Biathlon - Oslo (Holmenkollen?)

Sprints (Thursday) – missed these live, so just a summary. First – the Women’s 7.5 Km sprint, held in almost perfect conditions. Lena Neuner (Ger) led from the first split time, shot 5/5 in the first shoot and came out of the prone 1.7 seconds clear of Darya Domracheva (Blr) with France’s Marie Dorin Habert third – lots of perfect scores but no one with the speed to catch the leading two. Lena apparently had a slight cold, so was determined to shoot well in case she was slightly slower on the loipe. She duly went clear in the standing shoot too, while Domracheva had one penalty loop to do. Habert and Brunet (France) went clear, but Tora Berger (Nor) with one penalty was closing, as were Andrea Henkel (Ger) and Olga Zaitseva (Rus). Despite the cold Lena pulled away on the last lap, taking first place from Darya by 38.2 seconds. Berger also had a fast final lap, passing the French women to take the final podium place. Dorin Habert was 4th, ahead of Andrea Henkel and Olga Zaitseva.

Men’s 10 Km Sprint: By the time the men started conditions weren’t quite so perfect, with more cloud but still fast track conditions. Tarjei Bø (Nor) had another disappointing day by his 2011 season standards, ending up 28th, but his countrymen Svendsen and Björndalen were both clear in the prone and skiing fast. Errors in the standing shoot cost both of them time – 2 loops for Svendsen and 1 for OEB – which was an opportunity for both Evgeniy Garanichev (Rus) and Arnd Peiffer (Ger). Both shot clean in the standing – Garanichev was the first to finish and had to wait to see if Arnd could catch him – despite a cracking last 1600 metres he was 0.7 seconds back in 2nd – great maiden World Cup win for Garanichev who was on the IBU circuit this time last year. Svendsen was 3rd, ahead of Alexis Boeuf (Fra) who shot 10/10 but couldn’t keep up the speed on the last lap. OEB was 5th (still a real contender!) and Jakov Fak (Cro) was 6th.

Women’s 10 Km Pursuit (Saturday): Yet more face tape! Lena Neuner (Ger) away first, 38 seconds clear of Darya Domracheva (Blr); Dorin Habert (Fra) closing on Tora Berger (Nor)? At S1 Lena is 5/5 before Darya is settled; Berger & DH also in – all 3 clear! Andrea Henkel (Ger) is also clear but Kuzmina (Svk) misses 2. Miri Gössner (Ger) misses her last target – I keep hoping she can settle down and exploit her ski speed! Into the second prone and Lena misses one – onto the 150 metre penalty loop! Same 3 following; Darya clear as are Berger and D-H; Zaitseva (Rus) now up to 5th with Brunet (Fra) 6th; Miri misses 1 here too – schade!

Into the standing shoots – Lena misses her last shot as Darya settles next to her – another penalty loop! Domracheva has a rifle snag which costs her time and 2 misses; Berger also drops 1 and D-H 2 – Zaitseva goes clear and into 3rd ahead of Dorin Habert and Brunet. Gaps stay pretty much the same on the next lap and into the final shoot – this is where the brain can get in the way! Lena is awesome – all 5 down and away! Berger tenses up and drops 2, but Olga Zaitseva is also mentally strong and goes 5/5 – now up to 2nd. Domracheva makes up for a bad S3 with another clear shoot and is back to third ahead of Berger and Kaisa Mäkäräinen (Fin). So, Neuner’s 7th win of the season and her 31st World Cup win despite 2 misses. Olga Zaitseva (0) gets a very well deserved 2nd, with Domracheva (2) 3rd. Berger (3) outsprints Kaisa Mäkäräinen (3) for the next 2 places and Vilukhina (3, Rus) takes 6th – good race!

