Pokljuka 2016: The Relays!

Kremna rezina, the famous Bled cream cake, is one of the best cream cakes in the world (I have actually tasted it myself!) and so should be the prize for the two winning teams in the Relays. Who wants flowers in the winter they can have cream cake after 3 hard days of racing and lots of it! 🙂

The Relays finished off a great round two of the World Cup under sunny skies in Pokljuka. The Men’s Relay was first and France came out the winners. Martin Fourcade won 3 out of 3 races but it was his teammates this time that won it for him, he just had to finish it off! Beatrix had a solid first leg keeping in touch with the leaders who were Russia. Fillon Maillet took over and after a great clearance in the standing shoot took the lead. Desthieux did well to keep the advantage before handing over to Fourcade.

The Russians were second but could have challenged for first but for a tough third leg prone shoot. Eliseev missed 3 targets as did Benedikt Doll for Germany. Doll actually made up a lot of ground for the German team who used 11 spares in total but his fast skiing gave Schempp the chance to lead the team home in third.

My personal highlights of the Relay however were the performance of the Gow brothers, Christian and Scott from Canada who didn’t miss a target in legs 1 and 2 and had Canada in sixth, the leg of Klemen Bauer which had Slovenian in 7th, Giuseppe Montello and Thomas Bormolini having fantastic 3rd and 4th legs for Italy and of course the crash. Sergey Bocharnikov of Belarus fell on the fast downhill and Tuomas Gronman of Finland skied into him and went flying through the air and landed pretty much on his face! Fortunately both were OK but it was a spectacular crash to watch.

The Women’s Relay saw Laura Dahlmeier also win all three races here in Pokljuka. Anything you can do Fourcade! The Women’s Relay was closer than the Men’s and saw a different team finish each leg in the lead. The Czech Republic with Eva Puskarcikova led the way after the first, then it was Ukraine with Yuliia Dzhima, then Celia Aymonier for France and the most important one to win was Laura Dahlmeier who crossed the line first for Germany. She made up a 14 second deficit and won by 10 seconds.

France were second and Ukraine were third. These two teams only used 3 spares so were very impressive on the range. The Czech team worked their way back to 4th after 2 penalty loops on their second leg and Norway had to do the same after 2 penalty loops on their first leg to finish 5th.

Special mention must go to home favourites Teja Gregorin who had a tremendous first leg to hand over in second place and to Andreja Mali who raced her final Relay before retiring to move into coaching.

Well Pokljuka was fun, wasn’t it? Might be nice to have someone else on the top of the podium in Nove Mesto though! Can anyone stop Fourcade and Dahlmeier? Watch and see on Thursday!

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Pokljuka 2016: The Pursuits!

Like idrijski žlikrofi, Slovenian potato dumplings, the Pursuit races in Pokljuka were stuffed full of tasty stuff! The men’s race was in the morning and the Martin Fourcade bus keeps on rolling. With no wins in Pokljuka for years two come along at once. I ran out of words to describe this man a long time ago but his mental strength is astonishing. I think he is one of the toughest sports people in the world when it come to the mental side of the sport. He takes risks and I think he isn’t afraid to lose. He pushes himself and his opponents to their limits but he is usually the one who comes out on top.

It was the same today. Anton Shipulin gave him a good run for his money and watching them shoot clean side by side was fantastic. However on the final shoot Shipulin missed a target and denied us a great finish but Fourcade was imperious today. Second place went to Emil Hegle Svendsen, remember him? It’s great to see him back up the front shooting 20/20 and holding off Shipulin who was third. It was a great display of shooting all round at the front.

Taking sixth place was Michael Roesch of Belguim who also shot clean. Lars Birkeland came from 32nd to finish 13th, Julian Eberhard went from 47th to 21st and Ondrej Moravec from 31st to 14th.

The women raced later in the day and Laura Dahlmeier made it a double victory when she beat Kaisa Makarainen by around 17 seconds. They both missed 2 targets but Dahlmeier is very strong at the moment and hard to beat. In third was the Czech biathlete Eva Puskarcikova who made the podium for the first time on the World Cup missing just 1 shot and beating Marie Dorin Habert in a close finish.

