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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Season Review 2022/23: Men!

He’s back! I was going to say he’s back to normal but actually he is better than ever. Of course it’s Johannes Thingnes Boe we are talking about. What a season he has had. His best ever and biathlon’s best ever.

In the first race of the season, the Individual in Kontiolahti, he missed four shots and finished 12th and we thought maybe last season’s troubles hadn’t gone away. Very wrong! As soon as he raced the Kontiolahti Sprint we knew that Boe was back and how! This season he won 19 races which is new record for the amount of wins in a season. It was his own record of 16 that he broke! At the World Championships he won the Sprint, the Pursuit, the Individual, the Mixed Relay, the Single Mixed Relay and was second in the Men’s relay and third in the mass start. He is the first man to win seven medals in seven races at the World Championships.

Of course all these results mean he won the Overall Title comfortably with 1589 points. That’s 491 more than his nearest rival. It’s his fourth big crystal globe. Along with that he won the small crystal globes for the Sprint and Pursuit winning all eight Sprint races and seven out of eight Pursuits.

Second place overall went to Sturla Laegreid with 1098 points. He matches his finish from last season when he was runner up to Quentin Fillon Maillet. He had a stellar season again with 1 win and 15 podiums. At World Championships he won gold in the Mixed Relay, silver in the Pursuit, Individual and Men’s Relay and bronze in the Sprint. There was nothing he could do against Johannes Boe but his season was still amazing.

Third place in the overall went to Vetle Christiansen. He finished fourth last season so has made it on to the podium this time. He finished with 935 points, 1 win and 7 podiums. He also won his first discipline titles taking the small crystal globe for the Individual and the Mass Start which is a fantastic achievement in this JTB dominated season.

The blue bib for the under 25’s was hotly contested this season and at the final World Cup round it was clinched by Niklas Hartweg with 608 points ahead of Tommaso Giacomel in second with 592 points.

The Silver bib for the over 33’s was retained by Tarjei Boe. He finished the season with 684 points and was 6th in the total score.

Unfortunately with Johannes Boe’s dominance on the World Cup there was no room for any first time winners. The only other men who won a race were Vetle Christiansen, Sturla Laegreid, Johannes Dale, Benedikt Doll, Martin Ponsiluoma and importantly Sebastian Samuelsson who won the gold medal in the Mass Start at the World Championships.

Happily we did see some new faces on the podium though. In Kontiolahti Niklas Hartweg and David Zobel were second and third in the Individual. Tommaso Giacomel was second in the Oestersund Individual and Eric Perrot was third in the Oestersund Mass Start.

The men’s relay title went to Norway again with 450 points ahead of Germany and France. The Mixed Relay Score was won by France in front of Norway and Switzerland. Norway were the winners of the Nations Cup with 8993 points.

On the IBU Cup Endre Stroemsheim won the Total Score. He was also the winner of the Sprint and Individual standings. The Pursuit and Mass Start scores went to Martin Uldal. The Super Sprint score went to Lucas Fratzcher.

On the Junior Cup Nicolo’ Betemps won the Total Score as well as the Sprint and shared the Pursuit score with Martin Nevland. Hans Koellner won the Individual Score.

In the Para biathlon the winners of the crystal globes were Taras Rad in the sitting, Mark Arendz in the standing and Anatolii Kovalevskyi in the VI.

There was one retirement midway through the season and that was Jules Burnotte. At the end of the season Serafin Wiestner also decided to end his career.

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Season Preview 2022/23:Men!

Finally the biathlon season is almost upon us! Which means it’s time for the season preview. The men’s Overall Title is back on the line so let’s look at the serious contenders to pick up the big crystal globe.

Number one on the list is Quentin Fillon Maillet. He is the reigning champion and was the outstanding biathlete last season not only on the World Cup but also at the Olympics. He picked up 8 World Cup wins and was so much more consistent than he has ever been before. There is no questioning his talent but does he have the ability to back it up and win again? If he performs the way he did last season then he has a great chance of doing so.

However the Frenchman has never been in the position of favourite before. As we see so often in a pursuit it is sometimes easier to be the hunter than the leader. We will see if he can cope with this different kind of pressure.

