Season Review 2021/22: Women!

What a season the winner of the overall title had! Winning the total score with 957 which was 134 points ahead of the field with 6 World Cup wins.

Marte Olsbu Roeiseland was outstanding! Not only has she been super consistent on the World Cup but she won 5 out of 6 medals at the Olympics – 3 gold and 2 bronze. It is the first time she has won the big crystal globe and she is a very deserving champion.

In second place with 823 points and 4 wins was Elvira Oberg. It was an extremely impressive season from the youngster in only her second full year racing at the highest level. She also picked up the blue bib for best biathlete under 25 unsurprisingly! She also won a gold and 2 silver medals at her first Olympics in what has been a fantastic year for her.

Third place went to Lisa Hauser with 684 points which is her highest finish in the total score so far.

The small discipline globes went to Marketa Davidova in the individual, Marte Olsbu Roeiseland in the sprint, and the pursuit and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet in the mass start.

The other winners at the Olympics were Denise Herrmann in the individual and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet in the mass start.

Brand new winners on the World Cup this season were Elvira Oberg and Hanna Sola. Appearing on the podium for the first time were Kristina Reztsova, Mona Brorsson, Stina Nilsson and Vanessa Voigt.

The women’s relay title was won by the Swedish team for the second year in a row and the single mixed relays were won by Russia in Oberhof and Norway in Otepää. Norway had the most points in the nations cup finishing with 6856.

The unofficial silver bib for the best biathlete over 33, knitted by Susan Dunklee, was won by Denise Herrmann.

Lou Jeanmonnot won the IBU cup total score and Sara Scattolo took the Junior cup title.

We had a lot of retirements this season so it’s time to say goodbye and good luck to Clare Egan, Susan Dunklee, Anais Bescond, Selina Gasparin, Amanda Lightfoot, Eva Puskarcikova, Maren Hammerschmist, Hallie Grossman, Magdalena Gwizdon, Elisabeth Hoegberg, Sari Maeda, Yurie Tanaka, Kirari Tanaka, Asuka Hachisuka, Ingela Andersson, Karolina Piton and Karolin Horchler.

Follow biathlon23 on Twitter,Facebook and Instagram!

Season Preview 2021/22: Women

The new season is just around the corner and it is a big one with the Olympics in February. We get underway in Sweden with the season opener and the World Cup round 1 proper. Hochfilzen comes next followed by Annecy to take us up to Christmas. Then comes the Germany double header in Oberhof and Ruhpolding with Antholz the last stop before Beijing. After the Olympics we go to Kontiolahti, make a first World Cup visit to Otepää and end in Holmenkollen.

Tiril Eckhoff is the big favourite for the Women’s title this season. She is the current champion and if she maintains her form from last season she will be extremely difficult to beat. Shooting is the key for Eckhoff and now that she believes in her own ability she will have much more confidence on the range. She was fantastic last season and if she stays fit and healthy she will likely pick up the big crystal globe at home in Oslo. One thing that may hamper her efforts however is her own success. Winning comes with a lot of attention and a lot of demands on your time for interviews from TV and the written press and more work for sponsors which can distract from training.

Someone who knows all about that is Dorothea Wierer. Interest in her shot up after she lifted the title 2 years in a row. She will be out to retake the big globe but she will have to improve a lot from last season. She lost her shape and more worryingly had a lot of issues on the range. If the old Doro comes back she will give Tiril a run for her money.

Marte Olsbu Roeiseland was runner-up last season and will be hoping to push her teammate all the way again. She was not consistent enough through the year and will need to beat Tiril more often to have a chance of the World Cup title.

Franziska Preuss had her best ever season finishing third in the overall. She jumped up from sixth the year before and could be a contender if she can covert her podium finishes into more wins than second and third place finishes.

Hanna Oberg is 26 now and can no longer be considered a youngster after all her experience so far. She has been fourth for 2 years in a row on the total score so now she needs to push up onto the podium. She only won twice last season so that statistic has to improve if she wants to move up.

Last season’s revelation Lisa Teresa Hauser was 6th but she only started scoring big points after the Christmas break. If she can get off to a good start and keep it up across the whole season she could get herself on to the podium and maybe even challenge Eckhoff for the top spot.

