Biathlon - Östersund

At last - biathlon time again! First venue of the new season is Östersund, and the first events were the Men's 20 Km individual (Weds) and Women's 15 Km individual (Thurs) - sprints later today.

Men's 20 Km: Apparently better conditions than the last visit (-2 degrees vice -20?); pundits favourites probably the Norwegians (Bø, Hegle-Svendsen or possibly Björndalern), with a side bet on Martin Fourcade or Arnd Peiffer? As this is an individual race, a miss on the range adds 1 minute to the overall time; no penalty loops. At shoot 1 Micky Greis (Ger) went clear but wasn't skiing so fast - early season? Christophe Sumann (Aut) also went clear, but was faster, as was Lars Berger until he missed a target! Bø and Svendsen got off to really bad starts with 2 misses each at shooting 1, as did Peiffer, but Martin Fourcade went clear and was fast too. As the race progressed Daniel Mesotitch (Aut) was looking good with fair speed and 3 clear shoots, but Fourcade was also clear and even faster. By the end of shoot 3 Fourcade was 48 seconds up on Landertinger (Aut, also still clear at that stage), with Jakob Fak (Slo?) heading Windisch and Mesotitch; all to play for on the final shoot, although Fourcade's speed suggested a miss (or even two) would be less terminal for him.

At the last shoot Fak and Landertinger missed 2 each (so overall 0102 and 0002 misses in the 4 shoots respectively), while Fourcade and Mesotitch missed 1 each (0001 for both). Also in the mix were Ustyugov (Rus, 1001) and, among the later starters, Michal Slesingr (Czech Republic) and (bib 77) Simon Schempp (Ger, 1000). So, to the finish where Martin Fourcade (Fra) took a well deserved win, nearly 2 seconds up on Slesingr with the late starting Schempp just nicking the last place on the podium - a really great start for him this season. Fourth was Landertinger, then Ustyugov and Sumann - good race, but not for Norway; too many misses with the great Björndalen having a really bad day with 6! More at http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/01122011/58/fourcade-wins-biathlon-season-opener.html and http://www5.biathlonworld.com/en/press_releases.html/do/detail?presse=1386

Women's 15Km: A windy evening with difficult, gusty conditions on the range. The early "one to beat" was Magdalena Neuner (Ger), although even she didn't look as fast as she could be - as always watching her shoot was a bit heart in mouth although 010 on the first 3 shoots was a great start! Tora Berger (Nor) seemed to be in the grip of the same curse that afflicted the Norwegian men, with 3 misses on the first shoot and the same again on the third, although she cleared both the standing shoots! Kaisa Mäkäräinen (Fin) was very fast, but missed one shot at each visit to the range, while even the usually very steady Helena Ekholm (Swe) was 110 at the third shoot, despite a magnificent effort at shoot 2 in very gusty conditions. Darya Domracheva (Belarus) was 110 at this stage although her skiing was amazingly fast and compensating for the misses, and another contender, by dint of brilliant shooting, was Anna Maria Nilsson (Swe, 100). Again all to play for at the final shoot and Lena Neuner missed 2 in another round of gusts; Domracheva and Nilsson went clear. Also coming into the list of contenders as the race unfolded were Olena Pidhrushna (Ukr, 0001) and Franziska Hildebrand (Ger, 0001, on her debut at this level?) - other challengers also had problems with S4!

At the end Darya Domracheva took the win for Belarus, with Nilsson 2nd and Lena Neuner 3rd. In 4th Kaisa Mäkäräinen's speed made up for her 4 misses, putting her ahead of Pidhrushna and Hildebrand - great effort by all of them. Interesting to look at times and number of misses (1 miss = 1 minute penalty); Domracheva with 2 misses was 1.08 minutes up on Nilsson with only 1 miss, and 1.41 up on Lena with 3 - so even if Neuner had only missed 1 target at S4, she'd still have been 41 seconds off Domracheva's pace! More amazing still was Kaisa Mäkäräinen only 1.57 off the leader with 4 misses - should be an interesting season! More at http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/01122011/58/classy-domracheva-wins-season-opener.html and http://www5.biathlonworld.com/en/press_releases.html/do/detail?presse=1389

I used to follow biathlon when I lived in Norway! Bjorndalen still going I see... Norwegians, Russians and Germans still dominating? Poiree still competing?

