Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[TomasC]

I think Domracheva didn't win any medal, she came close 4th in the mass start.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yea, no medals for Dasha.

Mixed - Vitková/Soukalová, Bescond/Dorin-Habert, Horn/Eckhoff
Sprint - Dorin-Habert, Nowakowska-Ziemniak, Semerenko
Pursuit - Dorin-Habert, Dahlmeier, Nowakowska-Ziemniak
Individual - Yurlova, Soukalová, Mäkäräinen
Relay - Hildebrand/Preuß/Hinz/Dahlmeier, Bescond/Latuillière/Braisaz/Dorin-Habert, Vittozzi/Oberhofer/Gontier/Wierer
Mass Start - Semerenko, Preuß, Oberhofer

 

[meat puppet]

Whoops, my bad then. Good races this ending weekend as well. Dahlmeier is gonna be a star, clearly, carrying her form this well towards the end of the season. Perhaps even the star.

 

[neineinei]

Juniors Tandrevold and Neraasen took gold and silver on the womens 15 km at the Norw. biathlon championships.

1. Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold
2. Sigrid Bilstad Neraasen
3. Marte Olsbu

(Eckhoff and Solemdal didn't take part.)

http://www.langrenn.com/nm-gull-til-ingrid-landmark-tandrevold.5725919-336160.html
http://sirdal2015.no/

 

[python]

sorry for bumping the winter thread, but the news is too significant not to register....

it was reported in the nordic media some days ago, that marit bjoergen will miss the coming season due to pregnancy.

personally, i will follow the female races with double interest due to a more open field...on the same note, the men's field may also open up a bit due to northug reportedly missing some planned altitude training. it is approximately the same timing as in the poor season for him pre-sochi

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Congratulations are in order for Marit, and maybe finally if Therese has an off-day or she gets ahead in a short stage race due to the sprint part Heidi can finally win a race, because I look at some of the people that HAVE won World Cups and that Heidi Weng still hasn't and it just isn't right.

 

[python]

...another huge news is prompting me to bump the thread:

now that we know the norwegian prima female marit bjoergen will miss the coming season due to pregnancy, it appears that their prima male petter northug may miss the season too.

http://www.sweski.com/petter-northug-jr-missar-vaumlrldscupen.5794417.html
(swedish)

in brief, he appears to have failed to sign a contract (the deadline has passed) with the norgwegian ski federation regarding the conditions applicable to his personal sponsor.

a similar hurdle existed last year too, but was overcome eventually to the delight of most xc fans, including myself.

the swedish national team coach rikard grip just commented along the same lines ('northug absence is bad for the sport...')
http://www.svt.se/sport/vintersport/grip-jattetrakigt-for-sporten
(swedish)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Considering a case could be made he shouldn't have been there last year because he should have been in freaking prison or at least serving his house arrest or whatever, I can't say I feel any sympathy.

If anything, I applaud the NSF for playing hardball rather than bending over backwards and letting the prima donnas dictate the terms of the sport to them like the ÖSV did with Fenninger. Of course, it's easier to do so when you already have a glut of the strongest people in the sport (it's not like the Norwegians don't have enough athletes capable of victory in Petter's absence with Sundby, Røthe, Krogh, Brandsdal, Tønseth, Golberg, Gløersen, Hattestad and Dyrhaug), and of course a lot of victories will come with an unspoken asterisk (or a spoken one for the more outspoken of Petter's fans) because of the absence of one of the biggest stars in the sport. But no athlete is bigger than the sport, and since Northug has, rightly or wrongly, come to embody a lot of what is wrong with the sport (eg proliferation of sprints, conservative racing of distance events), and is a rather unlikable character away from that, it's hard to see that his being absent will be that bad a thing for the sport.

 

[python]

...the seasonstarter finally ! has anyone watched the beitostølen races?

i missed the skating events but was able to watch the todays classic sprints. wasn't quite sure if falla's dq in the final was right, but admittedly, the distant image could be the reason. matveva thus was lucky...and of course northug, his typical, hanging back so far that it seems a miracle how he managed the second.

looking forward to the wc races !!

 

[John de Savage]

Results from the norwegian season premiere

Ladies' 7.5 km C
1 JOHAUG Therese 20:26.1
2 WENG Heidi +38.4
3 SLIND Kari Oeyre +55.2
4 JACOBSEN Astrid Uhrenholdt +56.2
5 OESTBERG Ingvild Flugstad +1:01.5
6 FALLA Maiken Caspersen +1:03.2
7 HAGA Ragnhild +1:14.1
8 BOEHLER Stefanie +1:16.9
9 GJEITNES Kari Vikhagen +1:21.2
10 HARSEM Kathrine Rolsted +1:24.1

Ladies' 7.5 km F

1 JOHAUG Therese 19:29.9
2 SLIND Kari Oeyre +39.6
3 JACOBSEN Astrid Uhrenholdt +41.5
4 OESTBERG Ingvild Flugstad +58.5
5 WENG Heidi +1:00.9
6 NAKSTAD Maria Stroem +1:01.8
7 HAGA Ragnhild +1:02.3
8 KRISTOFFERSEN Marthe +1:13.2
9 FENNE Hilde +1:17.2
10 BIRKELAND Fanny Horn +1:18.5

DNF HARSEM Kathrine Rolsted

A breakthrough for Kari Slind. Good performances by the biathletes Horn and Fenne. Johaug looking ridiculous. Harsem with a potential knee injury.