Dorin Habert had a good race also missing one to move up from 17th to 4th. Susan Dunklee took 5th from Lisa Hauser in 6th who is continuing her great early season form. Yuliia Dzhima went from 28th to 11th, Galina Vishnevskaya from 25th to 13th, Veronika Vitkova from 30th to 15th, Iryna Kryuko from 33rd to 18th, Maren Hammerschmidt from 41st to 24th, Anna Magnusson from 47th to 28th and Mari Laukkanen from 56th to 35th.

We were treated to two good races from the men and women in Pokljuka and as there are Relays tomorrow it means that Laura Dahlmeier leads the women’s overall by 69 points from Kaisa Makarainen and Martin Fourcade leads Johannes Boe by 95 points.

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Pokljuka 2016: The Sprints!

Like a Slovenian grandmother cooking kranjska klobasa (which I am reliably informed is a delicious Slovenian sausage!), the beginning of World Cup 2 in Pokljuka got off to a sizzling start! The men got us underway this week with the Sprint race and once again Martin Fourcade was the winner. However it was his first ever victory in Pokljuka. After all his success it’s nice that he can still do something he has never done before.

Second place went to Johannnes Thingnes Boe who was 13.7 seconds behind Fourcade although if he had paced his race better he could have potentially won. It looked like he went out too fast and came home too slow when Fourcade did the oppostite. Third went to Anton Shipulin his best result this season.

The shooting was excellent with the Top 9 shooting clean. Michal Krcmar had another great race in 9th and Matvey Eliseev was impressive in 10th. Home favourite Klemen Bauer shot clean in 12th to get his best result in a while. Switzerland had two biathletes in the Top 30, Wiestner and Dolder and France had five. The Gow brothers from Canada both scored points and Samuelsson of Sweden got another Top 30 in his second World Cup. Matthias Dorfer got 37th and scored points in his first World Cup.

The women’s race came later in the afternoon and the dastardly Laura Dahlmeier ruined my day and that of Justine Braisaz by beating her by 3.5 seconds. It would have been Braisaz’s first win and also a win for bib23 which represents this blog! Third place went to Marte Olsbu who has made an amazing recovery after having her appendix out just before the start of the season. Maybe she skis faster without it!

Sixth place went to Anastasiya Kuzmina on her first race back and there were impressive performances from Eva Puskarcikova in 8th, Celia Aymonier in 9th and Miriam Goessner in 10th. Another German Denise Hermann was 18th in her first ever World Cup race after moving from cross-country to biathlon, sensible woman!

Well that was a fun way to start off the World Cup in Pokljuka and hopefully the Pursuits tomorrow will be as tasty as some potica! (Slovenian dessert!)

Big thank you to Biathlon Pokljuka for providing the culinary highlights!

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Oestersund 2016: The Pursuits!

Like a spoonful of Lingonberry jam the end of the weekend was surprisingly good! We ended a great start to the World Cup season in Oestersund with the Pursuit races and they didn’t disappoint.

First off was the women’s race with Marie Dorin Habert staring first. That only lasted until the first shoot however when she missed 2 shots and blew her chances of winning. Circling like sharks behind her were Makarainen, Koukalova and Dahlmeier. Only Laura and Gabi shot clear however and the win from then was between those two.

In the end it was the cool head of Koukalova who kept it together on the range. She missed only 1 target on the third shoot but never lost the lead. Surprisingly Dahlmeier missed two targets and so couldn’t fight for the win. She did have to fight for second though as Dorothea Wierer came from 19th place shooting the perfect 20/20 to finish third. They left the final shoot together but Dalmeier managed to pull away on the final lap. Makarainen came home in 5th missing 4 shots in total and Dorin Habert was 7th missing 6 targets after shooting so well in the Sprint the day before.

In fourth place was Switzerland’s Lena Haecki who had an outstanding race. She shot 20/20 and moved from 12th to 4th to get her personal best result on the World Cup.

Other great gains were made by Yuliia Dzhima who went from 21st to 9th, Veronika Vitkova from 35th to 18th, Anastasia Zagoruiko from 43rd to 29th and Clare Egan from 44th to 30th.

Unexpectedly the men’s race was even better. Thanks to Martin Fourcade missing 4 shots we got a new winner. The beneficiary was Russian’s Anton Babikov who got his first ever World Cup victory coming from 7th and missing just 1 shot. His teammate Maxim Tsvetkov moved from 11th into second with a perfect shoot. Fourcade still came third despite his misses.