Dzinara Alimbekava also made a big breakthrough and was 7th overall. Watch out for some more wins from her but I don’t think she is ready to go for the globe just yet.

Expect more wins for the likes of Denise Herrmann, Ingrid Tandrevold, Julia Simon and Marketa Davidova. They can all be outstanding biathletes on their day but usually it is just on one day and they lack the consistent results needed to compete for the overall title.

Potentially taking their first win this season could be Elvira Oberg. She was third twice last year and will surely make the top step at some point. Keep an eye on her new teammate Stina Nilsson too. After an impressive debut at the end of last season in Oestersund it wouldn’t surprise me if she comes up with a win in a sprint race quite soon.

Hanna Sola is another who will be hoping for a first win. She was third twice like Elvira last season and has the potential to turn those into wins.

Canada’s Emma Lunder had a great season in 20/21. If she gets a good run she could reach the podium. Her best finish so far is 7th so she isn’t far away. Baiba Bendika is overdue a podium finish and if she is on a good day she can do it.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see a Gasparin on the podium too. Selina has done it but with Elisa’s best of 8th and Aita’s 9th last year maybe it’s time for her younger silblings to get some of the family bragging rights!

You will probably be seeing more of Vanessa Voight this season after she won the IBU Cup.The German women’s team needs more young talent in it and hopefully she can provide it.

Of course it is Olympic year and many of the biathletes will be trying to peak for February rather than going for the World Cup. Expect quite a few to skip at least one round too. Not many can aim for both to be fair but Eckhoff certainly can. Can anyone take the big globe away from Tiril? It’s nearly time to find out!

Follow biathlon23 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Season Review 20/21: Biathlete 23!

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Or as we say at Biathlon23 HQ when the world gives you a global pandemic, get your best ever points score! That’s right biathlete23 performs best in adversity – it’s coached into them you know! 😉

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.

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)

This year the total points scored was 957! The men scored 473 points which would have put biathlete23 in 20th position in the total score. In fact biathlete23 and Antonin Guigonnat had the exact same points! On the women’s side biathlete23 scored 484 points and would have been 16th on the total score between Justine Braisaz-Bouchet and Lisa Vittozzi! Not bad company!

The season got off to an incredible start in Kontiolahti when Quentin Fillon Maillet was 4th in the indiviudual. Then Dorothea Wierer won the women’s race in bib23! Amazing! It’s the first time biathlete23 has won a race on the opening day of the season! Uliana Kaisheva and Anton Smolski were 26th and 7th in the sprint to make it 125 points in 4 races.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better Tarjei Boe won the sprint in the second set of Kontiolahti races! Un’boe’lievable! Two wins in two rounds is unheard of for biathlete23! Aita Gasparin was 32nd in the women’s sprint but Jeremy Finello and Anna Magnusson both finished outside the points in the pursuits to leave bib23 with 69 points.

Next it was on to Hochfilzen for two more rounds of World Cup action. In the first sprint Iryna Kryuko was 17th and Andrejs Rastorgujevs 36th while Philipp Horn was 20th in the pursuit and Irina Kazakevich was 14th. That gave a total of 77 points.

In the second Hochfilzen sprints Emilien Jacquelin was 8th but Paulina Fialkova was 80th! Benedikt Doll was 13th and Denise Herrmann was 9th in the pursuits. In the mass starts Jesper Nelin was 27th and Darya Blashko was 23rd. That meant a total of 118 points in all.

Oberhof also hosted two rounds after Christmas. Justine Braisaz-Bouchet was 9th in the sprint and Christian Gow was 29th. Selina Gasparin was 17th in the pursuit and Philipp Horn 29th. It was another 80 points for biathlete23.

In the second round in Oberhof Andrejs Rastorgujevs was 12th and Marte Olsbu Roeiseland was 8th in the sprints. In the mass starts Sergey Bocharnikov was 21st and Dunja Zdouc was 25th. 95 points were added to the tally.

Antholz was next and there were no points scored in the individuals by Maren Hammerschmidt and Eduard Latypov. Dunja Zdouc was 23rd in the mass start and Latypov redeemed himself finishing 20th. It was just 37 points gained in Italy.