After all Fillon Maillet’s success last season he has also been in great demand. He has been seen at all the major French sporting events like the Tour de France and the French Open. He will also have had more requests from the media and his sponsors for his time and that can affect training and focus. It will be interesting to see how he has managed all the trappings of success.

Fillon Maillet will have three main rivals for the total score. The first of these is Sturla Holm Laegreid. He was runner up in the last two seasons and will pose a threat. The points margin was over 200 between first and second though and shows Laegreid’s weakness which was consistency. He started the season with a win but didn’t get another until the final round of the World Cup. Those were his only two wins which does not get you and overall title. We know Sturla can shoot but his ski speed needs to improve if he realistically wants to challenge for the number one spot.

In third place last season was Sebastian Samuelsson. He was pretty similar to Laegreid. The Swede got a great start to the season but then had a dip in the middle before finishing stronger. Again he needs to improve his consistency especially in the individual race which provided his worst two results last time around.

Samuelsson has worked hard on ski speed and it has paid off but if something let’s him down it is his shooting. His prone was 86% and standing 81% compared to QFM with 88% and 90%. The standing results are a crucial difference as they determine who gets out of the range quickest on the final loop.

Normally I wouldn’t include the biathlete who finished 13th on the total score last year on my list of challengers for the overall but when that guy is 3-time champion Johannes Thingnes Boe you can’t leave him out! He had a dismal World Cup season by his high standards and didn’t even complete the season. In the last 9 seasons he has never finished lower than 5th so you can see the difference!

It all depends on which Johannes turns up at the start line. If it’s ’16 wins in a season’ Johannes we have a competition on our hands but if it is last season’s ‘can’t hit anything’ Johannes then QFM could have an easy ride. One thing is for sure though and that is Boe will be desperate to get his title back!

Vetle Christiansen was 4th in the Overall last season and he could possibly push for a podium this time around. We know he is an amazing shot but his ski speed is not good enough compared to the other top guys to give him a chance of first place.

Someone who does have the ski speed and the tactics is Emilien Jacquelin. What he doesn’t seem to be able to put together is a consistent run of results. He can be exceptional on his day but he can also have a disaster and that doesn’t translate into an overall title. He will be aiming to move up from fifth place this season and is easily capable of reaching the overall podium.

Tarjei Boe was 6th last season but at his stage in his career he will be concentrating on the World Championships. With 7th placed Simon Desthieux and 10th placed Erik Lesser both retiring there are some places to be filled in the Top 10. Benedikt Doll will hope to better 8th place and the likes of Johannes Keuhn and Fabien Claude will be trying to get themselves into the Top 10 too.

After a great end to last season and finishing 9th overall Sivert Bakken unfortunately had problems with a covid vaccination in May and hasn’t trained much over the summer. He probably won’t be back until after Christmas which is a shame but hopefully he will be back healthy and strong then.

After a tough season last year hopefully we will see Johannes Dale return to form. He spend most of last season on the IBU Cup and missed out on a chance to complete at the Olympics. It won’t be easy though as the Norwegian team is stacked with talent but he has been named on the squad for the first World Cup so let’s hope he can stay there.

As for the rest of the field look out for debut wins for Fabien Claude, Filip Andersen and Felix Leitner. Pushing for a first podium will be the likes of German trio Philipp Horn, Philipp Nawrath and Roman Rees as well as Aleksandr Andersen. There is also potential for a first podium for Eric Perrot and keep an eye on Christian Gow for a top three finish possibly in the individual. And lastly I must insist that this is the season when Sean Doherty finally fulfils his junior potential and gets on that World Cup podium!

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10 years of B23: Sebastian Samuelsson!

Biathlon23 last spoke to Sebastian Samuelsson in 2017 during his debut season on the World Cup. Since then he has won 2 Olympic medals, 5 World Championship medals and has a best finish of third in the total score.

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Everyone reading this loves biathlon but why do you love biathlon?

I love competing and biathlon is perfect with the physical skiing and the mental shooting! 

You started last season really well but didn’t seem to maintain it. What were the reasons for that do you think?

I was bad in the Olympics, I think I struggled a lot with the altitude and conditions there. But other than that I would say I was good the whole season – if not I wouldn’t be number 3 in the overall! 