Ladies' sprint C

(DSQ FALLA Maiken Caspersen)
1 MATVEEVA Natalia
2 OESTBERG Ingvild Flugstad
3 JACOBSEN Astrid Uhrenholdt
4 KOVALEVA Polina
5 KVAALE Barbro

A russian W in a women's sprint featuring all the top norwegian girls is an upset. Even if Falla was DSQ.

Men's 15 km C

(DSQ SUNDBY Martin Johnsrud 37:35)
1 ROETHE Sjur 37:59.0
2 NYENGET Martin Loewstroem +51.0
3 HOLUND Hans Christer +1:08.7
4 PEDERSEN Morten Eide +1:15.5
5 BRANDSDAL Eirik +1:15.6
6 CALLESEN Christoffer +1:17.9
7 HATTESTAD Ola Vigen +1:25.5
8 DOBLER Jonas +1:27.4
9 AUKLAND Anders +1:34.7

Men's 15 km F

1 SUNDBY Martin Johnsrud 36:12.1
2 HOLUND Hans Christer +47.4
3 DUVILLARD Robin +49.1
4 NORTHUG Petter Jr.* +59.7
5 MANIFICAT Maurice +1:00.2
6 MUSGRAVE Andrew +1:02.7
7 BOE Tarjei +1:31.6
8 NYENGET Martin Loewstroem +1:33.2
9 LOEFALD Hallvard +1:34.8
10 NYENG Emil +1:36.0

12 FOURCADE Martin +1:38.5

63 KROGH Finn Haagen +3:16.3

Sundby crazy dominant. Tarjei beat Martin. Krogh even stronger than last year.
* Towed by Sundby.

Men's sprint

1 BRANDSDAL Eirik
2 NORTHUG Petter Jr.
3 GOLBERG Paal
4 PALM Sindre Odberg
5 PEDERSEN Morten Eide
6 NYENGET Martin Loewstroem

39 KROGH Finn Haagen

We probably shouldn't put too much stock into Johaug's and Sundby's extreme dominance. It's only the 2nd week of november and they tend to be in good form all the time, unlike many rivals. But they are the obivous favourites to win the big crystal globes this winter.

 

[John de Savage]

Cologna: "I'm really looking forward to the start of the season. I have trained just the way I had planned this summer. Test values show that I'm on par with how I was before the 2012 and 2013 season."

http://www.langrenn.com/super-dario-har-planen-klar.5806983-1743.html

 

[python]

...just finished watching other races from this weekend. the archived videos could be found here (pob'ly geo-restricted but there are ways around):

https://tv.nrk.no/serie/langrenn/MSPO30170615/15-11-2015

random thoughts:

1. good to see the biathletes (fourcade 12th, boe 7th) showing very well in the 15k skate individual. i was also quite surprised by the musgrave high placing (6th). northug's 4th is perhaps not a surprise but he sat on sundby for the good part of the race. speaking of sundby, his gap to the rest of the field seems too huge. petter thinks martin will be unbeatable this season.

2. sundby also won the 15k classic but was dqed for messing with skating...i did not see that fragment (or it was not recorded) but great many top guys - like sundby - were on the skating skis double poling all the way. when making turns or changing tracks, it is not untypical to make an extra stride...petter northug was listed to start, but did not (not sure why). also somewhat surprising was the winner's huge gap to the rest (51 seconds)

3. among women there were almost no surprises. who will raise an eyebrow when johaug annihilates everyone in both styles ? curiously, I did a quick math, her relative advantage over the rest of the female field was even greater than sundby's over the men. she's truly in the league of her own.

4. yes, as was already noted the lady's classic sprints produced a surprise russian winner even if falla was dq-ed. as far as i recall, matveva was always a slightly better skater and here a win at a classic race with virtually all norwegian top gals...the way she actually raced was also different. she never took the front to lead from the getgo as falla did...she would just grind here way stride by stride to race positionally. also, she's not a small girl but looked good on the climbs...

 

[John de Savage]

Calle Halfvarsson has been ill for the past 5 weeks and may not compete before the TdS. Sweden's men's team looking rather weak.

 

[jens_attacks]

Forzzzaaaa idolo poltoranin and soviet russia for the new season!

 

[John de Savage]

Ustiugov dominating in Gällivare.

Men's SP 1 km C Final

1 USTIUGOV Sergey
2 NEWELL Andrew
3 BELOV Evgeniy

http://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/results.html?sector=CC&raceid=26372

Men's 15 km F

1 USTIUGOV Sergey 00:32:12.9
2 HARVEY Alex +27.5
3 BELOV Evgeniy +42.2

http://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/results.html?sector=CC&raceid=26364

Stina Nilsson is in the process of becoming a well rounded skier, rather than a mere sprint specialist.