It was time for the World Championships in Pokljuka and it was home favourite Jakov Fak who was first out in the sprint and he took a great 6th place. In the women’s race it was Anais Chevalier-Bouchet racing in bib23 and she only went and came second! A silver medal! Amazing!

Dmytro Pidruchnyi was 28th in the pursuit and Michela Carrara was 38th. In the individuals Simon Desthieux was 28th and so was Ekaterina Avvakummova! In the mass starts Alexander Loginov was 9th and Darya Blashko was 29th. Points were scored in every race bringing a total of 138!

Nove Mesto came next also hosting two World Cup rounds. In the first one Darya Blashko was 16th in the sprint and Erik Lesser was 14th. Vanessa Hinz was 11th in the pursuit and Alexander Loginov was 19th. 104 more points for biathlete23.

The second weekend did no go so well! There were no points for Felix Leitner or Lena Haecki in the sprints. Galina Vishnevskaya scored nothing in the pursuit but Jesper Nelin saved the day in 33rd. Biathlete23 left with just 8 points.

The final round of the season was in Oestersund. Clare Egan missed the points in the sprint but Felix Leitner was 20th. Franziska Preuss was 6th in the pursuit and Eduard Latypov was 18th. In the final races of the season Dunja Zdouc was 23rd and Dmytro Pidruchnyi was 27th. It was a final score of 106 points to round off the season and make it a record breaker!

It was a stellar season for biathlete23 with 2 wins and a silver World Championship medal. Could it be better next season? With the Olympics on the cards who knows? Maybe biathlete23 could add another Olympic gold to the trophy case!

And remember if you love all the biathletes the same and you can’t pick a favourite consider supporting biathlete23 in each race! You won’t regret it! 😉

Follow biathlon23 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Pokljuka 2021: Mass Starts!

Sadly it was the last day of racing at the World Championships but happily it finished with two mass starts!

The women raced first and it was so warm in Pokljuka that Julia Simon decided to race in her t-shirt. In fact she was so much in the holiday mood that she missed 3 targets on the first prone and her chances of a medal were gone.

It was Elisa Gasparin who left the range in first place followed by Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and her big sister Selina Gasparin. The sister act didn’t last long though as it was Lisa Hauser who took over at the front after the second prone.

She was followed by Baiba Bendika who after winning the sprint race at the European Championships was now having a crack at World gold. Irina Kazakevich was in third and Tiril Eckhoff was up to fourth after missing 1 in the first prone but cleaning the second.

Hauser kept the lead after the first standing and Bendika stayed second after both hit all five to go 15 for 15. Despite missing again Eckhoff came off the penalty loop in third with Lisa Vittozzi right behind her.

The last shoot gave us the clear winner with Hauser hitting all five to make her the only woman to hit all 20 and was on her way to becoming World Champion for the first time. In the space of two months she has gone from never being on the podium to being on top of the world!

It was heartbreak behind her for Bendika who missed 2 and lost her chance of a medal. That left the way clear for Lisa Vittozzi who left the range in second, Roeiseland who was back to third, and Ingrid Tandrevold who was now in fourth. All three hit 5 in the final shoot but Eckhoff missed again.

It looked like Vittozzi might take silver but the three Norwegians had other ideas. She was caught and passed by Roeiseland and Tandrevold and suddenly they were fighting each other for silver. Tandrevold was the one to make the break against a tired looking Roeiseland. She moved away to claim her second medal of the championships and then Eckhoff who always fights to the end managed to pass Roeiseland in the final few metres to snatch the bronze!

The medals in the men’s race also went down to the final loop and it was more success for the Norwegian team.

After the first prone it was Sturla Laegried who took the early advantage followed by Lukas Hofer and Jakov Fak. Johannes Boe missed 2 and effectively ended his chances of gold.

Laegreid maintained his lead after shoot two and Fak stayed with him both hitting 10/10. Emilien Jacquelin who had passed Laegreid on track to shoot first missed all 5 targets and was out of the medal hunt.

Again after the first standing it was Laegreid and Fak going shot for shot and leaving the range still in first and second with Simon Eder for company in third position.

