Nordic World Ski Championship

[cartman]

Well, new hill record for Kofler, 141 meters. Quite nice I should say.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Berger was 37 seconds slower than Neuner in ''skiing time.'' Need to step it up a notch to have a chance tomorrow I'd say.

There are very few who can match Neuner for ski time. However, there is always the possibility of Neuner making an error in the shoot, especially standing. Yes, Berger needs a bit of look vis-à-vis poor shooting performances from Neuner, Kuzmina AND Kaisa, but she has the skiing measure of the others who start ahead of her, so I wouldn't write her out of it just yet. She's still a definite threat to at least get a medal.

 

[roundabout]

Interesting to see Bill Demong on the start list for the 50 tomorrow.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

Great performance by the Duracell Bunny! This course and distance suits her so well. She lacks power, but her climbing and endurance is awesome.

I think and hope that the decisive course will make the 50k a lot more eventful than these mass start races usually are on the men's side. Just look at last year's preview. The bunch was absolutely shattered!

http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=CC&raceid=16217

Nice shooting form on Lena Neuner, btw!

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

How about the Golden Boy's finish in the relay? Beastly and arrogant as ****! Northug in a nutshell!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JevGgOOLQF0&feature=related

 

[cartman]

How about the Golden Boy's finish in the relay? Beastly and arrogant as ****! Northug in a nutshell!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JevGgOOLQF0&feature=related

Yeah, apparently he got some pants in a knot across the border.
Personally i found it OTT, but it's good to see that most of the teams brushed it off. (With the exception of Germany) Would be cooler if he demolished them in 'Hellnerbakken' and did a Dæhlie 360 or backwards at the line. Think he could've pulled it off, Hellner didn't look too good and Angerer wouldn't have been able to follow either. He certainly showed once more that he's got awesome power.

Earlier today I read that Tarjei Bø is going to take a 360 as a tribute to Northug if he gets the chance to at the pursuit. I'll be watching Tarjei.
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/sport/skivm/article4051088.ece

 

[Nastyy]

I'd definately think Harvey and Manificat will have a go at it. Vylegzhanin as well, he's looked good on the duathlon and the relay. Legkov was terrible yesterday, so I guess he's one that we wont see anything from. What do you think about Jauhojärvi or any of the other Finns, think they'll go for it?

Oh I forgot Vyleghzanin. He has a good kick though so he doesn't necessary have to go very early on. But he seems to have a really good form so he's one to watch.

Cologna has been disappointing as well. Wonder what has happened to him and Perl. Both were looking good in the last World Cup races.

Jauhojärvi won't even be skiing, he's poor in skating. Similä and Kattilakoski will just do their best and try for a placing in the 20-30. Nousiainen said he doesn't know how his skating is but if everything goes well he'll fight for a top 10. Our best guy is Lallukka who was very good in the relay and this race is his main target for this season. He's also a very good climber so the course suits him. He maybe one who goes with a breakaway if there's one.

By the way, what skis does most of the Swedish team use? Nousiainen uses Peltonen's and Roponen Automic's and those two have had big diffuculties with their skis. If I was them I would've just said screw the contract and used someone elses skis. It's really a disgrace for Automic and Peltonen not to provide their skiers with any decent skis for the World Champs.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yeah, apparently he got some pants in a knot across the border.
Personally i found it OTT, but it's good to see that most of the teams brushed it off. (With the exception of Germany) Would be cooler if he demolished them in 'Hellnerbakken' and did a Dæhlie 360 or backwards at the line. Think he could've pulled it off, Hellner didn't look too good and Angerer wouldn't have been able to follow either. He certainly showed once more that he's got awesome power.

Earlier today I read that Tarjei Bø is going to take a 360 as a tribute to Northug if he gets the chance to at the pursuit. I'll be watching Tarjei.
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/sport/skivm/article4051088.ece

He didn't get the chance, he got another bronze, behind Martin Fourcade and Emil Hegle Svendsen. The three of them and Arnd Peiffer were clearly the class of the field, finishing a minute up on everybody else, Fourcade doing so despite an extra miss!

 

[ingsve]

He didn't get the chance, he got another bronze, behind Martin Fourcade and Emil Hegle Svendsen. The three of them and Arnd Peiffer were clearly the class of the field, finishing a minute up on everybody else, Fourcade doing so despite an extra miss!

Fourcade is in really good shape it seems. I think we might get a repeat of the Björndalen/Poiree rivalry between Fourcade and Svendsen/Bö in the years to come.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Kaisa Mäkäräinen wins the women's pursuit, in what was only ever a two-woman race. Neuner skied faster than her, but missed 2 at the final standing shoot, Kaisa went 20 for 20, and that made the difference. Neuner had nothing left in the legs to catch her on lap 5. Bronze for Helena Ekholm, who also shot perfectly and took advantage of mistakes by Kuzmina and Zaitseva. Berger was 5th with 2 misses, Kuzi came in 6th after a number of misses but good skiing, while Miriam Gößner managed to miss 4 at the first standing shoot but somehow, rather miraculously, go clear at the other three shoots, and so climbed up to 7th.

