Para biathlon World Cup Finals 2024!

The final World Cup race of the very short para biathlon season was held in Prince George just two days after the end of the World Championships and consisted of just one race. The biathletes raced the middle distance, which is 10km with four shoots and penalty loops for any misses, to determine the World Cup winners across all six categories.

With the cross country World Cup Finals starting the following day we had a few absentees and also some new faces who didn’t race the World Championships.

Wicker wins

In the absence of both Kendall Gretsch and Oksana Masters there were only four women on the start line for the women’s sitting race. By far the most experienced was Anja Wicker and she was the eventual winner. She hit an impressive 19/20 to win in a time of 35.32.5. Yunji Kim came home in second place also hitting 19 and her South Korean teammate Seunghee Han was third with 18 hits.

Triumphant Taras

In the men’s sitting it was Ukrainian speedster Taras Rad who took the victory. Not only is he fast on track but he is accurate on the range hitting the perfect 20 today. He finished 31.6 seconds ahead of his nearest rival the clean shooting Zixu Liu. Vasyl Kravchuk came home in third with a single miss.

Amazing Arendz

Mark Arendz capped off a remarkable biathlon season by winning his 7th race in a row. As there have only been 7 races this season it means he is unbeaten and that is a fantastic achievement in biathlon. He won this one by 55.5 seconds with a solitary miss on the range. Serhii Romaniuk took second also with one missed target. Marco Maier held on for third despite three misses.

Ukrainan sweep

It was yet another win for Liudmyla Liashenko and another clean sweep for the Ukrainian women in the standing race. Luckily she is a fast skier after visiting the penalty loop 4 times. Even more fortunately her closest challenger Bohdana Konashuk matched her with 4 missed targets finishing just under 18 seconds behind. Oleksandra Konanova shot much better with 19/20 but couldn’t keep up with the others on track and had to settle for third.

Kazmaier reigns supreme

Linn Kazmaier has been unbeatable this season in the women’s VI alongside guide Florian Baumann. Like Arendz she has won all 7 biathlon races and usually by comfortable margins. She did the same today triumphing over teammate Leonie Walter (guide Christian Krasman) by over 3 minutes. She hit 19 targets to Walter’s 17 which also helped with her massive win. Johanna Recktenwald (guide Pirmin Strecker) finished in third despite incurring a two minute penalty for not firing all her shots.

King Kazik

Oleksandr Kazik proved once again that he is the man to beat in the men’s VI with his guide Serhii Kucheriavyi. It was his sixth win from seven races and he took this one by hitting 18/20. Teammate Dmytro Suiarko (guide Oleksandr Nikonovych) was second with the same shooting score but was 48.4 seconds away from the win. Nico Messinger (guide Robin Wunderle) completed the podium also with 18/20.

As this race concludes the Para biathlon season our World Cup winners are Anja Wicker, Taras Rad, Liudmyla Liaschenko, Mark Arendz, Linn Kazmaier and Oleksandr Kazik.

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Para biathlon World Champs 2024: Team Sprint

The final day of World Championships competition in Prince George was for the Team Sprint races. One for the sitting category and one a combined standing and VI race.

The teams of two can be all male, all female or mixed. There can also be more than one team from each country for example Ukraine 1, 2 and 3. Unique to Parabiathlon is also the opportunity to race with a different country in the Team Sprint. Today we has FIS 1 who was made up of France’s Karl Tabouret and Germany’s Lennart Volkert. ( (Not sure why it’s FIS 1 and not IBU 1 though!)

With a start list of 7 in the sitting and 11 in the standing/VI we had qualification races first to determine which 5 teams would race in the sitting final and which 6 in the standing VI final and also the time gaps between them at the start.

The qualification race is 4 laps of 0.8 km with one shoot in each leg and the final is 4 x1.2km also with one shoot per leg. The biathletes take turns racing and do two legs each.

Sitting Final

The teams that progressed to the final of the team sprint were Korea 2, Germany 1 , USA 1, Ukraine 1 and GBR 1. The winners taking the gold medal were USA 1 with a team of Kendall Gretsch and Oksana Masters in a time of 22:22.1. In the first three legs both women shot clean but in the final leg Masters missed 3 but it was still enough to clinch victory by 12 seconds. The silver medal went to the Ukrainian team of Vasyl Kravchuk and Taras Rad. Both missed a shot on their first legs and both cleaned on their second. Third place went to Germany with Andrea Eskau and Anja Wicker. They also just missed 1 target each to take home the bronze medal. Korea were 4th and Great Britain 5th.

Standing/VI Final

Taking part in the final were USA 2, Ukraine 3, Germany 2, Canada 1, France 1 and Poland 1. Taking yet another gold medal were the team from Ukraine. Bohdana Konashuk and Liudmyla Liashenko won in a time of 20:41.9 despite 6 misses between them. Silver went to Germany with Leonie Walter and Linn Kazmaier who finished 11.5 seconds behind the winners with 4 misses. The bronze medal went to the home team Canada with Brittany Hudak and Mark Arendz just missing a single target. France were 4th, the USA 5th and Poland 6th.

That concludes the World Championships in Prince George. There is one more biathlon race here on Wednesday the 13th for the World Cup final deciders.

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Para biathlon World Champs 2024: Sprint/Pursuit

The third day of competition in Prince George saw the first appearance of the Sprint/Pursuit at the World Championships. It is a new event and involves a shorter sprint race with a 20 second time penalty per miss. This serves as a qualification to determine the start positions for the 7.5km pursuit race.