So it would once again come down to the last shoot. It was Laegried who blinked first missing a shot and so Fak had the chance to take the lead. He missed his final shot to the disappointment of all the Slovenian organisers and volunteers who been cheering for him the whole race. Eder also missed one but Johannes Dale and Quentin Fillon Maillet hit all five to get back in the race.

Laegreid completed his penalty and was away and clear before the chasers left the range and he would ski home to take his fourth gold medal at these Championships. It’s incredible what he has done this season considering he only raced four times on the World Cup last year and now he is one of the best biathletes in the field.

The race for silver was a great battle between Fillon Maillet and Dale. They both passed Eder and Fak who would finish 4th and 5th and just miss the medals. Fillon Maillet was in front but a superb burst of speed from Dale meant he overtook the Frenchman and left him behind to grab the silver behind his teammate and give Norway their 4th medal of the day. Fillon Maillet took the bronze his first medal here in Pokljuka.

Unsurprisingly Norway topped the medal table with 14 medals , 7 of which were gold. France were second and Sweden third.

Follow biathon23 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Pokljuka 2021: Women’s Individual!

After the rest day on Monday it was back to the action today in Pokljuka with the women’s individual. It was the final individual race of the season so the battle was on not only for medals but also the first crystal globe of the season.

It seems fitting that the winner of this race should be someone who hits all 20 targets as this is really the shooters race. That’s what happened today and it was Marketa Davidova who did it! It’s only her second ever win at this level and this one made her the World Champion.

She was one of only two women to hit all the targets today the other being Galina Vishnevskaya who was 25th.

The silver medal went to Hanna Oberg with 19/20. It looked at one point like she would take the title again until Davidova hit her final five standing targets. The bronze medal went to Norway and Ingrid Tandrevold who also hit 19/20.

Lisa Hauser was 4th, Svetlana Mironova 5th and Selina Gasparin 6th. All three shot 18/20. Defending champion Dorothea Wierer was 9th and this meant she would share the individual title with Lisa Hauser as they both finished on equal points. It’s the first crystal globe for Hauser.

Ida Lien got her personal best in 11th, Lotte Lie got her PB in 36th as did Ziva Klemencic in 55th and Ukaleq Slettemark in 65th. There was a debut at this level for Chloe Levins who finished 73rd. Getting their best results so far were also Rieke De Maeyer in 80th and Anika Kozica in 87th.

Follow biathlon23 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Biathlete23 Season Review 2019/20!

This season has been a strange one for biathlete23. It is the lowest points total so far but then there were three races less than other years with Olso being cancelled. There were no wins and only one podium but the points scoring was amazingly consistent. In fact out of 42 races there were only 4 where biathlete23 was not in the points! I am not one to name and shame but let’s just say Clare Egan, Scott Gow, Lukas Hofer and Selina Gasparin have a lot of work to do in the summer! 😉

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.

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)

This season the points total was 730, made up of 386 for the men and 344 for the women. That would put biathlete23 in 17th place in the Men’s Overall between Lukas Hofer and Dmytro Pidruchnyi and 20th place in the Women’s Overall between Linn Persson and Mona Brorsson. It seems that Pidruchnyi and Brorsson are the benchmark as biathlete23 has finished alongside them both for two seasons in a row!

Way back in December in Oestersund Atrem Pryma was the first to wear the coveted bib23 in the sprint. He came 35th and Kamila Zuk was 28th in the women’s race. In the individuals Vetle Christiansen was 31st but Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht did the best coming 16th!

On to Hochfilzen where Clare Egan came 66th in the sprint but then Benedikt Doll was 11th! In the pursuits Lisa Vittozzi was 25th and Fabien Claude was 8th. A good round for the men.

Annecy saw 6 races starting with a 22nd place for Vladimir Iliev in the sprint which Emma Lunder followed with 36th for the women. Florent Claude was also 22nd in the pursuit and Janina Hettich was 31st. In the first mass starts of the season Vladimir Iliev was again in bib23 and finished 20th with Eva Kristejn Puskarcikova 15th!

After Christmas it was off to Oberhof! The sprint yielded 30th place for Larisa Kuklina and 12th for Benjamin Weger. In the mass start it was 27th for Lucie Charvatova and 28th for Felix Leitner.

