The next German cross-country skiing coup was celebrated by the German silver quartet arm in arm and with loud songs. "Oh, how beautiful is that," it resounded from the finish area in snowy Planica. Starting runner Laura Gimmler had tears in her eyes. "It's hard to believe. I have to let that sink in first," said the 29-year-old completely enthusiastically and team boss Peter Schlickenrieder cheered: "Silver shines like gold!"

With second place in a terrific race, the women's relay team gave the German cross-country skiing team the first World Championship precious metal in twelve years and impressively underpinned the upward trend of the cross-country skiing aces one year after silver at the Olympics. "This is always the hardest part to confirm such a performance," said Hennig in the ARD. "I'm very, very proud of our team." The 26-year-old, Gimmler, Pia Fink and Victoria Carl only had to admit defeat to the victorious quartet from Norway in Slovenia on Thursday.

Althaus cheers with sandwich

"This is a very important milestone that we have achieved here – to repeat such a success," said Schlickenrieder with a view to the 2022 Winter Games. At that time, in addition to relay silver, Hennig and Carl had ensured a German cross-country fairy tale with gold in the team sprint. "I'm really excited. You can see that the team is growing together more and more," said motivator Schlickenrieder.

Ski jumper and three-time world champion Katharina Althaus also cheered on the next highlight of the German quartet, which ran with black-red-gold lucky charms in their hair. Althaus treated herself to a sandwich in the stands after her furious World Cup and cheered on. Unlike female ski jumpers or Nordic combined skiers, winter sports fans were not used to German successes in cross-country skiing for a long time. But the team has been on the upswing since last season - not only at major events. In the World Cup, podium finishes have also increased recently. Now the long World Championship series ended without a podium.

Gimmler settled in a top group of four nations. Schlickenrieder, who fired up his athletes as usual with loud cheers, was highly satisfied. "If it goes on like this, we have good cards," he said in the ARD, while Hennig also showed a very good performance in second place. The 26-year-old benefited from a fall of the Swede Ebba Andersson and even brought Germany forward for a short time. Fink also ran a strong race, but had to let the Norwegian Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg go. Final runner Carl secured silver ahead of Sweden.

Jens Filbrich, Axel Teichmann, Franz Göring and Tobias Angerer won the last German World Championship medal in cross-country skiing in Oslo in 2011. They won bronze with the relay over 4x10 kilometers. The German Ski Association has been waiting for individual precious metal at a world championship for 14 years. Even the end of this dry spell is still possible in Planica: On Saturday, Hennig has outsider chances in the race over 30 kilometers in her preferred classic technique.