Andrea Henkel is the star of the race though - starting 20th to finish 4th.

 

[python]

clara is done by the pack

 

[Scirea]

Cologna has been disappointing as well. Wonder what has happened to him and Perl. Both were looking good in the last World Cup races.

Perl had an injury, he still can't go in classical style. That's why he sat out the 15km and 30km races. He said he is pain-free in freestíle so he could show something today.

 

[Scirea]

Btw these Norwegian people are crazy. Slept beside the court to get good places, madness. I respect them though.

 

[ingsve]

Btw these Norwegian people are crazy. Slept beside the court to get good places, madness. I respect them though.

They've been camping there for two weeks now. The first people started showing up over a week before the competitions started to reserve the best spots.

 

[python]

hellner has forced a selection of 20 or so..surprised to see chernuusov so relaxed in 2nd.

 

[flyor64]

That was a helluva race right there...

That last 1400 m was insane! The two crashes...unbelievable. Great finish.

Paris Nice wasn´t a bad stage either

 

[python]

man's individual 20 k is about to get underway in siberia. great way to kill an hour and a half before pn action heats up.

parodoxicly, french (well one french- fourcarde) is doing far better in siberian snow than his landsman on home soil

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Bø still incredible, most of the other youngsters having to give way to experience. Great performance from Maksimov. I had a feeling that the Individual might be where the Russians got some medals, but I expecte Shipulin and Ustyugov to be better calls for it than Maksimov.

 

[roundabout]

IIRC Maksimov got a medal some years back in the World 20k in a similar 1-off appearance.

Edit: one can almost suspect foul play when 100% of Maksimov's career podiums and 3 best finishes have come from 4 Worlds starts.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Jesus Christ, Michael Greis... so disappointing for the Germany team there... very tight relay.

And another medal for biathlon's answer to ol'One-Race-A-Year, Maxim Maksimov...

 

[Ferminal]

Great shooting Ustyugov... wish he could have held on

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Magdalena Neuner is amazing. That is all.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

Neuner vs Khvostenko - mismatch of the year.

I thought the germans were mad for starting both Bachmann and especially Gössner. That's just begging for penalty loops. Luckily for them, Neuner saved the day, but it wouldn't have been enough if any other team had at least decent depth.

What is it with russians and relays? Terrible shooting yet again.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

To be fair, there were teams with decent depth there; Russia had a shocker in the first two rounds, the pressure really got to Yurlova and then they were shooting in the middle lanes where conditions were at their worst when Bogaliy was shooting. France had decent depth - Dorin, Brunet and Bescond are all very good, and Boilley has a lot of promise, and is not really a worse selection than Gößner - plus of course Pauline Macabies has struggled on the third leg throughout the latter half of the season. Brunet has simply not been on very good form lately, and the French are more known for their shooting than their skiing on the women's side of things (obviously the Fourcade brothers make it different for the men). The French press are getting on Brunet's case about not having the endurance for the whole season and complaining that she's too thin... no, really. Norway don't look to have a bad team and neither do Sweden; with Hitzer being unwell and off form meaning Germany had to look for two people to join the Henkel/Neuner tandem (all year it's been Hitzer-Neuner-?-Henkel, with Buchholz, Bachmann and Gößner all having a go at #3)... and Bachmann probably won her way in with her performance in the Individual. Gößner is always a gamble, but when she has some spare rounds they probably think it's more worth taking.

Ukraine are pretty decent but most of the year they've been putting the Semerenko twins on legs 2 and 4; today they wanted to get themselves into a strong position early so led off with them; that meant they had their weaker skiers on the last legs. No doubt on the first leg perhaps Khvost'enko wouldn't have been outclassed on the skis so clearly as everybody's together to pace one another, and her shooting was as superb as ever. Belarus have been strong in relays all season; this isn't an obvious one-woman team like Finland or Slovakia are, but Darya Domracheva is clearly the big gun. And again, they used her on leg 2, as they have done all season (remember Oberhof, where Domracheva and Neuner started leg 2 in about 15th and 16th and finished it right up amongst the front pack, but Domracheva a few places up? Or how she came back from crashing on the first corner to silver medal yesterday? Domracheva is one of the more underappreciated athletes on the circuit, I think), meaning they had weaker skiers on the latter rounds.

Ultimately, yes, it was a horrendous mismatch on the final two laps seeing a horrifically out-of-form and out-of-favour Khvost'enko trying to hold on against a driven, powerful and in-form Neuner, but Ukraine used 4 spare rounds in the whole race; Germany used 13 AND did 2 penalty loops.

On the plus side for Germany, Miri has been pretty good in the prone pretty much every time in the last two weeks. Maybe she really IS the new Magdalena Neuner. If she achieves a quarter of what Neuner has done I think she could retire happy though.