Kazmaier completes the treble

Linn Kazmaier was imperious in the women’s VI. She has won every race here in Canada and has been exceptional at these Championships with 3 gold medals. She qualified first with a lead of 26 seconds at the start of the pursuit race. With perfect shooting she turned that into a winning margin of 1 minute 24.8 seconds guided by Florian Baumann. Germany swept the podium with Leonie Maria Walter (guide Christian Krasman) taking silver once again with one miss and Johanna Recktenwald (guide Pirmin Strecker) returned to the podium taking the bronze also shooting clean.

Kazik strikes back

After missing out on gold in the Individual Oleksandr Kazik came roaring back in the men’s VI to claim the victory. Despite starting the pursuit 26 seconds down he shot clean to win by 51.1 seconds with guide Serhii Kucheriavyi. The silver medal went to Iaroslav Reshetynskyi (guide Dmytro Drahun) who also shot clean to take his third medals at these Championships. Despite starting first a costly miss at the range meant Anthony Chalencon (guide Florian Michelon) had to settle for bronze today.

Gretsch grabs gold

In the women’s sitting it was Kendall Gretsch and her sharp shooting that won the day. Despite starting over 1 minute and 49 seconds behind Yunji Kim, who qualified fastest, she hit 10/10 to overtake the Korean and win by just under 25 seconds. Kim’s three misses saw her drop out of contention and Anja Wicker took advantage to claim the silver medal with a perfect shoot. Oksana Masters came home in third despite two misses on the range.

Rad doubles up

Taras Rad overcame a 32 second deficit to win his second gold medal at these Championships in the men’s sitting. Another 10/10 meant he dominated this race and won by over 1 minute and 12 seconds. The silver medal went to Yerbol Khamitov of Kazakhstan who held onto his second place from sprint qualification despite two misses. Clean shooting Aaron Pike claimed his first medal here in Canada with bronze.

Ukrainian sweep

Ukraine took all the medals in the women’s standing but the winner was not who you might have expected. It was Bohdana Konashuk who triumphed over her teammates shooting flawlessly to take the World title. Double gold medallist Liudmyla Liashenko couldn’t manage the treble today but still managed to take the silver medal. The 37 second deficit at the start was too much for her to make up even with 10/10. The very experienced Oleksandra Kononova was third shooting 7/10.

Three-peat

It was a third gold medal in row for Mark Arendz in the men’s standing. In fact he hasn’t lost a biathlon race this season which is absolutely outstanding considering the calibre of his opponents in this category. Yet another clean shoot on the range allowed him to build his 5 second lead at the start to nearly 30 seconds by the end. Serhii Romaniuk claimed his second silver medal matching his result from the Sprint on Wednesday with 8/10. Benjamin Daviet completed the podium taking bronze with 9/10.

The final race of these Championships is the Team Sprint which takes place on Sunday.

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Para biathlon World Champs 2024: Sprint

There was a warm welcome in Prince George for the biathletes, from the locals not from the weather. It’s freezing with temperatures around -20 degrees! That didn’t seem to be an issue for our six newly crowned World Sprint champions however.

The usual suspects

The top three in the women’s sitting sprint was not a surprise it was just a matter of which order they would finish in. After missing World Championships last season Oksana Masters stormed back to win gold. Hitting all ten targets was the key to her victory. She is the fastest skier in the class so when she hits all ten she is almost impossible to beat. That was the case today despite the best efforts of clean shooting Anja Wicker who took the silver medal 2 seconds back. A single costly miss meant defending champion Kendall Gretsch had to settle for bronze today.

The unusual suspects

The Chinese biathletes tend to race only at major Championships so we rarely see them on the World Cup. They showed up here in Canada and took two of the three medals on offer. It was Zixu Liu who added the World Sprint title to his Paralympic title in the same event. Ten out of ten helped him finish ahead of nearest rival and silver medallist Taras Rad who had one error on the range. Third place went to Mengtao Liu with two misses giving us the exact same podium from the Beijing Games.

Early home success

The Canadian crowd didn’t have long to wait to celebrate with two gold medals in quick succession. In the women’s standing Natalie Wilkie defended her World title but this time she had to share it! Liudmyla Liashenko finished with the exact same time as Wilkie despite missing one shot to Wilkie’s clean score. A perfect shoot from Brittany Hudak secured the bronze and another Canadian medal.

Hot on the heels of Canada’s first gold medal came a second! Mark Arendz took the win in the men’s standing. Despite one mistake on the range he was still fast enough to claim victory by almost 21 seconds. Serhii Romaniuk was second with 10/10 upgrading last season’s bronze medal to silver. The reigning champion Marco Maier was third this time around with 9/10.

German dominance

As expected the German women once again swept the podium in the VI race. Linn Kazmeier came out on top in the battle of the teammates to take the gold medal. With the same shooting score of 9/10 as her teammate Leonie Maria Walter she was able to ski away to a five second win leaving Walter to pick up the silver. Despite a clean sheet at the range Johanna Recktenwald had to settle for third some 51 seconds back.

Kazik class

The red hot favourite and defending champion in the men’s VI was Oleksandr Kazik and he was triumphant once again in the sprint. Even with 2 missed targets he still took gold by nearly 7 seconds. Anthony Chalencon was his nearest challenger. With 9/10 he managed to stop a Ukrainian sweep of the podium taking silver for France. Iaroslav Reshetynskyi completed the podium with a clean shoot for bronze.

