberger +1:19 (9/10) |
| 9) Leonie Pitzer 2:05 (9/10) | 9) Sami Mesotitsch +1:22 (8/10) |
| 10) Wilma Anhaus +2:40 (7/10) | 10) Mangus Oberhauser +1:32 (9/10) |
The men’s Sprint saw a complete turn over from the Short Individual. Almost a completely different race. The three men who took the podium positions in the Sprint all struggled to varying degrees on the range in the Short Individual. A new day and a new race for them, they all were significantly more accurate. Dominic Unterweger improved from 4th in the SI hitting 16/20 up to the gold medal position and 9/10 shooting in the Sprint. He had the 4th best skiingfor the day 12 seconds back of young speedster who finished in 3rd place, Fabian Muellauer.
Taking the silver medal is cross country to biathlon convert Fredrik Muehlbacher. Last season he saw his first big success in biathlon when he took two medals at the European Championships and had three top 10’s in three races. He also had the first two top 40’s in the World Cup of his career as well. This weekend was the perfect summation of his potential. As with most XC converts if he can his his shots he’s got a chance to do something good. Hopefully we see more days like the Sprint this season!
As mentioned Fabian Muellauer secured the bronze medal primarily with the best skiing of the day. He was the fastest athlete in the Sprint after being 2nd fastest in the Short Individual. Just like Muehlbacher, his 7/10 shooting was a big improvement over hitting just 11/20 in the Short Individual. Muellauer also is one to keep an eye on. Last year in his age 21-22 season he had his third career Junior Worlds top 10. More importantly though he also had four IBU Cup top 10’s including his first career IBU Cup podium. Absolutely one to keep monitoring!
The top six was filled out by a couple of Austrian regulars with David Komatz in 5th and Simon Eder in 5th. Finally Raphael Steiner, another young Austrian, coming in 6th with 9/10 shooting.