Ruhpolding did not start well with 60th place for Scott Gow in the sprint. However Franziska Preuss was 14th to make up for it! In the pursuits Baiba Bendika was 26th and Raman Yaliotnau 27th. See what I mean about consistency!

Pokljuka was next on the calendar and in the men’s individual Evgeniy Garanichev was 35th but Selina Gasparin just missed out on points in 41st. Artem Pryma was 29th in the mass start and Katherina Innerhofer was 22nd.

In February we had the World Championships in Antholz. In the women’s sprint Mona Brorsson took 33rd place and then Tarjei Boe was 4th! So close to a medal – it was very exciting for a minute there! The pursuit saw Karolin Horchler take 15th place while Johannes Dale was 17th. In the individual Fuyuko Tachizaki was 34th and then Jakov Fak came …you guessed it ..4th! AHHH So close again! Can we make a medal for 4th place like tin or something?! Lastly came the mass starts and Ivona Fialkova finished in 25th and Ondrej Moravec was 11th. Points in every race at World Champs we can’t complain too much!

The 7th round of the World Cup was in Nove Mesto and finally, finally biathlete23 got a podium! It was home favourite Marketa Davidova who did it coming 3rd in the sprint! Unicorn power + bib23 = podium! Lukas Hofer however came 64th in the men’s race! Oh well swings and roundabouts! The mass starts saw Larisa Kuklina come home in 10th and Ondrej Moravec take 19th.

At the final round in Kontiolahti Klemen Bauer was 27th in the sprint while Aita Gasparin was 22nd. Jesper Nelin was 23rd in the mass start (a good place to finish!) and Lucie Charvatova was 28th.

Oslo was unfortunately cancelled due to the corona virus and I was tempted to give biathlete23 60 points for each race but in the end I decided that it wouldn’t be fair! 😉

Hopefully next season biathlete23 can get back to winning ways and maybe bag a few more medals!

See the full results on the Biathlete23 page of the blog.

Follow @biathlon23 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Kontiolahti 2020: The Pursuits!

And deep breath! Wow what a day of biathlon that was! Both overall titles going down to the last lap of the season and two huge retirements from the sport!

It started with the men’s pursuit and with it being Martin Fourcade’s final ever race it was always going to be special. The overall was on the line and Fourcade needed to win to have a chance of taking it and of course he did. Unfortunately for him if Johannes Boe finished 4th he would claim the title an he did just that!

It was a careful start for Johannes who had a 21 second lead but he took a long time on the windy range. He hit all 5 in the first prone but so did Fourcade and Jacquelin who made up a lot of time with faster shooting. At the second prone both Frenchmen again hit all the targets but Boe missed one and left them in the lead.

At the third shoot Boe missed 3 and it looked like Martin could maybe take the big globe afterall. Both he and Jacquelin missed 1 shot but had a clear lead over Boe. Arnd Peiffer meanwhile moved into 3rd place and Quentin Fillon Maillet into 4th.

At the final shoot it was Fourcade’s turn to miss 2 and Jacquelin 3! This time Boe hit all 5 and found himself in a battle with Jacquelin and Fillon Maillet for the podium. Fourcade went on to win his last race – very Fourcade! – but Boe knew he just needed to be 4th. Lucky for him there were only 2 Frenchmen ahead of him as he was tiring towards the end but won the overall in the end by just 2 points.

Fillon Maillet was second and Jacquelin third making it a French clean sweep! Arnd Peiffer was 5th and Erlend Bjoentegaard 6th. It was a fitting way for Martin Fourcade to end such an amazing career. His first win was in the Kontiolahti pursuit and so was his last, his 83rd career victory! Astonishing!

Elsewhere Anton Smolski improved his PB to 14th and Said Khalili was 25th with 20/20 for a big personal best!

Just before the start of the women’s pursuit Kaisa Makarainen announced that she would also be retiring after the race! I mean how much do they think we can take in one day!

To the race itself and it was another showdown for the overall this time between Tiril Eckhoff and Dorothea Wierer. Eckhoff started in 3rd and Wierer in 19th so the advantage was with the Norwegian. At the first shoot she missed 2 and Wierer 1 but it was Franziska Preuss who hit 5/5 to take the lead on her own. Behind her came Denise Herrmann and Lisa Vittozzi.

