Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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Sep 26, 2020
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Elvira kept her cool. The fact she got to (pretty much) shoot on her own all four times probably helped as well. Simon tried to push it at the start of the third lap, but failed badly. She is not at her very best yet, but there's still time to get there for the Olympics. Braisaz-Bouchet continues to be mighty fast, but it's hard for her to win when she can't shoot clean and also loses significant time during the shooting itself.

Minkkinen and Magnusson took back some points on Jeanmonnot, but she can be happy that Kirkeeide had an absolute nightmare out there. Minkkinen is looking like a strong candidate for the pursuit title.
 
Feb 20, 2010
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I can't recall a similar outcome, but @Libertine Seguros may be able to point to a relay in Khanty-Mansiysk 20 years ago or something.
Can't think of any tbh, men's relays have typically not had this many teams competitive after that point, because there's always been a steep drop-off after the first few because of the sheer strength in depth that the Norwegians, French, Germans and Russians had, with either Sweden or Austria being the next up depending on era, such that as soon as any of those made any errors, you wouldn't have 5 teams up front anymore, but there were only very rarely any others that would interfere (such as when Italy got that shock win in the blizzard in Oberhof in 2012). Also Oberhof relays more typically have large time gaps, but huge swings in time due to the unpredictable conditions in the range that mean races aren't necessarily close but see a team with a seeming unassailable lead throw it all away, or a team seemingly out of it suddenly emerge at the front (in much the same way as we saw from Giacomel individually in the pursuit yesterday).

The best example for that would be 2011, when Christoph Stephan completely killed the crowd after one lap by shooting a penalty in the very first prone, only for the conditions to get really tricky at the top of the range in standing causing absolute havoc for the other top teams (Alexander Os shot 2 penalties, Vincent Jay shot 3, and Lowell Bailey and Markus Windisch shot 4, while Ivan Tcherezov got out without a penalty loop but a slower range time than that time Dorothea Wierer almost froze to death holding off on her last shot in standing) while Stephan arrived at the more sheltered end of the range, cleared all 5 targets, and trotted off to a big lead, only for Alexander Wolf to shoot a penalty in prone on the second leg and drop back behind the others, then hit 5/5 in standing while Simon Fourcade and Lars Berger (one and four loops respectively) floundered.

Oberhof is also statistically one of the hardest, if not the outright hardest, ranges in the sport, but also with some of the more decisive and punishing trails, so it's usually been conducive to larger gaps; somewhere like Ruhpolding which is renowned for a relatively easy range can see the race come down to ski speed, or a women's relay in Nové Město (the longer loops since the reprofiling can be quite challenging but the 2k loop is fairly tough to make significant gaps on) where the shooting conditions are easy would be the kind of circumstances you'd usually expect to be the biggest candidates to create this kind of closeness. Having all those teams within such a small time spread is rare in a Single Mixed, which is designed to be close, so to see it in a conventional relay - and in Oberhof especially - is crazy.
 
Jul 8, 2017
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What a great race in the women's relay today.
Kirkeeide was looking tired behind Oeberg in the middle of the loop, only to somehow find excessive strength and pip Vitozzi in the last meters.
Sad for Italy though.
 
Sep 9, 2012
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What a great race in the women's relay today.
Kirkeeide was looking tired behind Oeberg in the middle of the loop, only to somehow find excessive strength and pip Vitozzi in the last meters.
Sad for Italy though.
Great in the way a Single Mixed Relay is great, yes.
 

KZD

Feb 21, 2019
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Italy's relays looking really good just in time for the Olympics.

Norway has been overperforming on women's relays this season, especially without Tandrevold, they become very dangerous.

The French looked poor today on the skis, Simon in her current shape is not the best anchor.
 
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Aug 29, 2009
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Today's new sprint course in Oberhof looks pretty tough, climbing up the Biathlon-descent, and with a long drag towards the finish. Unfortunately the men's starting field is fairly weak, though, and Sundling will probably not allow much competition on a course like this.
 

KZD

Feb 21, 2019
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Samuelsson and Giacomel looking like the two most in shape male biathletes at the moment.

The Norwegians are really slow at the moment, Frey got his first career podium but he got towed by Samuelsson for two laps.
 
Jul 10, 2009
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Today's new sprint course in Oberhof looks pretty tough, climbing up the Biathlon-descent, and with a long drag towards the finish. Unfortunately the men's starting field is fairly weak, though, and Sundling will probably not allow much competition on a course like this.
Samantha Smith wins her heat; too bad the US doesn't have a few more of her. She is still a full time student at Stanford University in the US (a very demanding university academically, if you're not familiar with it), a starter on their nationally ranked futbol/soccer team, and first time on snow this season wasn't until the first week of December. Not to mention she's an expert level aerial/big mountain alpine skier as well. That's what world class talent looks like, for sure.

edit: Photo with Moa Lundgren in the semi with a pair of clearly substandard (imho) skis; nice outing for her.
 
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KZD

Feb 21, 2019
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First ever World Cup win for Lars Heggen.

Sundling winning in the women's as expected but Rydzek managed to give her a good fight.
 
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Jun 22, 2010
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How embarrassing for Rosie Brennan. Gets caught and passed by Sundling in the qualification. Her technique is awful. Little wonder she's had back problems in her career.
 
Apr 10, 2019
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How embarrassing for Rosie Brennan. Gets caught and passed by Sundling in the qualification. Her technique is awful. Little wonder she's had back problems in her career.
Frankly your average amateur has better technique than her after a few years. One hss to wonder how outstanding her aerobic engine is to compensate for that.
 
Jun 22, 2010
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Yes, I think that he is a future World Cup overall winner.

Tough luck for Stadlober today, losing by just 0.7 seconds to Ilar.

But a potentially crucial win for Ilar, in terms of the overall. She still has a ways to go, 139 points, to be be exact, but these sort of split second results could be the difference in the end.
 

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