Anton Shipulin made it 3 Russians in the top 10 finishing 8th and Simon Schempp finally turned up getting 9th place. Michal Krcmar had a fantastic racing starting in 38th he finished 7th, and Johannes Boe went from 30th to 10th. Jean Guillaume Beatrix went from 23rd to 11th, Henrik L’Abee Lund from 58th to 19th, Evgeniy Garanichev from 49th to 30th and Roman Rees from 57th to 36th.

So the first World Cup round in Oestersund is over already! Too quick! We move to Pokljuka next week with Martin Fourcade and Laura Dahlmeier in the yellow bibs leading the overall title race.

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Oestersund 2016: The Sprints!

Like eating pickled herring for breakfast, the Sprint races in Oestersund were ridiculous! Ridiculously good I mean -that’s the biathlon not the herring! 😉

Sweden definitely served up some great entertainment today. Without the wind the shooting was much easier and saw a lot more biathletes shoot clean. In the women’s race Marie Dorin Habert went off like a rocket taking time out of most of her rivals on the tracks. She also had the composure to shoot clean which took her a bit longer than she might have liked on her standing shoot taking plenty of time over her final target.

She won by 11.4 seconds in the end but it could have been different if Kaisa Makarainen hadn’t missed 1 target. She skied faster than Dorin Habert but the miss meant she couldn’t win. In third was reigning champion Gabriela Koukalova whose shooting was good but her skiing wasn’t as good as the first two.

Fourth place went to Laura Dahlmeier who also missed 1 target which meant she couldn’t challenge for first either. Another impressive display from Lisa Hauser saw her finish fifth and Lena Haecki also had a great race in 12th. Sweden has another two ladies in the Top 25, with Anna Magnusson in 14th and Emma Nilsson, in 24th to please the home crowd.

The home crowd were even more pleased in the Men’s Sprint when Freddie Lindstroem finally got back on the podium after 3 years! He shot clean to finish in second but unfortunately for him so did Martin Fourcade and he won the race by a ridiculous 41.5 seconds! Third place went to Arnd Peiffer who also shot clean.

Teammate Benedick Doll was fourth with one miss and Julian Eberhard was fifth with two misses just 46 seconds behind Fourcade. Simon Desthieux was 8th and Simon Fourcade 10th making it a good day for the French team. Fourcade’s main rivals all finished outside the Top 20 except for Svendsen who was 14th making it an even better day for the French!

There was however another ridiculous result this time from Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson making his World Cup debut aged 19. He shot clean and came 19th just 1 minute and 9 seconds behind Fourcade! I told you to watch out for him!

So tomorrow is the final day in Oestersund and whatever you do, DO NOT miss the Women’s Pursuit! Marie, Kaisa, Gabi and Laura starting within 25 seconds of each other!! It has the makings of another ridiculous race! There is the men’s race too but Martin Fourcade will probably win again! Has he won the World Cup already?

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Oestersund 2016:The Individuals!

Seriously the IBU are pretty mean, aren’t they? They give us two Relays on Sunday and then nothing until Wednesday! Luckily the wait is over and the first individual races got under way with well – the Individual races!

The Women’s race was first and there was a smörgåsbord of talent on view. (That’s right -I used smörgåsbord in a review of a race in Sweden!) Wednesday was windy but it’s Oestersund if it’s not windy, it’s crap as some might say. 😉 The wind is great, not for the biathletes for the fans. It helps to throw up some different results and introduce us to some new faces.

The winner didn’t need an introduction of course. Laura Dahlmeier won the race missing 2 targets but still managed to win by nearly 16 seconds from Anais Bescond who only missed one. In third place we got the surprise result. Dayra Yurkevich from Belarus got her first ever podium finish and deservedly so as she shot clean and was the only woman to do so.

Home biathlete Hanna Oberg came 8th which is a fantastic result for her. With Anna Magnusson and Mona Brorsson also in the Top 25 it was a good race for the Swedes. Joanne Reid from the USA also had a great race finishing in 29th position. The Austrian team did really well too with personal bests for Lisa Hauser 7th, Fabienne Hartweger 22nd and Julia Schwaiger 28th.