For GG; I started following biathlon when I lived in Bavaria – can do the cross country bit (although not at anything like the required speeds) but the ability to control my breathing etc in order to shoot well in the same event rather eluded me! No real domination by any one nation yet; Norwegians were disappointing in the first events, likewise the Russians and Germans, but it’s early in the season. Not sure if Poiree is still going this year – not seen so far! On to the next events -

Men’s 10 Km sprint (Friday): Bit cooler for this event, with variable and gusty winds again; this time we have 150 metre penalty loops for each miss – about 20 secs per loop, so the balance shifts a bit; unlike the individual where each miss adds a full minute, there is arguably less merit in being a bit slower to ensure absolute accuracy, but then again it’s very unlikely that you’ll win a sprint with more than one miss. Once again Emil Hegle Svendsen (Nor) was away really fast, and today his first shoot was perfect. Andi Birnbacher and Michael Greis (both Ger) were slightly slower early on, but Martin Fourcade and Alexis Boeuf (Fra) were inside Svendsen coming into shoot 1; Martin missed one and Alexis, who is very mobile between shots, spoilt his day with 2 loops required. With the wind building up, the Norwegians seemed to have recovered their form, with Bø and OEB (Björndalen) going well. Joining them in the hunt were Jaroslav Soukoup (Cze), Carl Johan Bergman (Swe), Lowell Bailey (USA) and Michal Slesingr (Cze). There was some confusion at shoot 2 when, according to the graphics, Bø missed a target which it seems he did hit – no confusion in his mind as he kept going past the penalty loop and finished with a correct total of 10 from 10 hits. All very close, but in the end it was Bergman who took the win from Bø, Svendsen, Martin Fourcade, Bailey and Andi Birnbacher (Ger). Good to see Lee Jackson in 54th out of 101 well up with Vincent Jay and not far off the pace. Normal service resumed today with Bø, Svendsen, OEB et al back near the top; Germans also better than in the individual. More at http://www5.biathlonworld.com/en/press_releases.html/do/detail?presse=1393

Women’s 7.5 Km Sprint (Saturday): Not such nice conditions – light snow at the start and another helping of gusty, unpredictable winds! Having seen her compatriots regain form yesterday, Tora Berger was off really fast – awesome tempo and determination! Her clean shoot in the prone also set a hard target for those coming later; Kaisa Mäkäräinen was even faster away but in the conditions left 2 targets standing at shoot 1. Miri Gössner (Ger) also made a good start but had 3 misses at S1 which spoilt any chance of a good place. Then it was Lena Neuner’s turn – fast into S1, great shooting and away just in the lead – up 7.6 seconds on Berger. Helena Ekholm, usually a steady shot (I think), was very unlucky, arriving for her first 5 just as the wind picked up even more – she did well though as Gregorin (on her standing shoot) missed all 5 in similar conditions. Some of the Russians were also having problems on the range – still settling after a major turnover at the end of last year? At the end Tora Berger’s time looked good, although Mäkäräinen was only 15 seconds behind despite an extra miss, having made up well on the last 2.5 Km round. Lena N came into her second shoot at the same time as another round of gusts, but with time in hand. She waited what seemed ages before shooting – one miss and by then it was very close – 2 seconds behind Berger at that stage. Also moving through was Darya Domracheva, the winner of the individual – she was fast and clear after S1, but missed one at S2 and then faded a bit on the final leg. Neuner meanwhile had caught up a little on Berger’s time and took a narrow lead but seemed to be tiring and snow ploughed down where Berger had swooped; very close! In the end Lena was approaching the line with commentators doing a “will she, won’t she … yes, no, yes” as she pipped Berger by just 0.2 seconds – very exciting stuff. By then the snow was getting worse, which might have slowed the track a fraction – France’s Marie Laure Brunet had shot clear and was a good prospect for a podium, but her ski speed wasn’t there at the end, and Franziska Hildebrand suffered a similar fate. Final results, Lena Neuner from Tora Berger with Mäkäräinen third, Solemdal (Nor) 4th, and a tie for fifth between Domracheva and Brunet. Looking at the top 10 – 2 Germans (Lena & Henkel); 2 Norwegians (Tora & Solemdal); 2 French (Brunet & Dorin), 1 Finn, 1 Belarus, 1 Ukraine and 1 Russian. Good race!