The second prone was a disaster in a windy range for Preuss. She missed 4 but Marketa Davidova hit all 5 to take over at the front of the race. Vittozzi moved into second place and Julia Simon up to third. Eckhoff was into 4th while Wierer was 10th.

The first stand saw Eckhoff hit 5/5 and move into the lead followed by Simon and Vittozzi. Wierer missed 2 to leave the range in 16th place.

At the final shoot Eckhoff had a lot of problems and missed 3 targets! Julia Simon cleaned as did Selina Gasparin. Vittozzi missed 1 to find herself in second place behind Simon and just in front of Gasparin. Wierer missed 1 and was on the penalty loop with Eckhoff.

She came out ahead and just had to stay with Eckhoff for the final loop to take the overall. At the front Simon was taking her first ever win and Selina Gasparin passed Vittozzi to finish second with the Italian third.

Kaisa Makarainen in her final race had moved from 18th to 4th but just couldn’t manage one last podium! Monika Hojnisz-Starega was 5th and Mona Brorsson was 6th from a start of 25th!

Emilie Kalkenberg got a PB in 15th and weirdly the Oebergs finished in 18th (Hanna) and 19th (Elvira) and the Gasparins in 37th (Aita) and 38th (Elisa)! Sisters racing together!

In the end Eckhoff came home in 10th but with Wierer was 11th so it meant the big crystal globe was Doro’s once more winning by 7 points!

That is the end of the 2019/20 biathlon season! It has been one to remember and we will need the extra long break to recover I think!……can’t wait until next season though! Roll on November!

Follow biathlon23 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Oestersund 2019: The Relays!

Norway’s men won the battle in the sprints and the French men won the battle in the individual! Saturday’s men’s relay would decide who won the war of Oestersund!

OK that might be a little dramatic but we love a bit of drama and that’s what we got in the relay! The first leg was won by Germany with a great start from Erik Lesser. He shot well to hand over ahead of Italy’s Lukas Hofer and France’s Emilien Jacquelin. Norway were 5th with Johannes Dale having a solid first leg using just 2 spares.

Sweden came out on top in the second leg thanks to Jesper Nelin. He coped best in the conditions to give Martin Ponsiluoma a 10 second lead. Behind Nelin came Norway and Italy after good legs from Erlend Bjoentegaard and Thomas Bormolini. Quentin Fillon Maillet went on the penalty loop but skied very fast to make it into third at the exchange ahead of Bormolini.

Tarjei Boe took over for Norway and caught Ponsiluoma before the first prone. Boe needed just one spare which put him into the lead. Simon Desthieux was chasing after Sweden went on the penalty loop and 22-year-old Daniele Cappellari had a great leg for Italy putting them in third.

Tarjei handed over an 11 second lead to his brother Johannes and it was all he needed to take the win for Norway. Fourcade did his best to chase him down with a faultless shoot to Boe’s 2 spares but it wasn’t enough. Dominik Windisch held on to third place for Italy after a fight with Russia.

Russia were 4th, Sweden 5th and Ukraine 6th.

So Norway won the war then? No of course not the wind always wins in Oestersund!

On Sunday it was the women’s turn to race and it was another great relay.

The first leg was once again dominated by Lisa Vittozzi. She cleaned the prone and used 1 spare in the stand to give Italy a 15 second lead at the first exchange. Behind her were Norway with Karoline Kntten and Sweden’s Linn Persson.

Nicole Gontier took the second leg for Italy but she incurred a penalty loop on the prone and put them out of contention. Elvira Oeberg took over the lead for Sweden and held it to the second exchange despite the close attention of Justine Braisaz. Norway came next with Ingrid Tandrevold and then Selina Gasparin for Switzerland and Germany’s Denise Herrmann.

Mona Brorsson took the third leg for the home team but was caught by Tiril Eckhoff and they came into the range together. They both shot 5/5 as did Aita Gasparin. In the stand the Swede cleaned while Eckhoff needed 2 spares. Gasparin cleaned again for the perfect leg.