What was your Olympic experience like in Beijing with all the restrictions and tough conditions?

If you only consider the sport the Olympics were great! But it was very special with all the Covid-restrictions. The temperature and wind made everything tougher but I think we had fair races!

Can we talk about the PyeongChang 2018! What are your memories from those Olympics?

It was very surreal, I came there just enjoying the Olympic spirit, to leave with two medals was something I couldn’t have dreamed about before! 

The Swedish team is really open training with the Brits in the past and now Lukas Hofer. I see why it’s good for them by why is it good for you?

Hofer has been contributed a lot to our team! It’s always interesting to learn from each other and different training cultures/mindsets. 

You are really outspoken and involved in anti-doping. Many athletes probably feel the same but why have you decided to be so vocal when others are not?

For me it’s important to use my voice as an professional athlete to try and make the sport better for the next generation, I see it as a responsibility and I’m not afraid of saying what I think! 

What ambitions do you have left in biathlon? You have more Olympics in you but do you want an Overall Title too?

To win the overall World Cup is something I would really want to do in my career! It’s a tough goal but I think I have a good chance to make it!

Which song would you add to the stadium playlist and which song would you remove?

Hmm, I like a lot of the songs playing! I would add something with Adele and take away a Norwegian song 😉

Have you tried all the sweets from that shop in Oestersund? What’s your favourite?

Hmm, I don’t know which one you are referring to! But I love candy! 

Have you got a name for your rifle yet? You called your dog Albus so surely it has a Harry Potter inspired name by now!

Hmm sorry, but I would take suggestions!

What are your TOP10 favourite things?

Top 10-favorite things, not in a special order: Family, biathlon, tacos, golf, nature, rest days, Netflix series Suits, restaurants, economy and late evenings!

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Summer World Champs 2022: Ruhpolding!

The Summer World Championships got underway on the 25th of August in Ruhpolding with 4 days of action on the schedule.

The first races on Thursday were the junior men and women’s Super Sprints. The competitors in the qualifiers were split into 4 heats. The top 6 from each heat progressed into the final alongside the remaining fastest 6 athletes from across all the heats.

The men’s title went to Lithuania with Maksim Formin who shot 0. With 2 misses Fabien Kaskel from Germany was second and despite 5 misses on the range American Maxime Germain was third. Taking the win for the women was Selina Marie Kastl of Germany with 3 misses. Slovenia’s Lena Lena Repinc was second with 2 misses and third place went to Lora Hristova of Bulgaria with 5 shots missed.

On Friday it was the turn of the seniors to take on the super sprint. They only had one qualifying race with the top 30 going through to the final. It was a close race for the men with six people in with a chance of winning right up to the line! In the end it was home favourite Philipp Horn who took the gold medal followed by Swedish pair Sebastian Samuelsson and Peppe Femling. There was just 1.5 seconds between the top six at the end of an exciting race.

In the women’s race it was an Italian double with Dorothea Wierer taking the win by just over 5 seconds from Lisa Vittozzi. Third place went to Finland’s Nastassia Kinnunen who was the only one on the podium to shoot 20!

On Saturday it was time for the conventional sprints with all 4 taking place. The junior men were racing first and gold went to Jonas Maracek from the Czech Republic. He shot 10/10 as did his teammate in second place Tomas Mikyska. Fabien Kaskel made the podium again in third with 9/10.

The junior women’s sprint was dominated by the home team with all three podium spots going to Germany! Selina Grotian took the win with Selina Marie Kastl in second and Johanna Puff third. The top two both hit all 10 while Puff hit 9.

In the senior men’s sprint Sebastian Samuelsson and Peppe Femling both moved up a spot from yesterday with a Swedish 1-2. Both missed 1 target but Samuelsson took the victory by 8.3 seconds. Bronze went to Switzerland’s Niklas Hartweg also with a single miss.

The senior women were last to race in the sprint and they got the forecasted rain. It was another Italian victory but this time from Lisa Vittozzi. Despite 1 miss on the range she managed to beat clean shooting Marketa Davidova into second place by 2.4 seconds. Third place was shared between Paulina Batovska Fialkova and Lena Hacki Gross who both shot clean and finished on the same time. They also share double barrelled new surnames after getting married in the summer!

