Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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Singer01

BANNED
Nov 18, 2013
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If Eckhoff ever get that level of shooting on a regular basis she will be lethal. LD is getting *** annoying though. If she keeps her desire she looks a good bet for beating all the women's records.
 
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BullsFan22

Jun 22, 2010
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Some are saying that Bolshunov should have been taken over Chervotkin, particularly pointing to the U23 results in the US and what Bolshunov was able to do in the two races in Lahti. Chervotkin did an exceptional relay leg in Nove Mesto last year, but that was last year. He finished 7th in the Davos 30km. You are right Python, his race in the military games in Sochi a few days ago wasn't convincing. I don't know. I think either Bolshunov or Chervotkin would have been good bets. Larkov is solid in both classic and skate, but if they had put him in the third leg, who would they go with in the opening leg? Bolshunov? Turyshev and Volzhentsev are excellent classic skiers when in form, but they were mediocre in the 15km. Larkov was great in the skathlon AND the 15km, finishing 8 in the 30km and tied Toenseth for 5th in the 15km yesterday. I think if the Russians get the wax and skis right tomorrow, they should hang to the leaders after the 2nd leg. Sundby will most likely drive the pace to get rid of everyone, most of all the Russians. There's no secret about that, Sundby said so himself. He said that if they get 30 seconds by the 4th leg over Russia, then Krogh should be safe. So what will the other teams do to try and distance the Norwegians? Can anyone do it? Will someone try to attack already in the first leg? What about the second leg? Will Olsson try to do something to break things up? What about Bessmertnykh? Will he take his anger of finishing 4th out on the course tomorrow? Toenseth and Dyrhaug are solid right now, so it may be very difficult for anyone to break them. I can see all the top teams breaking away from the others by the 2nd leg (Bessmertnykh, Niskanen, Dyrhaug, Olsson and maaaaybe even Noeckler). France isn't as good as they were in Falun or Sochi so I don't see them fighting for the medals this time around, but you never know. If Ustiugov is with the leader(s) in the final leg, can he deal the Norwegians another blow by outsprinting Krogh to the line? Northug had some interesting words for Halvfarsson. Will it irritate the Swede? Will the home nation get another medal? It all depends on their third man, Lehtonen. Heikkinen isn't as good as I though he'd be, but I still think Lehtonen is the key skier for them.
 
May0maniac

May0maniac

Jun 30, 2014
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Re:

kingjr said:
I think it will be between Sweden and Norway tomorrow, Hellner can maybe stay with Sundby, Chervotkin, well.... might be lamb to the slaughter. Anyway, I expect Krogh to win the sprint, if it comes to that.
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Yes, Chervotkin is a big question mark, but the Russians probably have their reasons to pick him over someone like Sedov (maybe he had a bad preparation/got sick before the Estonian races).
I don't think that italy has a shot at getting a medal, De Fabiani has no form, so getting a top 5 spot would be a big success for the team, frankly I don't believe that they'll finish top 5.
Let's hope for a great and competitive race.
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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Re:

Singer01 said:
If Eckhoff ever get that level of shooting on a regular basis she will be lethal. LD is getting **** annoying though. If she keeps her desire she looks a good bet for beating all the women's records.
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Laura has always maintained that she doesn't expect to be around forever, mind. When asked back in 2015 after her breakout worlds in Kontiolahti, where she saw herself in five years time she said "possibly not in biathlon". She has outside interests and isn't all that fussed by being the golden girl.

If we anticipate that she holds on to the overall crystal globe this year, if she keeps up this level of success next season and then takes a bunch of medals home from Pyeongchang, when 2018-19 gets under way she'll be 25 and have achieved everything but the statistical records.

Sound familiar?

