I fully expect FIS to ban all US athletes from the rest of the WC tour and remove the Lake Placid WC finals from the calendar. Oh wait...
- Apr 10, 2019
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Nans Madelenat has achieved something historic in the Youth Biathlon World Championships (which won‘t be held anymore after this year, just the juniors)… After missing Bronze by two tenths in the Individual, he‘s missed out today by one tenth in the Sprint. Lozbers missed out on Gold, because three misses was one too many against Markus Sklenarik who shot clean. He‘s still insanely dominant in the skiing here.
- Jun 30, 2022
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The Biathlon Junior World Champs would make you think Poland and Latvia were the greatest Biathlon nations.Yesterday, Grzegorz Galica, who is legitimately a huge talent (could still be doing the Youth races) won with two misses, although that was partly because most of his top competition was inexplicably placed in the last start group. Today, Estere Volfa won with an insane gap, especially in the last lap. Good performance by Sydney Wüstling to win a medal at 17 years of age as well.
I don't follow closely enough to know if it's an upset, but Mackie winning the U23 women's 20k skate is the kind of result we haven't seen in Canadian skiing in a while.
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- Sep 26, 2020
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I can find some solace in the fact that it wouldn't have made a difference today if Elvira had missed as well, but I still really want to see Bátovská Fialková finish her career with a victory to her name.
A day to forget for Jeanmonnot, but at least the small fall at the shooting range didn't cost her a globe this time around, as she just managed to held on to the lead in the ranking for the individual thanks to, among other performances, perfect (and more importantly, safe) rifle handling from Marlene Fichtner.
A day to forget for Jeanmonnot, but at least the small fall at the shooting range didn't cost her a globe this time around, as she just managed to held on to the lead in the ranking for the individual thanks to, among other performances, perfect (and more importantly, safe) rifle handling from Marlene Fichtner.
- Feb 20, 2010
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If Fichtner can prove Nové Město was no fluke and this kind of performance level is sustainable (I don't expect her to keep hitting top 5s, but some European Championships results before hitting an unexpected flower ceremony in an Individual at 24 - a year older than Marlene is now - was the making of Franziska Hildebrand, who is probably a best-case scenario development comparable for Fichtner imo), then with Grotian, Tannheimer, and the youths like Wüstling continue to develop, I don't really fear for the German women in the wake of their disappointing time in Antholz.
For the men I really do have concerns, though. Pfund looked good earlier this season - better than expected with the step up - but he was facing a depleted field; and guys like Riethmüller and Kaiser aren't even all that young now. Seidl followed up his IBU Cup race win at the first Lake Placid weekend with a 4/10 sprint at the second. Surely guys like Fratzscher, Kühn, Rees can't be part of the future plans at this stage. Nawrath and Horn are at least good enough now that they could feasibly still be decent in four years' time, but would need to reinvent themselves as some kind of poor man's Arnd Peiffer, this time around was almost certainly their best chances for individual medals.
For the men I really do have concerns, though. Pfund looked good earlier this season - better than expected with the step up - but he was facing a depleted field; and guys like Riethmüller and Kaiser aren't even all that young now. Seidl followed up his IBU Cup race win at the first Lake Placid weekend with a 4/10 sprint at the second. Surely guys like Fratzscher, Kühn, Rees can't be part of the future plans at this stage. Nawrath and Horn are at least good enough now that they could feasibly still be decent in four years' time, but would need to reinvent themselves as some kind of poor man's Arnd Peiffer, this time around was almost certainly their best chances for individual medals.
- Jul 8, 2017
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I know that Tannheimer amd Grotian, I would even include Kink, are very young, but honestly 2 years ago I expected they would be a real contenders for the top places by Millano-Cortina and they somewhat stalled. There is still some time, but I find it rather concerning.
Did they have any issues in the last summer or 2 which could explain their stallin?
- Feb 20, 2010
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Well, Grotian won a race last season, and this season the bigger problem was that she got Covid in November which really screwed up her early season. I'm not worried about Selina from a physical standpoint, she still skis top 10 when she's on form, but she's become more troubled in the range, especially in relays which she used to be money in.
Tannheimer is the type of athlete that still needs to work on consistency. She relied exclusively on her outlying speed as a youth, and while her shooting is far better than the likes of Gössner ever got, she's not yet reliable in the range and may never be.
Kink I'm not sold on. She has the tools, but she hasn't convinced me that she can put it together yet; she does not have the strong potential upside that Tannheimer or Grotian have demonstrated, but she's too unreliable to fulfil the kind of role that Fichtner - and possibly Puff if she gets healthy again - are likely to take on in the team.