The programmes diverged on Sunday with the juniors racing the pursuit and the seniors the Gala Mass Start which is just a mass start! The junior men were first on track and it was another Czech 1-2 but this time in the reverse order with Tomas Mikyska first and Jonas Marecek second. Both hit 19/20 as did Ukraine’s Vitalii Mandzyn in third moving up from 8th.

The junior women’s pursuit went to Germany who have won all the competitions here. It was Selina Marie Kastk who returned to the top step even with 17/ 20 moving up from 4th. Johanna Puff went from third to second with 18/20 and Czech athlete Tereza Vobornikova went from 6th to third also with 18 hits.

The seniors raced mass starts and it was Dorothea Wierer who came out on top in the women’s race. She held off Denise Herrmann on the last loop to take her second win here. Herrmann had to settle for second with Marketa Davidova completing the podium.

Sebastian Samuelsson matched Wierer taking his second summer title in the men’s race. He managed to pass Roman Rees on the final lap after missing two targets to the Germans one. Missing 4 shots didnt stop Martin Ponsiluoma taking the bronze!

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Season Review 2021/22: Men!

Well that wasn’t exactly the season we all expected was it! Surely Johannes Thingnes Boe would have been back to his best and win the overall again!

As we now know it didn’t work out that way and we have a brand new and extremely well deserved winner of the total score – Quentin Fillon Maillet!

What a season the 29 year old Frenchman has had! 8 World Cup wins and 984 points in the overall, 248 points ahead of his nearest rival. He also won 5 medals from 6 races at the Olympics making it a fairytale season for him. For the last 3 years he has come third in the total score but with more consistency in his performances and results he has finally made it to the top.

Second place overall went to Sturla Laegreid for the second season in a row with 736 points. He left it to the final race to overtake Sebastian Samuelsson both for second place and the blue bib for the best biathlete under 25.

Sebastian Samuelsson had to settle for third place in the overall. He had a great start to the season but faded towards the end. Laegreid did the opposite, started badly and was strong at the end of the season to beat the Swede by just 19 points.

The small globes for the different disciplines were won by Tarjei Boe in the individual, Quentin Fillon Maillet in the sprint and the pursuit and Sivert Bakken in the mass start.

We had two new winners on the men’s World Cup this season and they were Johannes Kuehn and Sivert Bakken. There were some new faces on the podium too with top 3 places for Anton Smolski, Filip Andersen and Said Khalili, and a best ever result by a Lithuanian man with Vytautas Strolia taking a 4th place.

The men’s relay title went to Norway again as did the mixed relay title. They won both events at the Olympics too. So Norway were obviously the winners of the nations cup with 7277 points.

It wasn’t all bad for Johannes Boe this season. He did call it a day early after the Olympics but he won the sprint and the mass start as well as the men’s and mixed relay and took bronze in the individual in Beijing.

His brother won the coveted silver bib for the over 33’s. It was the first year Tarjei qualified for this still unofficial bib and has won it already.

Erlend Bjoentegaard won the IBU cup total score and Aleksandr Kornev won the Junior Cup.

Sadly as it is an Olympic year we have quite a lot if retirements. Hanging up their rifles are Erik Lesser, Simon Desthieux, Benjamin Weger, Dominik Windisch, Leif Nordgren, Scott Gow, Klemen Bauer, Kalev Ermits, Damir Rastic, Tom Lahaye-Goffart, Vinny Fountain, Florian Hollandt, Tsukasa Kobonoki, Kosuke Ozaki and Kazuki Baisho.

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WC9 Holmenkollen 2022: Mass Starts!

It was another beautiful day in Holmenkollen for the final day of the biathlon season. We were treated to two mass starts full of drama, with plenty of twists and turns and sub plots everywhere!

The women raced first and it was a pretty normal start. Julia Simon got out of the range on the first prone fastest with 5/5 but she was quickly passed by Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and others.

At the second prone Roeiseland missed 1 and so there was a chance for the others to move ahead of her. Lisa Hauser shot clean and was into first place followed by Elvira Oberg and Linn Persson.

