Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[titan31]

I think Germans have a strong chance if they both shoot as well as they shoot normally. I'd be leaning still to France even with them not including Simon or Braisez Bouchet.

 

[BigCoward]

I'll be happy if one if the 'realistic outsiders' (Austria and Switzerland) win or at least medal.

 

[Mayomaniac]

And now Ben Ogden has Mono, classic American overtraining your young talents?

 

[BigCoward]

Sweden and Italy had a shocking start.

 

[KZD]

Very high chances that France tops the final medal table now after this gold medal.

Tandrevold once again blowing everything away in the standing shooting in such a way that Italy overtook Norway for silver.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I jinxed the Latvians

No redemption arc for Tandrevold. Perhaps it would be for the best if she leaves the championships now to refocus on the World Cup.

 

[BigCoward]

I jinxed the Latvians

No redemption arc for Tandrevold. Perhaps it would be for the best if she leaves the championships now to refocus on the World Cup.

Doing a tandrevold was right.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Doing a tandrevold was right.

This time it was just sad to watch. She had even been put in a fantastic position with Jeanmonnot losing a bullet and having to reload during the previous shooting, but to no avail.

 

[BigCoward]

If she goes in the relay she should be nowhere near the last leg.

 

[titan31]

If she goes in the relay she should be nowhere near the last leg.

She should just go home. Norway have very little chance in the relay anyway with the way they're performing. She'll likely finish well back in the mass start too the way she's shooting

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Such a difficult conundrum. I really don't want more Børing parade victories, but I do also really want Tandrevold to get something out of this before her confidence is completely destroyed. I really like Ingrid, she's easily my favourite of the current Norwegian squad, male or female, but the fact is, pairing her with Johannes creates a monster paradox for me. Because, let's be honest, the only way they were losing that race was if QFM brought his A-game and Ingrid blew it.

 

[BigCoward]

If this was a women go first year, she'd have been absokutely fine.
It took her mate a long time to sort her head out and look at the few years she had, also she's still pretty young.
She'll come good again, and she would absolutely have taken being overall leader at this stage of the season.

 

[dobrien]

And now Ben Ogden has Mono, classic American overtraining your young talents?

oh ffs, mono is a virus, it happens. Since this seems to be a big thing with you, can you give us your full rundown of Russian and Americans who you know for a fact have been overtrained? Based on your posts this should be a long list, more than just Gus Schumacher (who, based on several interviews, said his overtraining was the result of HIS OWN youthful enthusiasm).

 

[BigCoward]

Norway have put Tandrevold on the last leg. I hope they are out of contention before then. Its a relatively strong team on paper but they've been utter garbage this WC. France are going to have to really mess up to not win, hoping Germany can keep it interesting. Sweden also have been terrible this champs on womans side.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Franziska Preuss is sick (again) and will miss the relay.

 

[search]

looks like it's a bit more windy today. Still difficult to see anyone really challenging France, though.

 

[search]

After the race, Doro Wierer will make a statement, exclusively on Eurosport.

Would she choose that over Rai to announce the end of her career?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Patrick just confidently announced that Emma Lunder was having a great start for Canada. That was, of course, Natalia Sidorowicz of Poland. Knotten back like Lazarus.

 

[KZD]

Franziska Preuss is sick (again) and will miss the relay.

She is the biathlon equivalent of Kelderman, poor girl.

Jeanmonot with another great performance in her leg, France will be almost impossible to beat.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Ermits and Tomingas absolutely rule. A pity that Estonia don't have the depth.

 

[BigCoward]

France probably need to go on the loop again for it to make a difference, maybe even twice.

 

[titan31]

I'd love if Estonia won a medal. Very unlikely but it would be great.

Id still fancy France here with who's coming though

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'd love if Estonia won a medal. Very unlikely but it would be great.

Id still fancy France here with who's coming though

Tomingas is genuinely a really good biathlete whose ceiling has been rather limited by budget. She has a few top 10s to her name on the World Cup. Ermits is good for World Cup points but had her best ever result in the Individual, she's also very good in relays and was half of their surprise podium in a Single Mixed a couple of years ago. They have got four decent biathletes and you'd call them a decent midfield team, but on paper they ought not contend against the likes they're against - and they have frontloaded the team with their best athletes so they should drop away. This is a fairly typical alineation for that type of team, just like when Slovakia used to run Gereková-Kuzmina-?-?, and before they had a strong enough team to compete for podiums, we used to see the Czechs go Vitková-Soukalová-?-?, Belarus go Skardino-Domracheva-?-? and Italy go Vittozzi-Wierer-?-?.

 

[BigCoward]

At least it takes the pressure off Tandrevold.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well, the script seems set now, should still be a battle for bronze given Germany had to sub Preuß out, otherwise you'd have expected them to overcome Talihärm and Juppe fairly easily, but gold and silver ought to be set now. But we do need to thank a few people for making this race better than it seemed on paper. Regina Ermits and Tuuli Tomingas for their overperformance as well as the first two Norwegians for recovering their form, and Sophie Chauveau for her underperformance bringing a deficit to the French as otherwise they would probably have just skied off into the distance.

Edit: hmmmm. I really like the German team and it's a nice story for Schneider to come in and save a medal at the last minute, as well as for Grotian as the phenom-in-waiting, but Estonia would just be such a wonderful story. I mean, 4th would still be an incredible achievement and a super memorable one, but just imagine the celebrations of a medal there. They've got the Junior World Championships coming up in Otepää, and it could be GREAT for business for the sport up there.