Lisa Vittozzi is dominant again in Val Martello: back-to-back, Hofer claims the men’s Pursuit

Lisa Vittozzi made a major mark at the Italian Summer Biathlon Championships in Val Martello and, after Wednesday’s success in the Sprint, claimed another national title today with a display of strength in the Pursuit.

In Val Venosta, the cream of Italian biathlon was once again welcomed by perfect weather conditions. However, the athlete who shone brighter than the sun was the Olympic champion in this very race format; across the four shooting stages, Lisa missed two of twenty targets, but her time on roller skis was impressive, finishing 2’30” ahead of Aosta Valley’s Martina Trabucchi, who was clean at the range.

The bronze medal went to Fabiana Carpella: the biathlete from Tesero finished the race with 5 errors, while still managing to hold on to the podium ahead of Samuela Comola’s comeback attempt. Comola finished 5th with three missed targets, just behind Rebecca Passler, who collapsed after yesterday’s 2nd place by missing seven times. The same was true of Hannah Auchentaller, sixth with 8 errors.

The men’s Sprint had seen Davide Compagnoni’s surprise triumph, but the 12.5-km Pursuit put Lukas Hofer back where everyone expected him to be: the 36-year-old from Puster Valley missed twice at the range but was clearly the fastest on roller skis, beating Elia Zeni by 18” (with the same number of missed targets). Twenty-year-old Nicola Giordano, from Borgo San Dalmazzo in the province of Cuneo, took bronze just 23” behind, with Christoph Pircher, Felix Ratschiller and Patrick Braunhofer just outside the podium.

It was a difficult day, meanwhile, for the Italian Sprint champion, as the 21-year-old from Valfurva made seven errors at the range and had to settle for tenth place.

Another major event at the Grogg Biathlon Centre thus came to an end; no biathlete was injured, which is very positive, especially because this is far from guaranteed in summer when races are held on asphalt with roller skis.

At the awards ceremony, in addition to the medals, the protagonists of these national championships received the famous apples from Val Venosta, strawberries from Val Martello and Loacker products. “On behalf of the Martello biathlon community, I would like to thank all the volunteers, emergency services and sponsors,” said president Georg Altstätter – “In the coming weeks and months, Val Martello will continue to be widely used as a training venue, while we wait for the 2026/27 winter season to begin. If the weather allows, the first kilometres on snow will be available in early November.”