The first standing saw Hauser clean again but the two Swedes both missed and so Dorothea Wierer took second place. Roeiseland was now in third after a clean shoot this time.

The final shoot is where everything went crazy! Hauser hit her first four but then missed the final target. And then everyone else missed too! Well everyone except for the Olympic champion! Justine Braisaz-Bouchet came from nowhere to clean her final five targets and left the range alone!

Behind her came Hauser and then Janina Hettich who also hit her final five. Hot on her heels however were Preuss, Roeiseland, Oberg and Persson.

With Braisaz-Bouchet going to take the win it meant she was back in the hunt to win the mass start title! Elvira Oberg was the only one who could stop her but she had to finish 4th.

The chasers all passed Hettich and it was Preuss who pulled a gap and finished second. Roeiseland was third and Oberg was in fourth right up to the finish when her teammate Persson beat her right on the line! That gave the globe to Braisaz-Bouchet!

Ingrid Tandrevold finished 6th. Janina Hettich and Lotte Lie were the only 2 women to hit 20/20.

The men’s race was just as exciting. Sturla Laegreid took the early lead with a clean prone. He was followed by Simon Desthieux, Sebastian Samuelsson, Sivert Bakken and Emilien Jacquelin. Quentin Fillon Maillet made an uncharacteristic error and was on the back foot.

Laegreid continued to control the race at the front after another clean prone stage. Samuelsson was again the main chaser with Jacquelin, Bakken and Christiansen not far back.

At the first standing Laegreid made is first error and then Jacquelin made two. On the other hand Samuelsson took his time and hit all five and moved into a clear lead ahead of the chasing Norwegian pack of Bakken, Laegreid and Christiansen.

The final shoot was a tense affair! Samuelsson made a mess of it missing three, Laegreid missed one but shot very fast. Bakken took his time and managed to down all five targets to move into the lead. Laegreid was quickly on his tail though from the penalty loop. Lesser was now in third with Jacquelin fourth making a strong comeback.

There was nothing between the two Norwegian youngsters on the tracks until the final uphill before the finish. Bakken managed to make a small gap and it was enough for him to hold on to first place in the sprint for the line. It was his first ever World Cup victory and with Fillon Maillet only finishing 7th it meant he also won the mass start title stealing it from the Frenchman’s grip at the the last moment!

Laegreid was second and Jacquelin bested Lesser to take third. It was 4th for the German in his final race and 5th for his teammate Philipp Nawrath. Christiansen rounded off the top 6. Samuelsson eventually came 11th and that meant that Laegreid overtook him to win the blue bib for the best biathlete under 25.

Bakken and Christiansen were the only 2 men to hit 20/20.

What a fantastic way to finish the season! Let’s hope for more of the same next time!

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WC9 Holmenkollen 2022: Pursuits!

The headbands were off in Holmenkollen! It was such a beautiful, sunny day but it also made the tracks tougher to ski on and you could see the biathletes searching for the shady parts of the course.

It was an all Norwegian affair at the front of the women’s pursuit. Tiril Eckhoff was in the lead after her sprint win. She cleaned the first prone to stay ahead. Marte Olsbu Roeiseland also hit all five to move into second place ahead of Lisa Hauser who missed 2 in the prone. Maybe skiing with Marte on the first loop wasn’t the best idea for her. Anais Chevalier-Bouchet also took advantage shooting clean to move into third.

At the second prone Eckhoff missed 1 and Marte hit 5 again to move into a 20 second lead. Chevalier-Bouchet was clean again to stay third.

The first standing saw Roeiseland miss for the first time but Eckhoff couldn’t take advantage as she missed too but the time difference had decreased to 15 seconds. Chevalier-Bouchet was still third after another clean shoot.

The final shoot decided the race and it was Roeiseland who blinked first. She missed another but this time Eckhoff capitalized hitting all five and skied away for her second home win in a row. Roeiseland stayed second to secure the pursuit title and also the overall World Cup win. A good day for Norway!

The battle for third also came down to the final shoot. Chevalier-Bouchet missed for the first time and it cost her. Just behind her was Paulina Fialkova who had it 15/15 already and when she made it 20/20 third place was hers. She has had a tough couple of seasons so it was great to see her back on the podium again.