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Para biathlon World Champs 2024: Individual

Day two of the World Championships saw eighteen medals awarded in the Individual race. 12.5km was the distance raced with 4 shoots and a time penalty for each miss.

Magic Mark

It was another sensational race from home favourite Mark Arendz in the men’s standing category. Today he hit all 20 targets – the only competitor to do so. He took his second World title in 2 days, after also winning the sprint gold, by 1 minute 39.5 seconds meaning he was equally as impressive on skis as he was on the range. The silver medal went to his old rival Benjamin Daviet with a single miss on his second shoot. Gregorii Vovchynskyi took the bronze also with 19 hits but finished 21 seconds behind Daviet.

Liashenko leads the pack

Just like Arendz, Liudmyla Liashenko doubled up and took her second World title in Prince George but this time she didn’t have to share! All three of the medallists in the women’s standing hit 19/20 but it was Liashenko who was the fastest on course taking the gold medal in a time of 39.25.9. China’s Zhiqing Zhao finished just under 52 seconds behind matching her silver medal in this same race from the Paralympics. Natalie Wilkie completed the podium adding bronze to her sprint title.

Champion Chalencon

After two biathletes who are used to winning titles we got a brand new World Champion in the men’s VI! Anthony Chalencon won his first-ever gold medal at the World Championships with guide Florian Michelon. Even one miss on the range could not stop him taking his premiere title at this level. He lost out on gold in the sprint by 7 seconds but this time won by a minute and 7 seconds! Second place went to perennial podium finisher Iaroslav Reshetynskyi (guide Dmytro Drahun) who despite hitting 20/20 couldn’t match the Frenchman for ski speed. Defending champion Oleksandr Kazik (guide Serhii Kucheriavyi) saw two misses on the range deny him a repeat of last season’s victory and he had to settle for the bronze medal.

Another win for Linn

Unlike in the men’s race it was no surprise who took the women’s VI title. Linn Kazmaier, the defending champion guided by Florian Baumann, dominated the race with clean shooting and finished almost 3 minutes ahead of her closest challenger. Once again teammate Leonie Maria Walter (guide Christian Krasman) finished in second with 19/20. There was a surprise in third place with Nataliia Tkachenko (guide Ivan Marchyshak) stopping a German clean sweep of the podium taking bronze for Ukraine with 18/20 winning her first-ever medal at World Championships.

Rad’s revenge

After settling for the silver medal in the sprint Taras Rad overcame his Chinese rivals to win the men’s sitting Individual title. Crucial to his victory was his flawless shooting with 20/20 on the range. That gave him a massive winning margin of nearly 2 minutes and 43 seconds over Mengtao Liu in second place. He missed 2 targets but still held on for silver ahead of his clean shooting teammate Zixu Liu in bronze medal position.

Golden Gretsch

After ceding her sprint title yesterday Kendall Gretsch was back to winning ways in the women’s sitting. She defended her Individual title in style with perfect shooting winning by a margin of 1 minute 16.5 seconds ahead of nearest rival Oksana Masters. Masters missed one on the range to add silver to her sprint gold here in Canada. Yunji Kim held her nerve on the range missing just one target to take a well deserved bronze medal.

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Natalie Wilkie: The Interview!

Natalie Wilkie is a para biathlete and cross country skier from Salmon Arm, British Colombia in Canada. The 23-year-old competes in the standing category after losing four fingers on her left hand in a woodwork accident at school in 2016. Wilkie is a three time Paralmpic gold medallist in cross country skiing and a double biathlon World Champion. She will defend her Sprint and Individual titles from Ostersund 2023 at her home World Championship in Prince George in March.

You can follow Natalie on Instagram: natalie_wilkie_

Why did you become a biathlete?

I got started in biathlon shortly after my first Paralympics with the Canadian team, because it looked like a fun sport and a lot of my teammates were doing it. The coach offered me a rifle to try out, and I practiced shooting whenever I could. Even though it took me a while to learn the ropes, I’m very glad that I get to be a biathlete now!

It has been a strange season just starting in February. How have you found it? Did you have to make any changes to your preparation?

This season has been very different than usual, and I did make adjustments to my preparation. Since there were no Para races for most of December and January, I instead followed the North American race circuit with competitions in Sovereign Lake, Anchorage, and Mont-Saint Anne. I was very excited to begin the Para nordic season in Italy, and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring and skiing in each venue. Although it was fun to have a tour-style World Cup, I have to admit, I do prefer the regular calendar with 3-4 separate competitions throughout the winter.

How was your season start in biathlon? I saw you got sick but still managed a podium.

I unfortunately caught a cold just before the first race in Toblach, so I had to sit out a few days to recover. My first xc races back I won a silver and a bronze medal, but in all honesty I should have taken more time off because I didn’t feel 100% healthy. The following week in Martell I began to feel more like myself, and I won my first biathlon medal of the season in the 10km! I wasn’t expecting a podium, and during the race it came as a surprise when my coach started giving me splits that I was in 3rd place. I knew I wasn’t shooting quickly, so my focus was on accuracy, and also skiing the heck out of my last lap. I think I made up 30 seconds on the last lap. I hope that I can keep this momentum going and build into the World Championships in Prince George.

Are you excited about your home World Championships in Prince George? Do you have any goals for the competitions?