Apart from Dahlmeier it wasn’t the best day for the pre-race favourites with Koukalova in 17th, Dorin Habert in 19th, Makarainen in 24th and Wierer in 31st.

The wind was unpredictable again on Thursday for the men but the result was very predictable with Martin Fourcade winning. He is hard to beat in the Individual and rarely loses in this format. In second place was Johannes Boe who had the opportunity to win but missed twice in his final shoot. Third place went to Vladimir Chepelin of Belarus taking his first ever podium missing just 1 target. In fact it was his first Top 10 result. If only there was someone who had written a blog post about him before the start of the World Cup predicting such a possibility! 😉

There were another two Norwegians in the Top 5 with Lars Birkeland in 4th and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in 5th. I really must find out what magic he is using so I can bottle it and sell it. What a legend! There were equally impressive performances from Cornel Puchianu in 14th and Tuomas Gronman in 20th.

It wasn’t such a good day for some of Fourcades main rivals however. Shipulin finished in 11th but missed 3 targets on the final shoot and could have got more points. Simon Schempp missed 7 and finished outside the points in 46th and Svendsen didn’t even start the race.

The Sprints take place on Saturday for both the men and women but the big question is – can I get pickled herring into my race report? Wait and see….

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Oestersund 2016: The Relays.

Finally! You wait ages for a biathlon race and two come along at once! That’s right biathlon is back and the season got under way in Oestersund, Sweden. The Mixed Relay started us off and that was followed a little later by the Single Mixed Relay just to ease everyone in gently.

What I thought might be an appetizer followed by a main course actually turned out to be a main course followed by the cheeseboard instead of the dessert platter. What I am trying to say is that the Mixed Relay was better than the Single Mixed Relay (unless you prefer French cheese!).

The Mixed Relay got off to a good start with the women fighting for the lead. In the end it was the USA’s Susan Dunklee who made the hand over in first place but with less than 7 seconds covering the Top 5 teams. The second leg saw Dorothea Wierer hit the front and she handed over a lead of around 5 seconds from Birkeland and Dahlmeier.

Lukas Hofer maintained Italy’s lead up until his standing shoot which was heartbreaking. Having cleared the first 4 targets he thought the 5th was down and almost had his rifle back on his back when he saw taht it wasn’t! He then had to reset his position and preceded to miss all three spares and go on the penalty loop. Taking advantage was the evergreen Bjoerndalen who gave Norway a 17 second cushion over Doll of Germany.

Johannes Boe wouldn’t give up that lead with some fast shooting and skiing. Second place went to Germany with a bearded Arnd Peiffer. (Do you think he is after some kind of award!) In third place came Italy after a great leg by Dominik Windisch who beat Anton Shipulin in a sprint to the line to save teammate Hofer from a bad evening! France were 5th, Sweden 6th, Czech Republic 7th, USA 8th, Switzerland 9th and Ukraine 10th.

Next up came the Single Mixed Relay. France put in their top team of Martin Fourcade and Marie Dorin-Habert and they really dominated the race. They were never out of the top three teams in any leg. They won by 16 seconds and it could have been more with a few more hits from Dorin Habert. In second place was a strong Austrian team of Lisa Hauser and Simon Eder who both shot really quickly and well just using 2 spares between them.

Third went to Germany with Preuss and Lesser. The race for the minor places was actually better with Sweden eventually taking 4th, Kazakhkstan taking 5th, Switzerland came from 18th place to 6th, Canada were 7th, Russia 8th, Ukraine 9th and Belarus 10th. If you are wondering what happened to Norway, Ingrid Tandrevold fell on the first of her loops and they never recovered and came home 11th.

So that concludes the first days racing of World Cup 1 in Oestersund. The next race is on Wednesday and it’s the Women’s Individual followed by the Men’s race on Thursday!

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Season 2016/17 Preview: Women

It’s almost time! Just a few days until the start of the brand new biathlon season and it’s time for the women’s preview!
Unlike the predictable Men’s World Cup the Women’s World Cup is really exciting! It’s very hard to choose a winner this season and it should be a great one to watch.

Last season saw Gabriela Soukalova win her first ever Overall Title but I’m sorry to say there is no chance of Soukalova winning this season. Why not? Only because she has changed her name to Koukalova!!! She has every chance of winning again but it will be far from easy.