By the exchange Brorsson had a three second lead to hand to Hanna Oeberg who was closely followed by Marte Olsbu Roeiseland. Next came Franziska Preuss and Lena Haecki. The three chasers all cleaned the prone but Oeberg needed all 3 of her spares.

Roeiseland took the lead on the track but had to use 2 spares in the final stand. However it was enough to secure the lead and take Norway to victory again matching the men’s relay team.

The battle was on for second with Oeberg storming back with a clean stand and Haecki using a single spare. They were neck and neck until Haecki made a decisive break and Oeberg just couldn’t catch her. It was an historic second place for the Swiss women’s team with the three Gasparin sisters and Haecki getting their country’s first podium in the women’s relay needing just 4 spare rounds to do it!

Sweden were third with another good result. Germany were 4th, Russia 5th and France 6th.

The action now moves to Hochfilzen for round 2 of the World Cup.

Follow biathlon23 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Oestersund 2019: Women’s Individual!

It seems Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump) has a rival for the affections of the Swedish people! Yes Hanna Oberg is now the darling of Oestersund after her stunning performance to take gold at her home World Championships!

After finishing 4th in the sprint and 5th in the pursuit she finally got the medal the home fans were desperate for. She shot the perfect 20/20 to add the World title to the Olympic title she won last year becoming the first woman to ever do that back to back. Grattis Hanna! 🙂

The silver medal went to Lisa Vittozzi who has broken the curse of changing ski suit from green to blue! She also hit 20/20 to win her first ever World Championship medal and also win the small crystal globe in the Indiviudual as well as extending her lead in the yellow bib. Not a bad day’s work for the Italian!

The bronze medal was more of a surprise with Justine Braisaz finishing third. Her form hasn’t been great this season but she timed it right today. She hit 19/20 and managed to ski 7 seconds faster than Laura Dahlmeier who with the same shooting score was denied her third podium in a row. Paulina Fialkova was 5th also with 19/20.

Others who hit 20/20 today were Lisa Hauser who was 7th, Yuliia Dzhima who was 12th and Yuliia Zhuravok who was 14th.

Larisa Kuklina got her personal best in 16th with 1 miss.

Special mentions for Mona Brorsson who hit 19/20 to finish 6th making a great comeback after Sunday’s pursuit. Although she would have won the race had she hit all 20 targets!!! Also for Selina Gasparin who was 9th with 1 miss on her return from becoming a mother for the second time.

Follow biathlon23 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Spring Things 2018!

Spring was depressing, wasn’t it! It started off with the raid at IBU HQ in Salzburg. The President of the IBU Anders Besseburg and the General Secretary Nicole Resch are both under investigation by the Austrian police for covering up positive doping samples from Russian biathletes. At the time of writing no charges have been brought against either party but both stepped down from their positions while the investigation is on going. Both deny any wrong doing.

Then we had all the retirements to deal with! The legend Ole Einar Bjoerndalen finally called it a day although I think he made the decision at rifle point as he seemed a bit reluctant to retire! We won’t get rid off him though, he will be coaching or commentating next season I am sure. 🙂

It was not a surprise when his teammate Emil Hegle Svendsen also gave up the sport. He made no secret of the fact that he would go after the Olympics. I know what you are thinking – whose hair will I admire now? Well I take a keen interest in Sebastian Samuelsson’s coiffure but actually I have found someone with even better hair than Emil! Step forward German para- biathlete Steffen Lehmker! 🙂

Jean Guillaume Beatrix has gone too. Very sad to see a biathlon23 interviewee finish their career mainly because it is not allowed! Americans Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey also hung up their rifles along with Russell Currier leaving a lot of space to fill on the men’s team. Jaroslav Soukup and Daniel Mesotitsch retired too. Florian Graf quit and in a bit of a shock so did Canada’s Macx Davies! No!

On the women’s side we said goodbye to a lot of mums! Marie Dorin Habert, Karin Oberhofer and Weronika Nowakowska all stopped racing. All three women have young children so that may have come into their decisions. Then at the end of June Darya Domracheva decided that she would also retire wanting to focus on her child too. This followed the announcement from Nadezhda Skardino at the start of June that she was ending her career thus decimating the Belarus Olympic gold medal Relay team!

