With strong gusty wind at the shooting range, constant sleet or rain and many fresh snow of the past days, the athletes had maior problems to hit the targets and to avoid falls. But not everyone was able to avoid it. The race started with a fall of Karolin Horchler (GER, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) in the first corner, after someone touched her left ski. A little later Lisa Theresa Hauser was the first to fall in the in the winding downhill with deep snow to the "Frankfurter Kreuz". Her ski caught the deep snow, so that she fell on her back and broke the shaft of the rifle. At the shooting range, the replacement rifle of the Austrian team was used, but after the first shot the firing pin was broken, so that the team had to give up. However, many others did not make it through the difficult corner such as Franziska Hildebrand (GER), Russian Margarita Vasileva, Joanne Reid (USA) or Karoline Offigstad Knotten (NOR, Fischer skis, bindings and boots). Later, the men also crashed, but mainly weaker athletes were affected.
First, the favored Italians Lisa Vittozzi, Nicole Gontier (both ITA), Alexia Runggaldier and Federica Sanfilippo (both ITA, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) were on a good path to another relay victory and led after the first change with 20 seconds ahead of the field. Then Gontier already had to ski one penalty loop after her prone shooting and with eight shots she did not hit any target in her standing stage, so that the team was almost lapped after two more penalties by Federica Sanfilippo - additionally Alexia Runggaldier was not ready when Nicole Gontier with three minutes back finally came to the exchange and had to wait. Then Germany took over the lead by Franziska Hildebrand and Franziska Preuß (GER, Fischer skis, bindings and boots), which they later had to hand over to the Russians, as Denise Herrmann (GER, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) missed two targets in her standing stage. Nevertheless, it was enough for the local heroes for a good second place behind the Russians, who finished without penalty and with only eight spare rounds. Third place went to the Czech Republic represented by Lucie Charvatova, Veronika Vitkova (both CZE, Fischer skis, bindings and boots), Marketa Davidova (CZE) and Eva Puskarcikova (CZE, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) ahead of Norway with Thekla Brun-Lie (NOR, Fischer skis and bindings), Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, Karoline Offigstad Knotten and Tiril Eckhoff (all NOR, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) and France with Anais Chevalier (FRA), Celia Aymonier, Justine Braisaz (both FRA, Fischer Skis, bindings and boots) and Anais Bescond (FRA).
A little later, the Russians celebrated another sovereign victory, so they could clap hands at the finish with the waiting ladies. After initially four athletes had come together for the first exchange, Evgeniy Garanichev was the second skier who took the decisive lead, which brought his teammates with very good shooting performance to the finish. Overall, the shooting was much better than the women's, so that one penalty by Simon Desthieux was already too much for the quartet with Antonin Guigonnat, Simon Desthieux (both FRA), Quentin Fillon Maillet (FRA, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) and Martin Fourcade (FRA), who started his final lap calmly and brought the second place home safely. The third place went to Austrians Tobias Eberhard (AUT, Fischer skis, bindings and boots), Simon Eder (AUT), Dominik Landertinger (AUT, Fischer skis and bindings) and Julian Eberhard (AUT, Fischer Ski, Bindungen and boots) in front of the Czechs Ondrej Moravec (CZE, Fischer skis and bindings), Michal Krcmar (CZE), Jakub Stvrtecky (CZE, Fischer skis and bindings) and Tomas Krupcik (CZE).
