It’s them again: Dorothea Wierer and Lisa Vittozzi. The “azzurre” were the protagonists of the Italian stage of the IBU World Cup, held in Antholz from 19 to 22 January in a packed stadium.

On the first day of competition, Dorothea Wierer showed off a super performance winning the Sprint race: the Italian was strong on skis and made no mistakes at the shooting range, proving her crystal-clear class once again but also all her experience.

“I'm really very happy with my performance at the shooting range on a very difficult day because of the wind, which could have created a lot of troubles - said Dorothea Wierer on the top of the podium - I tried to control every shot, I achieved this victory thanks to the quality of Fiocchi ammunitions, a guarantee of absolute reliability and precision even in very difficult weather conditions.

In the Pursuit race, Lisa Vittozzi was the absolute protagonist: the athlete from Sappada started from the 13th place and was author of an amazing comeback that allowed her to win the silver medal. The performance at the shooting range made the difference also in this race: Lisa didn’t make any mistake, recovering eleven places and climbing on the second step of the Antholz podium.

"I ran a perfect race and I'm really happy with how I handled my performance - said Vittozzi - Last year, here in Antholz, I was really struggling, but this is the proof that everything is possible in biathlon, by working hard and never giving up.

In addition to Dorothea and Lisa's medals, the Italian stage saw good placings for the Italian national team supported by Fiocchi Munizioni: Tommaso Giacomel finished the Sprint race in the 7th place, the women's relay finished 4th and the men's one finished 5th.

The international biathlon spotlights move now on Oberhof (GER), where the World Championships will be held from 8 to 19 February.