Eva Tofalvi, Hilde Fenne, Coline Varcin and Olga Podchufarova also gave up biathlon. And we lost another biathlon23 interviewee in Julia Ransom. 😦

Miriam Goessner has changed sports to go to cross country skiing. Her back problems meant she had trouble carrying the rifle and her aim meant she had trouble hitting the targets! 😉 Good luck Miri!

Gabriela Koukalova will not race again this season and possibly not ever again. She seems to have fallen out of love with biathlon! How could she?!! She also has an autobiography out which has already caused a bit of controversy. Think the fame may have gone to her head a bit! 😉

In other news Mario Dolder got married and Selina Gasparin is pregnant with her second child in exciting times for the Swiss. Not with each other though just to be clear!

Jakov Fak got married too and Ondrej Moravec had a little boy called Ondrej. Again not with each other!

Nadezhda Pisareva also married Russian ski technician Andrey Shatokin. Johannes Boe will be married on the 30th of June and Marte Olsbu and Mari Laukkanen will also get married this summer. You guessed it – not to each other! 😉

My postman assures me that he didn’t lose my wedding invitations so I have no idea what has happened to them!!!

In less exciting news Simon Schempp broke his shoulder in a bike accident and Dzinara Alimbakava had surgery on her shoulder. Florent Claude had a operation for compartment syndrome in his shins and Anton Shipulin has mononucleosis.

Finally we had the coaching merry-go-round! I don’t think so many changes have been made in the Spring before! Take a deep breath, possibly grab a snack and a drink – follow this if you can!

USA:
The Americans lost both their coaches this Spring. The women’s coach Jonne Kähkönen went back to the Finnish women’s team and the men’s coach Jonas Johansson went back to Sweden as Development Coach. They were replaced by Michael Greis (Men) and Armin Auchentaller (Women). They now have Tim Burke as athlete development manager. He didn’t stay away for long, did he!!!

France:
The French team made big changes with the appointments of Vincent Vittoz, a former cross-country skier, and Patrick Favre from the Italian team taking over as the men’s coaches. Coaching the French women will be Fredric Jean and Vincent Porret.

Norway:
The coaches for the women’s team have changed. Patrick Oberegger moves from the Italian team and ex-cross country skier Sverre Kaas will take care of the skiing.

Germany:
Germany have gone for youth with their new coaches all in their 30’s. Mark Kirchner is now head of the German men and women with Gerald Honig as German national shooting coach. Kristian Mehringer is the Senior Women’s coach with Florian Steirer as his assistant. Isidor Scheurl is the new men’s assistant coach.

Poland:
Nadija Belova is the new Polish women’s head coach taking over from Tobias Torgersen.

Italy:
Andreas Zingerle is the new World Cup and Elite Team coach. He will be assisted by Andrea Zattoni while Klaus Hoellrigl and Nicola Pozzi will coach the A team. Olympic gold medallist in shooting without skiing (apparently that’s a thing!) Niccolò Campriani will be shooting coach for all the Italian biathletes.

Russia:
New RBU president Vladimir Drachev has appointed Anatoly Khovantsev as the new head coach. He will take the men’s team with Sergei Idinov assisting him. Vitaly Noritsyn is the women’s coach with assistant Sergei Bashkirov.

Czech Republic:
Norwegian Egil Gjelland is the new coach of the women’s team. The former coach of Norway’s men will be joined by Jiří Holubec and Tomáš Kašpar. Zdeněk Vitek moves from the women’s team to coach the men with another Norwegian Anders Bratli assisting him as well as Aleš Ligaun.

Austria:
The Austrian men’s team will be coached by Ricco Gross after he left his job with the Russian men’s team.

Ukraine:
Andrei Prokunin will take over as the new Women’s Coach for Ukraine. Uros Velepec will most likely return to coach Slovenia.

Switzerland:
The new women’s head coach is Austrian Sandra Flunger who happens to be Simon Eder’s cousin!

If you have made it this far I congratulate you and encourage you to consider climbing Everest – it’s a similar feat! 😉

I imagine I have forgotten some retirements, events or coaching changes but there is a lot going on!

Follow @biathlon23 on Twitter! Like biathlon23 on Facebook!