Yes, I’m very excited for a home competition! The last time I raced in Prince George was in 2019, and I remember the awesome atmosphere the volunteers and spectators created. It was special to race in front of so many Canadians, especially my family who came to watch and cheer. My goals for this upcoming competition are to race my absolute hardest for Canada, and finish every race knowing that I gave 100% of my effort. I think a podium (or a few) would also be pretty cool!

What are your impressions of the new Sprint/Pursuit race? Do you like racing head to head?

The new Sprint/Pursuit race is definitely exciting, especially for spectators, but I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite event! I like mass starts but I find it difficult to shoot quickly enough for this event. I’ve only done this race once, so maybe I’ll have more fun the next time.

How did you find the transition from cross country to biathlon and was it difficult learning to shoot?

I found the transition to biathlon to be longer than I expected, as it took me quite a while to feel confident in the range. It was really hard for me to switch my focus during a race from skiing to shooting. I’m very glad that I become a biathlete though, because it adds a fun, exciting dimension to racing.

Is it hard to manage both sports and choose which races to take part in as the schedules can be pretty heavy?

Yes, it can be hard to balance both cross country and biathlon. Because a Para World Cup is so race heavy, I usually try to skip one race to manage the load. It’s hard because I just want to race everything!

You are lucky to have Brittany Hudak as a teammate in the standing class. How has she helped you with your biathlon?

I feel like Brittany has always been a bit of a mentor to me in biathlon! When I joined the team, Brittany was already an established biathlete, and you could say I wanted to follow in her footsteps. It’s great having a teammate and friend who I can always turn to for advice and support.

Do you have a favourite race from your career so far in biathlon or a special memory?

My favourite biathlon race (or at least one of them) is the 7.5km sprint I did at the World Cup in Vuokatti last year. I hold that memory close to me because it was the first biathlon race I won, and even more importantly, it was the first race where I felt confident in the range! I have a habit of shooting slowly when I’m nervous, but the night before the race my coach convinced me to shoot just a tiny bit faster than I was comfortable with. Safe to say, that strategy worked! I still get nervous to shoot, but I know that I can trust my training and be confident in my abilities.

What are your hobbies? How do you switch off from biathlon?

My favourite hobbies are painting, playing the piano and spending time with other people’s dogs haha. I usually bring my art supplies with me on race trips, so that I can relax and focus on another activity. I’ve also started to make friendship bracelets with my teammates, which is super fun! At the end of the season, the best way for me to switch off my biathlon and skiing brain is to spend time at my family’s farm, where I hang out with my dogs and ride my horses.

Does your rifle have a name?

Haha no, my rifle does not have a name (yet).

Describe yourself in three words.

Determined, resilient, and fun-loving!

Quick fire Questions:

Favourite biathlon event (sprint, individual etc): I like the individual event the best!

Favourite biathlon venue: My favourite biathlon venue is Östersund

Favourite biathlete: Derek Zaplotinsky

Nicest biathlete on the World Cup: Christina Picton

Funniest biathlete on the World Cup: Brittany Hudak

Best thing about being a biathlete: Traveling through airports with my rifle!

The Para biathlon World Champions take place from the 6th to the 10th of March with the Sprint, Sprint/Pursuit, Individual and Team Sprint titles up for grabs.

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Para biathlon WC: Martell 2024!

Finally, after what feels like a century, para biathlon is back! We got underway with the first World Cup on Thursday 1st February with the Sprint race followed by the Sprint/Pursuit on Saturday and concluding with the Individual on Sunday.

We had some brand new names on the start line in the sitting races with Brazil fielding biathletes for the first time ever! Elena De Sena Souza and Guilherme Rocha were the history makers for their country.

If those names aren’t familiar the winners definitely were.

Taras on top

Taras Rad was the top performer in the men’s sitting events. He backed up his Sprint victory with a win in the Sprint/Pursuit without missing a single shot. Teammate Pavlo Bal and Kazakh Yerbol Kharmitov completed the Sprint podium whilst Vasyl Kravchuk and Aaron Pike took second and third in the Sprint/Pursuit.

Kravchuk went one better in the Individual taking the win and relegating Rad to second. Oleksandr Aleksyk made it a clean sweep for Ukraine with his first podium of the season in third.

American duels

The women’s races were the expected battle between teammates Oksana Masters and Kendall Gretsch with the duo sharing the spoils. Masters triumphed in the Sprint with clean shooting helping her to beat Gretsch into second and Anja Wicker picked up third with all three hitting 10/10. In her comeback season it was impressive shooting from Masters as she has had to change both her rifle and the way she shoots after multiple surgeries.

Gretsch took her revenge in the Sprint/Pursuit with flawless shooting in both qualification and the final. Anja Wicker matched her on the range to take silver with Masters missing 5 in the final relegating her to third.

Shooting was also the key to victory in the Individual with Kendall Gretsch once again on top of the podium with 19/20. Despite another 5 misses Masters held on to second with Wicker in third spot after missing 4 herself.

Laying down a marker

Mark Arendz was imperious winning the men’s standing Sprint race with characteristic calmness on the range and speed on the skis. With 10 hits he finished ahead of Marco Maier and Serhii Romaniuk. The Sprint/Pursuit didn’t go quite as well for the Canadian after an excellent qualification he put himself under pressure with two misses in the final but still carried the day ahead of the clean shooting Benjamin Daviet and Nazar Shevchyk who also missed twice.

Arendz achieved a first for him by winning the Individual as well. Three wins in a row in this class is extremely difficult to do but he managed it here in Martell. Daviet was once again the runner up and Dmytro Sereda picked up his first podium of the season with a well deserved third place.