Chevalier-Bouchet was 4th, Denise Herrmann 5th and Lisa Hauser 6th.

The big mover of the day was Franziska Preuss who went from 45th to 10th hitting 20/20. Also hitting the perfect 20 were Franziska Hildebrand in 9th, Mona Brorsson in 13th and Lou Jeanmonnot in 31st who moved up from 55th. Tereza Vobornikova and Samuela Comola got their personal bests in 24th and 26th.

There was more drama in the men’s race. Sturla Laegreid started with a 22 second lead and he cleaned the first prone to stay out in front. Behind him Quentin Fillon Maillet, Sebastian Samuelsson and Erik Lesser all hit 5 too.

At the second prone Laegreid missed 1 and was on the penalty loop. Lesser had caught up with Fillon Maillet and Samuelsson by the range and the three shot together. It was the Frenchman who made a mistake and so Samuelsson and Lesser were now just 11 seconds off the lead.

Laegreid was brilliant at the first standing shoot cleaning quickly, building his lead back up to 20 seconds. Lesser cleaned again to go second and Fillon Maillet was back into third after a miss from Samuelsson.

At the last shoot the win was Laegreid’s for the taking. Four or five hits would guarantee the victory but he only hit 3! This was Lesser’s big chance to take his first win in 6 years and he took it hitting all five! Fillon Maillet also hit five and exited the range just as Laegreid was coming off the penalty loop.

Laegreid passed Fillon Maillet and tried to pull away but he couldn’t. In the end the Frenchman swept passed him to take second place on his way to picking up the pursuit crystal globe.

It was third for Laegreid, 4th for Samuelsson, 5th for Vetle Christiansen and 6th for Martin Ponsiluoma.

It was an incredible result for Lesser in his penultimate race. It’s only the third win of his career but it was very well deserved.

Lukas Hofer made the big move today going from 38th to14th with 20/20, Michal Krcmar went from 33rd to 18th also hitting all 20 and Lucas Fratzscher went from 43rd to 26th with 19 hits. Aleksander Andersen and Emilien Claude improved their personal bests to 8th and 20th.

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WC9 Holmenkollen 2022: Sprints!

We are back in Holmenkollen! After the races here were cancelled for the last two seasons due to the pandemic we are finally back in Norway!

The crowd was back too and they had a lot to cheer about today with 2 Norwegian winners!

The women raced first after their race was rescheduled from Thursday due to the weather. It was sunny today but there was a tricky wind in the range that caught some people out.

With that troublesome wind you would have imagined that 10 hits would be key to winning. No one told Tiril Eckhoff though. She missed 1 target in the stand but managed to ski her way to victory over the clean shooting Lisa Hauser. It was Hauser’s first podium since Oestersund at the start of the season.

Marte Olsbu Roeiseland also missed 1 in the standing but again skied so well that she was third. That secured the sprint crystal globe for her.

Fourth place went to Marketa Davidova, 5th to Anais Chevalier-Bouchet and 6th to Jessica Jislova who all hit 10/10.

There were personal bests today for Ragnhild Femsteinevik in 15th and Paula Botet in 28th. Britain’s Amanda Lightfoot managed to extend her career by 1 more race finishing 60th and qualifying for the pursuit!

In the men’s race they did have to hit all 10 to have a chance of winning because 5 of the top 6 did just that!

It was a dream come true for Sturla Laegreid. He won his home World Cup race at the first attempt! He was on fire today taking a 22 second lead into the pursuit.

Second place went to overall winner Quentin Fillon Maillet. He also clinched the small crystal globe after finishing top of the sprint standings.

Sebastian Samuelsson took third. He was leading at one point but Laegreid and Fillon Maillet overtook him.

Germany were 4th, 5th and 6th with Benedikt Doll, Erik Lesser and Philipp Nawrath. Lesser was the only man in the top six to miss a target.

There were personal bests for Aleksandr Andersen in 9th and for Martin Uldal on his debut in 20th. Emilien Claude got his PB in 27th as did Malte Stefansson in 34th. Otto Invenius also made his World Cup debut in 55th.

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