The big thing will be Pyeongchang next year. If she gets hurt and misses the Olympics or otherwise flunks them, she'll have unfinished business in the sport and may be around for the long haul. If she wins big at the Olympics, the next thing would be where and when she retires, because there isn't anything coming up that's as convenient as the Ruhpolding Worlds in 2012 were for Neuner.
 
meat puppet

meat puppet

May 29, 2011
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Agreed that the ladies 4x5k was a dull race. As a side note, I think Pärmä is a bit to blame for the bronze. She let nilsson set a slow pace for much too long whereas pedal to the metal approach was needed.

Today many teams will probably want to distance russia as much as possible from the start. I mean, who would want to have a try against Ustjugov in the finale?
 
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MrRoboto

May 19, 2011
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Seems hard to not blame Mononen for that bronze. She did seem to have much worse skis than the other finns for some reason, but she still blew herself up in the first couple of kilometers and completely collapsed.
 
meat puppet

meat puppet

May 29, 2011
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Re:

MrRoboto said:
Seems hard to not blame Mononen for that bronze. She did seem to have much worse skis than the other finns for some reason, but she still blew herself up in the first couple of kilometers and completely collapsed.
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Yes. She gambled and tried to follow Jacobsen and "went for the gold", as I think competitive athletes always should. But she blew up and was caught. Would a more cautious tactic have produced a different result? Perhaps.

However, my point was that taking the situation in the third exchange into account Pärmä had a (better) chance against nilsson (with a different tactic).
 
M

MrRoboto

May 19, 2011
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meat puppet said:
MrRoboto said:
Seems hard to not blame Mononen for that bronze. She did seem to have much worse skis than the other finns for some reason, but she still blew herself up in the first couple of kilometers and completely collapsed.
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Yes. She gambled and tried to follow Jacobsen and "went for the gold", as I think competitive athletes always should. But she blew up and was caught. Would a more cautious tactic have produced a different result? Perhaps.
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She was the one who pushed the very high tempo the first kilometers. Maybe they thought their best chance to win was to get rid of Jacobsen, but with what you would think was the weakest link on the finnish team? At least Pärmä had showed she could almost match Marit on the 15 km.

meat puppet said:
However, my point was that taking the situation in the third exchange into account Pärmä had a (better) chance against nilsson (with a different tactic).
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Sure.
 
python

python

Sep 25, 2009
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7.5 k and we already have gap created by larkov/toenseth to grow likely to 10 sec by the change 1. their skis are working fine, which is likely to continue for bess/dyrhaug....the 2 will are likely to ski an all all out tt. very interesting.
 
Cance > TheRest

Cance > TheRest

Apr 17, 2013
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Re: Re:

python said:
Cance > TheRest said:
Well, certainly the Russians have great skis unlike Finland
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and norway has bad skis too ?
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Did I say that? I just noticed that Bessmerthnyk had extraordinarily great skis. Maybe I was wrong about Finland and it was simply Niskanen saving himself, but in any case, the two other medal candidates (Sweden and Finland) appeared to be a little disadvantaged compared to Norway and especially Russia.
 
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BullsFan22

Jun 22, 2010
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The Russians and Norwegians had excellent skis compared to everyone else in the classic legs. Larkov hardly slipped. Question now is, what can Chervotkin do? When will Sundby go to get a gap? Can the Finns hang on for a medal? Can Hellner do anything to close the gap to the medals? What sort of shape is Cologna in today and especially before the 50km?
 
python

python

Sep 25, 2009
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that finland lost 10 sec in just 2.5 km suggests shervotkin is not exactly hitting a break in front of sundby right now...the question is will he be able to sustain it when the bearded asthmatic 11 year his senior decides to stop 'sucking ' the youngster's skis. cologna is on fire.
 
K

kingjr

Sep 9, 2012
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Re:

python said:
that finland lost 10 sec in just 2.5 km suggests shervotkin is not exactly hitting a break in front of sundby right now...the question is will he be able to sustain it when the bearded asthmatic 11 year his senior decides to stop 'sucking ' the youngster's skis. cologna is on fire.
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And so is Hellner
 
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