Ukrainian vs. Canada

The women’s standing was a contest between the Ukrainian squad and the Canadians. Bragging rights in the Sprint went to Oleksandra Kononova thanks to a perfect shoot which meant she finished in front of Liudmyla Liashenko with one mistake. Hitting all 10 in third was Brittany Hudak. Liashenko turned the tables in the Sprint/Pursuit putting together a much better race shooting clean in both qualification and the final. Kononova was second with two mistakes leaving her over two minutes behind. It was a podium sweep for Ukraine with Bohdana Konashuk in third thanks to her excellent clean shooting.

Canada struck back in the Individual with Brittany Hudak taking the gold with 19/20. Liashenko was second and Canada took the last podium position with Natalie Wilkie. Wilkie got sick before the first races here and so has done well to clinch third in the longest race.

Kazik shows his strength

Oleksandr Kazik (guided by Serhii Kucheriavyi) is the dominant force in men’s VI at the moment and he showed just why he is the triple World Champion with three more wins here. With a single miss in the Sprint he still finished well ahead of the field and his compatriot Iaroslav Reshetynskyi (guided by Dmytro Drahun). Third place went to Anthony Chalencon with guide Florian Michelon (yes this is biathlon he is Oceane’s cousin!) Kazik led a 1-2-3 for Ukraine in the Sprint/Pursuit with Reshetynskyi in second again and Dmytro Suiarko in third with guide Oleksandr Nikonovych. Suiarko managed to move into second place in the Individual and Chalencon won bronze again just like in the Sprint.

Kazmaier’s triple triumph

Just like Kazik in the men’s races Linn Kazmaier is the one to beat in the women’s VI. With guide Florian Baumann she dominated all three races and any mistakes she made on the range she made up for with her skiing. The podium was the same for all three races with the Germans winning all the medals in this class. Leonie Walter and guide Christian Krasman won the three silver medals and Johanna Recktenwald with guide Prirmin Strecker took all the bronze medals home with her.

The next races are the World Championships in Canada from 4th to 10th March.

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Para biathlon Season Preview 2024!

I know what you are thinking – a season preview in January?! Yes well the Para biathlon World Cup doesn’t start until the 1st of February this season that’s why! Now that governance of the sport is in the hands of the IBU there have been some teething problems and chopping and changing of the calendar but that is to be expected as it’s only the second year since the move from the International Paralympic Committee. Hopefully next season there will be more races on the calendar with the 2026 Paralympics looming on the horizon.

Luckily there have been some Continental Cups and National Championships in Canada, Norway and the USA for the biathletes to race prior to the World Cup starting.

New calendar, new venue

The first World Cup takes place in Martell, a regular IBU Cup venue in Italy, and is a new name on the para biathlon calendar. The athletes will race a Sprint on the 1st of February followed by the newest addition to the events- a Sprint/Pursuit on the 3rd of February. This sees the biathletes using a shorter sprint distance as a qualifier for the pursuit. The time gaps are taken together with classifications to determine the pursuit start times. This means the biathletes are racing head to head and first across the finish line wins. It is a welcome addition as normally all para biathlon races are against the clock. The 4th of February will see the biathletes tackle the Individual.

The climax of the season and what everyone is preparing for is the very first stand alone IBU Para biathlon World Championships! In the past these were always combined with the para cross country championships but as cross country is now governed by the FIS, who only have Championship every two years, biathlon takes the whole spotlight. They will take place in Prince George, Canada from the 6th until the 10th of March. This is a familiar venue to the para biathletes as the World Championship were held there in 2019. They will battle for World Titles in the Sprint, Sprint/Pursuit, Individual and also the Team Sprint. There is also another Individual on the 13th of March at the same venue but for the World Cup to determine the Overall champions.

Main contenders

The favourites to strike gold in Canada will mainly come from Ukraine, Germany, USA and the home team. The usual powerhouses in IBU biathlon are not the same for para biathlon. The French have a small team, Norway will field one biathlete this season as will Sweden.

The women’s sitting battle will be between American teammates Oksana Masters and Kendall Gretsch. Masters missed last season after a series of hand injuries and operations kept her out. She will be raring to go this time but has a stellar opponent in Gretsch. She is the current holder of all three World titles and in terms of shooting makes Simon Eder look like an amateur! Anja Wicker (GER) and Christina Picton (CAN) will be waiting to pick up medals should the top two falter.

The men’s sitting has much larger fields and is very competitive. The current World Champions are Aaron Pike (USA), Taras Rad (UKR) and Collin Cameron(CAN). They won’t find it easy to hang on to those gold medals however with many rivals like Eui Hyun Shin (KOR), Yerbol Khamitov (KAZ), Scott Meenagh (GBR), Derek Zaplotinsky (CAN) and the rest of the Ukraine team in the mix.

Old rivals, new faces

The men’s standing is usually a titantic battle between current double World Champion Mark Arendz (CAN) and Paralympic champions Benjamin Daviet (FRA) and Gregorii Vovchinskyi (UKR). However they now have another serious contender to watch out for with Marco Maier (GER) winning the Sprint World Title last season.

The women in the standing category are facing the same situation. Generally it is a straight fight between the members of the Ukrainian and Canadian teams for the medals. Current title holders Liudmyla Liashenko (UKR) and Natalie Wilkie (CAN) will be the favourites but Norway could throw a spanner in the works with Vilde Nilsen, para cross country world and paralympic champion, joining their ranks for the first time this season.