Women's 10 km F

1 KALLA Charlotte 00:24:01.5
2 NILSSON Stina +35.8
3 INGEMARSDOTTER Ida +1:03.7

http://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/results.html?sector=CC&raceid=26350

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Good to see that, more all-round athletes is always better, especially in the women's field where the distance races have become ludicrously predictable. There's still 12 sprints out of 33 races this year, and the women only have one race (Holmenkollen) over 15km in length, which is frustrating, I do think they could do 20 at at least a couple of those events where the men do 30 (Lillehammer, Davos, Lenzerheide, Lahti and Canmore).

Tragically, that's still an improvement in the number of sprints over a couple of years ago. Imo around 5-6 would be perfect, but I guess it enables them to keep athletes fresh for more races as the distance specialists (what few there remain thanks to the proliferation of sprints, though the men's field offers much more variety in this respect) won't often get through to the later rounds in the sprints (why, hello, Legkov) enabling them to produce a longer season with more racing in it.

On the plus side, only one team sprint as far as I can see, which is ideal, keeps it as a novelty. It's a loathsome discipline, but it doesn't look like it's going anywhere.

 

[frenchfry]

Therese Johaug selling telephones. I'll take a thousand!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YozPp-l4NY

 

[python]

anyone following the seasonopener wc in ruka ? eurosport 1 will be broadcasting sprint finals in about 1/2 hour.

so far, in man's classic sprint qualification we have all the faves in, with the winner golberg and among the ladies falla fastest with top 4 going to norges. 6 swedish girls, incl kalla and nilsson made it too.

 

[Singer01]

johaug is going to walk it this year. so far (without kalla and weng finishing) she has put 41s into the field in 5k. speaking of weng 22 podiums without a win must be very frustrating.

 

[python]

actually weng did better than i expected in a skate - 4th overall and only 26 sec back...certainly, johaug was fastest but her advantage was smaller than i expected considering the course difficulty (35m elevation gain per 1km -close the fis limit). in fact, if kalla did not fall on the last hill, it would be about 10 seconds only...

nice to see 2 swedish girls on the podium in this sense, the muscle woman absence is an eqalizer. niskanen also did very well but it helped to latch on to johaug...tanygina heading the russian best was a surprise too

men's 10k is due in less than an hour...sundby is my fave. i expect petter be quite high. very curious about the legkov shape...vyleg, though he rarely does well in the individual, may surprise.. why ? his shape seems ahead the usual for the season...

 

[Bavarianrider]

Well expected winners.
However, Norwegian domination wasn`t nearly as bad as imagined. Could be a good sign for the season. However, conditzions were super fast today, so let us wait if today's result was representative.

 

[python]

Well expected winners.
However, Norwegian domination wasn`t nearly as bad as imagined. Could be a good sign for the season. However, conditzions were super fast today, so let us wait if today's result was representative.

yep.

some other tentative observations:
1. like an hour earlier, only 1 norge on the podium. a much more interesting start to this season than last year. still, norway domined the top 10 as expected.
2. it was my impression that the late starters did not suffer the usual disadvantage during a moderate weather of a beatup track. alex harvey was super, cologna his normal strong and legkov looked considerably better than this time last year. In fact, if it was a 15k which by definition suits him better he'd probably podium judging from his splits.only sundby was faster btw 6.2km and the finish, vyleg did imo well, as i expected, though he faded several seconds toward the end. Northug was visibly suffering...i was disappointed with the swedes (only johansson in top 20). clearly the absence of both leaders tells. my avatar danny is just too big for such a course...
3. a top biathlete fourcade did respectably, still good enogh to be equal to a pure sprinter like petuckov.
4. tomorrows classic pursuit is going to be a nail biter. imo, weng has a chance to beat jouhaug as the tracks supposed to be colder and they start only 5 seconds apart. The 3 swedish girls will give a spirited chase with ida, stina and charlotte staring only seconds behind (15 sec for kalla). The man's pursuit imo is an open. sundby will start only 14 sec in front of a strong group likely to form ( krogh, gloeersen, cologna, harvey and northug). unless they shake off petter early (doubt they can) we all know who will win. i dont see legkov to feature much, but when he's on form, which appears the case, he can classic even if is a painfull thing to watch...i do think that vyleg will move at least 10 places but he'll start too far back (52 sec) to podium.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Fourcade didn't get the best of conditions either. I think with better conditions he could have got up to around 15th maybe. Don't think he'd have troubled the top 10, mind. I know that some of the biathlon girls have done top 10s at times when they've done 10k frees (Mäkäräinen at Lahti or Gössner at Val di Fiemme, for example) but there aren't any Lars Bergers among the biathlon men at the moment. Unless Fourcade is in monster mode like at the end of 2012-13 when he was winning sprints by over half a minute, he still has to at least shoot well (which he invariably does).

 

[python]

well...nothing special to say. there was no miracle. everything happened almost exactly as it was supposed to. johaug and sundby raced carbon copy races. northug too...even my prediction that vyleg will move 10 spots almost panned out - he moved 8 spots. cologna deflated slightly, but legkov held. 5/6 podiums to norway..i do feel for weng mixing up the finish.

 

[John de Savage]

That was more embarrassing than all of Domracheva's screw ups combined.