This season they are lining up to win the big Crystal Globe. With Darya Domracheva missing the start of the season after giving birth to her first child in October the race for the title will be between five or six biathletes.

As defending champion Koukalova will be the favourite this season. However it is often said that retaining a title is more difficult than winning the first one. She will have a lot more expectation on her shoulders this time and that means added pressure. Her committments outside of training may also play a factor if she hasn’t had enough time to prepare properly for the races.

Challenging Gabi will be of course Kaisa Makarainen who happily decided to continue her biathlon career. She is the most experienced of all the contenders and has won the overall title twice before. However she was the favourite last season and she didn’t deliver struggling with her shooting. She is still the fastest skier though and that will give her a big chance.

After the experience of Kaisa we have the youth of Laura Dahlmeier. She had a great season last year on the World Cup and at the World Championships. She is a fantastic shot and copes well under pressure. The biggest barrier to Laura however is her health. She usually misses one or two World Cup rounds through illness and you can’t give away that many points if you want to win the overall.

Marie Dorin Habert was amazing last season and pushed Gabi all the way coming second in the Total Score just 46 points behind. If she repeats her success then she possibly has the best chance of winning the overall title. If she can add a little more consistency she could make it a double World Title for France alongside Fourcade.

Trying to stop all of these ladies will be Dorothea Wierer. She won the small Crystal Globe for the Individual last season and was third overall on the World Cup. She was however over 100 points behind the winner. This means she needs to improve her points scoring over the whole season. Even if she doesn’t win the races she has to finish ahead of her main rivals as often as possible. The Mass Start was probably her weakest event last season but if she can improve her head to head racing she will have an opportunity to take the title.

There are others who we expect to do well like Tiril Eckhoff. She didn’t have a great World Cup last time and finished 11th overall. She will need to work on her shooting to move forward as we know she is a great skier. Franziska Hildebrand will be hoping to better her 5th place in the Overall and if she has a similar season this year she just might do it.

Further down the field Susan Dunklee will be hoping to win her first World Cup race after coming second in Presque Isle last time. Rosanna Crawford will be doing her best to get that elusive first podium finish to improve her personal best of 4th.

Looking to see a big improvement in results will be the Russian women’s team who had a hard time last season. Teja Gregorin and Valj Semerenko will also be hoping for better results this season.

Keep an eye out for the youngsters doing well this season. Galina Vishnevskaya, Lucie Charvatova, Julia Schwaiger, Paulina Fialkova, Ingrid Tandrevold and Lisa Vittozzi will all be out to impress.

There are a lot of others biathletes who will want to have a good season like Karin Oberhofer, Julia Dzhyma, Krystyna Guzik, Olena Pidhrushna, Veronika Vitkova, Anais Bescond and Franziska Preuss and others who will be missing like Weronika Nowakowska and Vita Semerenko but it should be a really exciting season for the women and I can’t wait for it to start!

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Season 2016/17 Preview: Men

Oestersund, Pokljuka, Nove Mesto, Oberhof, Ruhpolding, Antholz, PyeongChang, Tyumen and Olso! Are you ready? It’s almost time for the new biathlon season to begin! That means it must be time for a season preview too so here it is!

Looking back over previous previews they all read more or less like this. Martin Fourcade is the red hot favourite. If he stays fit and healthy all season he will win the Overall Title for the 6th year in a row. Potential challengers are Johannes Thingnes Boe, Tarjei Boe, Emil Hegle Svendsen, Simon Schempp and Anton Shipulin. They are all capable of beating Fourcade in a single race but don’t seem to have the consistency over a whole season to win the big Crystal globe.

Preview finished!

Only joking! As the top places are nearly always the same for the men I decided that this year’s preview should move away from the elite and see what’s happening a little bit behind them. Who are the up and coming biathletes to look out for? Who could get their first win or first podium? Who should be doing better? That’s what I am going to look at before season 2016/17 gets under way.

It’s sometimes hard to believe but there are some well established biathletes who have yet to win a race on the World Cup. The most famous is probably Simon Fourcade. He has achieved many podium results but never higher than second. Surely this season he will get to the top step. Fellow Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet has also come within a toenail of winning but again second place is his best result. Germany’s Benedikt Doll will be hoping to grab his first win. Tim Burke is another who will want to come first instead of second place as will Sergey Semenov and Benjamin Weger.