Ukrainian and German domination

The Visually Impaired (VI) races are the domain of two countries. In the men’s VI the Ukrainians field the most and the best athletes. Oleksandr Kazik holds all three World titles. He will be pushed by teammates like Iaroslav Reshetynskyi and Dmytro Suiarko, Trying to stop the Ukrainian charge will be Zebastian Modin (SWE), Anthony Chalencon (FRA) and Nico Messinger (GER).

The women’s VI is Germany’s big strength and will yield them many medals. Youngsters Linn Kazmeier and Leonie Walter are already World Champions and they will be pushed all the way by teammate Johanna Recktenwald. Oksana Shyshkova (UKR) and Carina Edlinger (AUT) will be hoping to prevent Germany sweeping the podium.

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The Biathlon23 Awards 2022/23!

Hello and welcome to the 10th annual Biathlon23 awards. The alternative awards for biathlon which represent the important things in the sport like the ski suits and rifle design. They are among the most prestigious and most sought after awards. Who wants a crystal globe when you can win one of these!

The awards are of course subject to a rigorous system used to ensure fairness in the nominations and winners – I pick them and it’s totally biased! Read, enjoy and feel free to disagree! 😀

Most hits on the blog (most popular):

We had a mixture of returning biathletes for interviews this season like Clare Egan, Mark Arendz, Emma Lunder and Johanna Taliherm and some new faces like Blagoy Todev and Johanna Puff and of course we must always feature a Finnish coach or the coach of Finland this time Erik Kulstad. The most popular interview however was from the very small team of one biathlete on the IBU Cup. He did sneak into the World Championships too as Great Britain’s sole representative!

Winner: Marcus Bolin Webb

Golden shot:

We all know who the good shooters are on the World Cup. Simon Eder, Sebastian Stalder, Sturla Laegreid and Niklas Hartweg for the men and Dunja Zdouc, Vannessa Voight and Karoline Knotten for the women. However according to the IBU the two biathletes with the best shooting statistics are Ella Halvarsson and Nikita Romanov with a 93% hit rate each. So how do you choose between them? The simple answer is you don’t and go for the person with a 100% hit rate. At World Championships she hit 50/50 and at World Cup finals she did the same. Admittedly she doesn’t have as many races to compete in but she does compete in them using just arm power. Imagine how hard it is to ski with only your upper body and then use your arms not only to shoot but to lift yourself back off the mat and never miss!

Winner: Kendall Gretsch

Fair Play:

There is only one choice for this season’s fair play award. At the Open European Championships in Lenzerheide this biathlete thought that she had hit all her targets in the Individual race on her standing shoot but it turns out she had missed two as she was cross firing onto another target. No one else realised either and she was declared the winner of the race. That was until her coach came forward to confirm the missed targets that cost her a two minute penalty and instead of claiming the gold she was 11th instead. It was a perfect example of fair play and both the biathlete and coach deserve a lot of respect. The organising committee in Lenzerheide gave them an award for fair play and I am too.

Winner: Michaela Carrara and Edoardo Mezzaro.

Epic Fail:

There are two contenders for this award. The first relates to the previous award when most of biathlon Twitter proclaimed Carrara as the winner of the race. They declared the winner before the jury had met and made the results official so they all had to backtrack and explain the error. Speaking of bad communication the winner of this award did exactly that. At the World Championships after most teams had announced their four athletes to compete in the sprint races it turned out they could field more in some cases thanks to a rule change. I don’t know if it got missed by the teams when all the new points rules were announced or it just wasn’t explained properly but it was a right kerfuffle!

Winner: The IBU

Best social media:

The IBU has a strong social media game and that Biathlon23 blog isn’t bad either!😉 One however stands out. We all know and love him as a really funny guy. His photoshop wizardry was on point this season too transforming his teammates into superheroes. It even spilled over into real life with his Incredible Hulk gloves. I can neither confirm or deny that this award was won for a video of half naked Norwegian biathletes in a sauna in Kontiolathi!

Winner: Vetle Christiansen

Best fall:

I think nearly all of the Finnish team had a fall at World Championships and there were many others throughout the year. The best came in the men’s Pursuit in Oberhof where this biathlete fell face first into the snow and then skidded right off the edge of the track and continued down the snow bank. He had to be helped back up on to the tracks but no damage was done to him or his equipment. Ironically this is the one time it would have been acceptable not know his whereabouts but it seems he knew exactly where he was! 😉

Winner: Andrejs Rastorgujevs

Best rifle design:

BORING! That is the best way to describe most of the rifle designs this season. We had to search hard for new contenders to rival previous winners like Marketa Davidova and Michal Krcmar. Ambroise Meunier has a Jackson Pollock inspired paint job. Either that or all his paint tins fell of a shelf onto his rifle but I will give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was intentional! The other contenders are both ex-cross country skiers who are showing the biathletes how it’s done. Anamarija Lampic in her first season has a leopard print design but not any old leopard no, it’s a snow leopard for winter! See she has thought about it! 😆 The winner is an example to all. She started the season with a Christmas design with Santa on his sleigh with his reindeer and also some snowflakes. After Christmas she changed it to just the snowflakes. Changing design mid season is proper dedication to rifle design. Shame on everyone else – SHAME! And thank goodness for our well deserved winner!