She may yet do so - probably the best comparable I have for Kink from previous German generations would be Maren Hammerschmidt, who overdelivered in relays, got a couple of podiums here and there, but was always a role player in the team rather than a star, and it took her until her mid-20s including a tail-between-her-legs stint on the Alpencup for her to finally put it together and become a key part of the team. Another possible comparison point would be Sophia Schneider, who was very fast as a youth and had a bit of a struggle with injuries that meant she had to rediscover herself to gain a World Cup spot. Schneider is kinda on the outside looking in at the moment and may not make it to the next Olympics, but she has had a decent World Cup run in her time.
Easy course, not easy to breakaway. His chances are better in the 10km classic.
- Feb 20, 2010
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Perrot goes one better, Hofer with his best performance in an age, Nawrath doing his thing of making sure to choke a podium two ways, and suddenly QFM is back to normal.........
- Sep 26, 2020
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The power of cheating still helps Lægreid.
Fak and Rastorgujevs also helping to bring down the average age in the top 10.
Fak and Rastorgujevs also helping to bring down the average age in the top 10.
- Feb 20, 2010
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Lahti's infamous finish and post-Olympic fatigue is making this a demolition derby, crashes and DQs all over the place. I mean, heat 3 had three yellow cards (including a DQ for Graz as he was already on a yellow) as well as a straight DQ for Grate. I thought seeing as we were in Finland maybe Mattias Strandvall had snuck out onto the course from behind a tree like Riccardo Riccò in that Gran Fondo or something.
Jaume Pueyo is fast becoming a male Jasmi Joensuu. He always qualifies well, but seems good at falling over or overdoing things early and running out of gas before the business end of the competition.
Jaume Pueyo is fast becoming a male Jasmi Joensuu. He always qualifies well, but seems good at falling over or overdoing things early and running out of gas before the business end of the competition.
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Let's just be honest, Lahti is just not suited to freestyle sprint unless they change the finish configuration. I love the venue, it's very traditional, and I get why they want a freestyle sprint to balance off against a distance classic (which the Finns, being Finns, always want) and of course every race weekend has to have a sprint because FIS suck, but the fact it's an athletics stadium with all the trails to one side (as opposed to, say, Otepää where they can come in one side and exit the other allowing a safer run-in) and having that big 180º bend right at the end is just asking for trouble at sprint pace. It's a demolition derby here every year. I fear that if they had the finish at the other end of the stadium they might be going too quick off the descent, though.
I guess the best hope would be to make it a mini-Tour, but then they've got to factor in the other sports in the Lahti Ski Games. If they have to have a sprint because FIS execs think this is what people want to see, then a classic sprint, 10k individual start free, 20k classic pursuit is probably the best way to go here.
I guess the best hope would be to make it a mini-Tour, but then they've got to factor in the other sports in the Lahti Ski Games. If they have to have a sprint because FIS execs think this is what people want to see, then a classic sprint, 10k individual start free, 20k classic pursuit is probably the best way to go here.
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Look at those crowds in Lahti in zhe mixed team sprint, like it's the second coming of Hannu Manninen
- Jun 30, 2022
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Some of these Julia Simon wins make me think that Women‘s Biathlon is too shooting heavy, but then again, it‘s not like it‘s boring racing.
- Feb 20, 2010
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I think at the moment, women's biathlon is a good balance, men's biathlon is too skiing-heavy unless something is done to curb the advantage that Norway and France have. There are lots of teams and different nations that can contest the podiums in women's biathlon. Simon profits from a couple of factors really - one is that Mass Starts have this tendency to start slow and speed up, so if you miss early in the race, you can make up for it and ski back to the group while they're taking it easy, then as long as you clear up in standing, you'll always be in the mix for the win; the other is that she has the ability to shoot really quickly, saving time in the range and pressuring others.
There have been 6 nations to have achieved a men's podium on the World Cup or at the Olympics this season - 24 to Norway, 16 to France, 7 to Italy, 6 to Sweden, 2 to Germany and 1 to the US. That US podium was at Nové Město, when France were the only country to send the A-team, and all but one of the Italian podiums are Giacomel who is now out for the rest of the season. Norway and France have been 1st and 2nd in every relay, and apart fom once, in Ruhpolding, the Swedes have been 3rd every time.
On the women's side, 10 different nations have achieved at least one podium. Several have only achieved one - Hauser for Austria, Preuß for Germany, Hristova for Bulgaria, Voborníková for Czechia and Batovska-Fiálková for Slovakia. But even though the French domination feels very absolute, they have 21 podiums, which is fewer than the Norwegian men who seem a lot less dominant than the French women relative to field. The Swedes actually have 14 but don't seem that strong. France has won 3/5 relays, but missed the podium entirely in the others; six teams have made relay podiums.
Svahn with a great race from bib 5.
Diggins with one of her better classic races.
Fun to see Nepryaeva best of the rest.
Brennan showing a pulse in 12th!
Diggins with one of her better classic races.
Fun to see Nepryaeva best of the rest.
Brennan showing a pulse in 12th!
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