The first of the pursuit races - the men's 12.5 Km, all set to be a cracker? The early stages were a bit of a nightmare to work out - bit of a crush at the early shoot stage with places changing by the second; quite tactical and great to watch. Carl Johan Bergman was away first, but a miss at the first prone shoot meant a quick trip round the penalty loop, letting Emil Hegle Svendsen (EHS) and Martin Fourcade through, with Lowell Bailey doing well and Tarjei Bø closing in. Into shoot 2, also prone, and EHS, Fourcade and Bergman all went clear, although Fourcade was quite noticably slower dropping his targets. Bailey and Bø also went clear, with Tim Burke going well and up from about 12th to 6.

By the first of the 2 standing shoots the gaps were opening; EHS missed one target as did Bailey, but Fourcade, Bø and Bergman went clear - the latter shooting fast and so first away. Through the next timing points at 8.8 Km and 9.6 Km with Fourcade jumping up the hills (ugly, very tiring, but fast) to get ahead of Bergman, Bø in third closing with EHS a fairly static distance behind him. Into the final shoot, with the wind apparently getting up. Fourcade stayed clear which he briefly celebrated (counting his chickens a bit?), as Bergmann missed 3 targets which surely put him out of contention for the podium. Bø missed 2, EHS 1 and Bailey 2 more. Jaroslav Soukup (Cze) went clear which put him back into the mix for the final 2.5 Km loop. That gave Fourcade a very comfortable lead, which he kept to the line despite losing or breaking a pole, crossing with time to unfurl the French flag and take a bow - great shooting and impressive speed too! Svendsen gave a demo of his impressive sprint speed to beat Soukup into third, while Bø did the same to Bergman for 4th and 5th. Germany's Andi Birnbacher was 6th ahead of Benjamin Weger (Swi), Lars Berger (Nor) Tim Burke (USA) and Michael Greis (Ger). Impressed by Bergman who dropped 4 targets and still got into the top 6!

Women's 10 Km: Alas Eurosport didn't show this live and the early re-run was a bit sparse/over edited; we seemed to miss the third shoot completely, but from what I saw most of the race wasn't as good as the men's event, except ... Anyway - Berger was away fast only 0.2 seconds behind Neuner with Kaisa Mäkäräinen close behind. Those three were fairly clear at the second shoot where Tora B went clear while KM and Lena both missed one. At the 4.8 Km timing point Berger was still nicely clear with KM and Lena disputing third, ahead of Valj Semerenko (UKR), Brunet (Fra) and Sleptsova (Rus). We rejoined coverage after shoot 3, where apparently Lena dropped another 2 - thought she'd got over that sort of shooting! By shoot 4 Tora B was looking very impressive, only 1 miss from the 20 and as they left the range she was 28 seconds clear of Kaisa M; Semerenko was third then Brunet, Sleptsova and Neuner in 6th 1.39 behind Tora. That left the podium looking fairly settled and Berger (0001) duly took a well deserved win from Kaisa Mäkäräinen (0101); however, further back rocket ship Neuner (0121) hadn't given up and took out Sleptsova and Brunet in fine style before passing Semerenko on the hill - an amazing performance which gave her the third spot on the podium despite her problems in the shooting. Valj Semerenko was 4th, Sleptsova 5th and Tina Bachman (Ger) pipped Brunet for 6th - good news for her as the Germans will be dropping the two "weakest" members of their squad and getting new talent in before the next event - will this be enough to safeguard her place?