Winner: Stina Nilsson

Best ski suit:

There were quite a few good ski suits this season. The Czechs and the Slovaks both looked pretty snazzy. The Norwegian suit was a grower. It didn’t impress me at the start but I did come to like it. Bulgaria upped their ski suit game too from the horrors of previous seasons. The winner though is a cool design depicting something very famous from the country, a beautiful white fern design on the lower leg and arm and it’s unique as there is only one of them!

Winners: New Zealand.

Worst ski suit:

Well what can I say we all know who has won this but special mention has to go to Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Canada for basically having the same suit so you could hardly tell who was who! Surely there should be some vetting process preseason to make sure this doesn’t happen as it’s a nightmare for the spectators. France’s ski suit was also a bit weird as from one side you think they are Italy in blue and the other side Norway in red. Our winner is of course that total debacle of red, white and green splashed across the crotch looking like a horrible accident at dinner! How this country can still claim to be fashionable I don’t know. This is the second season in a row they have won this after their abominable ski jacket from the Olympics last year!!!

Winner: Italy

Best biathlete23:

There are two contenders both from the Ruhpolding Individual. Vetle Christiansen was second hitting 19 and only beaten by JTB like everyone else this season. The winner however won the Ruhpolding Individual with 20/20. It was her first win in 4 years putting the icing on the cake of her comeback season and it also contributed to her winning the Individual crystal globe which was the cherry on top! All thanks to bib23 of course! 😉

Winner: Lisa Vittozzi

Biggest improver:

There was a lot of new talent on the World Cup this season like Lou Jeanmonnot and Sophie Chauveau. However it’s their first full year so they don’t have anything to compare to. Anna Magnusson had a great season getting her first win and went from 33rd to 14th in the total score. Sebastian Stalder went from 40th to 17th in his second season and teammate Niklas Hartweg went from 74th to 11th but his first season on the World Cup wasn’t a full one. The winner went from 99th to 28th in the total score helped by two top 10 finishes and a new personal best of 8th.

Winner: Polona Klemencic

Best team performance:

There were a lot of good team perfomances this season. The Czech Youth men’s relay team had a stunning race in Kazakhstan at the World Championships using just 3 spares in atrocious conditions to win gold. The Norwegian men’s Relay team were strong again but then the French were great to beat them at Worlds. The Swedish women’s team were tough to beat again as were the French team who won the overall title. The winners had a stellar competition at Worlds. They won the women’s relay, they were second in the mixed relay and third in the single mixed relay and 7th in the men’s relay.

Winner: The Italian Relay teams.

Performance of the season:

There were many great performances this season. Basically every race Johannes Thingnes Boe did! Lisa Vittozzi’s Individual win. Denise Herrmann’s sprint gold at home in Oberhof. Anna Magnussson’s debut win. Niklas Hartweg for both his podiums, the list goes on. The winner had to comeback from bitter disappointment to triumph at World Championships. After being distraught after a problem with his rifle cost his team a medal in the mixed relay he turned it around to come third in the sprint and pursuit and then win gold in the mass start hitting 20/20 to beat Johannes Thingnes Boe and his speedy teammate Martin Ponsilouma. It is a fantastic lesson in self belief for any young athlete.

Winner: Sebastian Samuelsson

Biathlete of the year:

Well you might expect this to go to Johannes Thingnes Boe for his exceptional season. He won 19 races, all the sprints and seven out of eight pursuits as well as 7 medals at World Championships four of them gold. But in the words of Shania Twain “that don’t impress me much!” I mean it does but it isn’t a shock. We know how good he is and we expected a great comeback this season but it was better than anyone thought. The winner of this award however has made herself into a brilliant biathlete. We knew on any given day she could win races but they were maybe three or four days maximum a season. This season her shooting has clicked and propelled her to the top of women’s biathlon with a consistency she has never had before. That is the fruit of many years of hard work and indeed a lot of failure. Now it is success. With the Overall Title and World Championship pursuit gold there was only one winner of this award.

Winner: Julia Simon

Para-biathlete of the year:

Again there were many impressive biathletes in the para races this season. Mark Arendz, Kendall Gretsch, Linn Kazmaier and the Ukrainians Taras Rad, Bohdana Konashuk, Oleksandr Kazik and Anatolii Kovalevskyi all enjoyed success on the World Cup and at World Championships. There is one biathlete who I have to give this award to though. It’s really tough to be successful in biathlon when you are from a small nation and even harder when most of your funding gets cut. It didn’t stop this man however from getting to the World Championships and after 8 long years finally winning the silver medal in the sitting individual. It was his first ever 20/20, his first ever biathlon medal, Scotland’s first ever biathlon medal and Great Britain’s first ever biathlon medal! There may or may not have been tears!

Winner: Scott Meenagh

Junior biathlete of the year:

There are a lot of good Juniors around at the moment. Campbell Wright earned New Zealand their first ever biathlon World Title in the sprint. Nicolo Betemps won the Junior overall title. Anna Andexer won the women’s Junior overall. The winner is so good that she doesn’t even compete on the Junior Cup she races the IBU Cup where she finished 6th and made her World Cup debut in Holmenkollen finishing 44th in the sprint. She won 4 gold medals at the Junior World Championships and technically at 19 she is still a youth but she is competing with the juniors and the seniors.

Winner: Selina Grotian

Youth biathlete of the year:

It’s always hard to chose the Youth biathlete as you have to base it mainly on the World Championships. There were some fabulous performances this season. For Germany Julia Kink winning two golds and Julia Tannheimer three. The winner comes from the men’s side this year with a medal in every race. He won gold in the mixed relay and the pursuit, silver in the individual and bronze in the relay and the sprint all in his first major Championships.