Expect a strong season from the Austrian team. Simon Eder was 5th last season in the overall title and Dominik Landertinger was 9th. With Julian Eberhard getting his first win and Sven Grossegger achieving a personal best of 5th they will be a dangerous squad this year.

Hoping to get their first taste of the podium are Andrejs Rastorgujevs who has a few 4th positions to his name already. Klemen Bauer also has a personal best of fourth as does Simon Desthieux and Krasimir Anev.

Scoring points on a more consistent basis will be the goal for biathletes like Mario Dolder, Leif Nordgren, Macx Davies, Kalev Ermits and Martin Otcenas.

Make sure you look out for some of the younger biathletes this season who will be trying their best to impress their coaches and the fans. Watch out for Sean Doherty to continue his rise to the top. The likes of Rene Zahkna, Rok Trsan and Fabien Claude will be pushing hard to do well. Keep an eye out too for Sebastian Samuelsson who has been picked for the Swedish team to make his debut in Oestersund and Felix Leitner who will start his first World Cup race for Austria.

On the other hand it’s about time Freddie Lindstrom had a better season. We haven’t seen him on the podium since 2013. Lukas Hofer didn’t have a great season individually either and it would be good to see him back on form. Jakov Fak will be hoping to improve as will Ondrej Moravec.

There are many more biathletes to watch out for but too many to mention here. The Germans are always dangerous with Peiffer and Lesser showing some good form in patches last time.

Last but not least expect new dad Ole Einar Bjoerndalen to pop up with a few podium finishes and don’t be surprised if he adds more World Championships medals to his vast collection in Hochfilzen. That’s if he can cope with the sleepless nights of course!

Hopefully it will a great season with some more first time winners and some great races. The title race might not be close but we can look forward to some great battles in individual races. Bring it on boys!!!

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Lee In-bok!

Now that those pesky Summer Olympics are over we can look forward to the real Olympics – The Winter Games! I mean is sport without snow even sport at all? Well that’s for the philosophers among you to decide but someone who will be looking forward to the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang more than most people is Lee In-bok.

The South Korean biathlete will have the opportunity to compete in a home Olympic Games, a chance that not many sportspeople get. Lee was born in the North Jeolla Province of South Korea on the 30th of March 1984.

He is a vastly experienced member of the South Korean team. He has already competed at two Olympic Games for his country in Vancouver and Sochi. His best result at the Olympics was 65th place in the Sprint race in Vancouver.

He has also taken part in six biathlon World Championships starting in Antholz in 2007 going through to Oslo Holmenkollen last season. His best result for these Championships was 71st in the Sprint race in Nove Mesto in 2013.

On the World Cup he has achieved two Top 60 positions to date but is still waiting for his first points scoring finish. He was 53rd in the Hochfilzen Individual race in 2008/09 which is his career best result. He was also 60th in 2007/08 in the Sprint race at home in PyeongChang.

It will be a very important couple of seasons for Lee In-bok. He will be nearly 34 when the Olympics take place and so he will have to make sure he stays fit so that he can arrive at his home Games in good form.

This season he should be looking to grab a few more Top 60 finishes and obviously the best chance to do this is in the races that he is guaranteed to start – the Sprint and the Individual. There is also the chance to compete in Hochfilzen, the scene of his best finish to date, in the World Championships. Hopefully he can achieve another good result there to boost his confidence before he goes into the Olympic year.

As you will see from his results he won’t be threatening the podium in PyeongChang but it is a chance for him to get his own best result and with the motivation of a home crowd it could see him make it into the Top 40 in one of the events. Possibly more importantly it will give him the chance to showcase biathlon to his fellow Koreans and hopefully make it more popular and encourage more interest and investment in the sport there.

Only three people can win medals in any one race at the Olympics but they are, or should be, about a lot more than that. It is a chance for all the biathletes to show where all their hard work and training has got them and to hopefully encourage more people to take up the sport. It’s about participation and fairness and unity. Not everyone can win a medal but everyone who takes part and especially those like Lee In-bok who are competing in their own country can try and give the best performance of their career.

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