Winner: Sivert Gerhardsen

Best decade long biathlon blog:

It’s been 10 years that this blog has been running bringing you news, views, interviews, race reports, previews, reviews and awards. And it has championed the cause of everyone’s favourite bib – number 23! I hate to think of the amount of hours spent watching and writing about biathlon using up a lot of free time! It wouldn’t be possible without the support of everyone who has read the nonsense over the years. Some of you have been there right from the start (I question your sanity!) and many others have joined along the way. Thank you everyone for reading! You are the bullets in my magazine and the wax on my skis! It’s been a lot of work but I have loved it! And let’s face it no one else is going to award me anything so I am giving myself an award!

Winner: Biathlon23

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Season Review 2022/23: Biathlete23!

Well what a season it has been! We had the official Biathlon23 Day on 2/3/23. We had a win and a second place finish and crowned Johannes Thingnes Boe as Biathlete23. JTB won every race he started on the World Cup in 2023 and 3/4 at World Champs. He won on Biathlon23 Day! His first ever WC win was in bib23 so he is the real life Biathlete23!

For anyone unfamiliar with Biathlete23 (where have you been?!) this blog follows the results of whichever biathlete happens to be in bib23 for each race. It treats them like one athlete and adds up the score to see how this biathlete would have performed over the year. This season the points scoring system also changed for the top six finishers but that didn’t make much difference to us!🙈

So far in Biathlete23 ‘s career:
Year 1: 802 points
Year 2: 948 points
Year 3: 760 points
Year 4: 921 points
Year 5: 774 points Year 6: 730 points (3 fewer races) Year 7: 957 points Year 8: 629 points

This season the total points were 784. The men scored 409 points putting them in 18th place in the total score between Sebastian Stalder and Simon Eder. The women scored 375 points which would put biathlete23 in 18th place between Paulina Batovska Fialkova and Karoline Knotten.

Kontiolahti was the first stop on the World Cup circuit and home biathlete Olli Hiidensalo was first in bib23 in the men’s individual. He got us off to a great start finishing 11th. Fuyuko Tachizachi raced in the women’s individual coming 34th. In the sprints there were no points finishes with Christian Gow in 78th and Kelsey Dickinson in 78th. Campbell Wright was 48th in the pursuit but Elisa Gasparin was 34th adding some points to the total. We left Finland with 44 points.

As usual Hochfilzen was the venue for the second round. In the sprint Suvi Minkkinnen was 38th and Justus Strelow was 9th. In the pursuits Sebastian Stalder and Sophia Schneider were both 24th so points scored in every race meant a total of 68 from Austria.

The next stop was Biathlete23’s spiritual home of Annecy. Three times bib23 has won the sprint race here but it wasn’t to be this season. Emilien Jacquelin came 13th in the sprint and Lisa Hauser was joint 22nd meaning she would also have bib23 in the pursuit! Amazingly she finished 22nd in that too! Olli Hiidensalo was 28th in the men’s race. In the first mass starts of the season Olli Hiidensalo got bib23 again and was 28th and home racer Sophie Chauveau was 5th! France gave us 130 points.

Post Christmas break we headed to Pokljuka. Karoline Knotten raced in the women’s sprint but was unfortunately 54th however Florent Claude was 18th in the men’s race. In the pursuits Vanessa Voigt was 26th and Serafin Wiestner 29th which all added up to 50 points in Slovenia.

It was then on to Ruhpolding for a little bit of bib23 magic! The best round biathlete23 has ever had (with a bit of help from the new points rules!). The men’s individual was the first race and Vetle Christiansen came second! The first podium of the season. If you thought that was good Lisa Vittozzi only went and won the women’s race!!! It was the pinnacle of her comeback season and all thanks to bib23. Well maybe a little bit thanks to her but mostly bib23!!!😉 In the mass starts the points kept rolling in with Vytautas Strolia finishing 6th and Emma Lunder 9th. Biathlete 23 got 237 points! Unbelievable – it’s like being Johannes Thingnes Boe!😀

Antholz was the last round before the World Championships and unsurprisingly we were back to earth with a bump! Tuuli Tomingas was 65th in the women’s sprint and Sebastian Samuelsson was 30th in the men’s. Anne Juppe was 32nd in the pursuit and Tero Seppala was 36th so we only gained 25 points in Italy.

The World Championships no longer count towards the total score so there were no points to earn in Oberhof and no medals either for biathlete23.

Nove Mesto was next on the schedule and it was double French in the sprint with Antonin Guigonnat in 7th and Lou Jeanmonnot in 13th. In the pursuits Otto Invenius just missed the points in 41st but Rebecca Passler came home in 18th to make it 87 points in total.

It was then on to Oestersund with an up and down individual! Vanessa Voigt was 6th for some flowers but Vladimir Iliev did not start the race. In the mass starts Elisa Gasparin was 25th and Philipp Nawrath 22nd. Sweden gave us 70 points.

The final round of the World Cup was in Holmenkollen and Michal Krcmar got 10th in the men’s sprint for a good start. However the women’s race was moved from Friday to Saturday due to fog so the women’s pursuit was cancelled. In the sprint Deedra Irwin was 86th and in the men’s pursuit Vebjoern Soerum was 33rd. In the mass starts David Zobel was 17th and Elisa Gasparin was 26th so we got 73 points at the last round in Norway.

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