Men’s 12.5 Km Pursuit: Only minus 16 degrees here, and a dry cold. So, Evgeniy Garanichev (Rus) leads off from Arnd Peiffer (Ger) and Emil Hegle Svendsen (Nor); Ole Einar Björndalen (Nor) overtakes Alexis Boeuf early on – into S1, the first prone. The first three all go clear; OEB misses his last (commentator’s curse working well) but Boeuf is also clear; Fak (Cro), Ustyugov (Rus), Bailey (USA) and Martin Fourcade (Fra) all in the chasing pack and within 45 seconds. A quick lap and into the 2nd prone shoot – not good for Svendsen who drops 1 target (or not, literally speaking) – Garanichev leads Peiffer back out with Ustyugov now 3rd ahead of Bailey; as the lap continues we get a pack of 4 in the immediate chasing group. Garanichev is setting a hard pace – into the first standing shoot and only Arnd goes clear here, making sure of his advantage – behind him Svendsen, Ustyugov and Fourcade go clear but Bailey drops 2 and OEB misses another – 1 per shoot so far.

Into the crucial final shoot with Garanichev trying to close down the gap on Peiffer; behind them Simon Fourcade (Fra) and Florian Graf (Ger) are both gaining places, as is Tim Burke (USA). Arnd clears all 5 before Garanichev starts, and to add insult to injury, the Russian misses another. Svendsen misses his last too, and Martin F misses one as well – chance for Fak, but he also has a miss – tension setting in! So Peiffer clear away with Garanichev trying to hold off a fast closing Svendsen on the final lap. Martin Fourcade may well be off colour today – lots of colds around – but is holding on to 4th at present. Arnd Peiffer strolls home, having hit all 20 targets, for the win but behind him it’s very exciting; Svendsen (2 misses) outsprints Garanichev (2) on the final stages (and almost blows it, showboating after the bridge?) to take 2nd. Martin Fourcade (1) is 4th ahead of Jakov Fak (2) and Tim Burke (0). Even with 4 misses OEB is 10th, so his ski speed is looking good; improver of the day possibly Simon Fourcade, coming up from the 40s to finish 18th, or maybe Florian Graf? Great day for the Germans, winning both of the pursuit races

After some exciting Alpine skiing, over to Oslo, and the Women’s 12.5 Km Mass Start: A positively balmy minus 10 today, after fresh snow overnight; the official start list clearly shows Lena Neuner as “DNS” (breaking flu?), but no comment from the commentators until the race is well underway (too busy chatting or just too much data coming in?!) and nil on ZDF either for about 15 minutes – what will that do to the overall standings, especially if next week in Finland is not a sure start? Into shoot 1, the first of the prone. The top 5 all miss one, but Brunet (Fra), Zaitseva (Rus) and Dorin-Habert (Fra), among others, go clear and leave the range in that order. Miri Gössner (Ger) also clear and in 10th at present, but going fast on the next lap; quite a modest pace from Zaitseva, so Domracheva (Blr) is also back in touch after her penalty loop. Now the second prone – Vitkova (Cze), Berger (Nor), Zaitseva, Bachmann and Henkel (both Ger) are clear; Domracheva misses a second and Miri melts a little, missing 2! On the next lap Berger, who left the range 5th but now leads, is turning up the pace, ahead of Bachmann, Henkel and Zaitseva - is that a good move?.

The first standing shoot – Berger shoots very fast but misses 2; Henkel goes clear but Zaitseva misses 3; out of the range it’s Henkel, Brunet, Gregorin (Slo), Palka (Pol), Ekholm (Swe) and Dorin-Habert. Domracheva is possibly still in touch but Berger is now 48 seconds back; on the lap Darya is closing on the chasers but Berger is losing time – last shoot! Henkel clears the final 5; Brunet and Gregorin both clear, Domracheva and Berger also missing again; 4 and 5 total misses respectively but Darya still has the speed to get a respectable finish. Final lap is going to be interesting – at 10.8 Km Gregorin is 27 seconds back on Henkel but only 10 seconds back from her are Brunet, Ekholm and … Domracheva! Andrea Henkel takes the win (1 miss) from the amazing Darya Domracheva (4 misses, which is about 80 seconds for the extra 600 metres!!), Tia Gregorin (0), Helena Ekholm (1), Marie Laure Brunet (1) and Olga Vilukhina (1). That moves Domracheva much closer to Neuner in the overall standings.

Men’s 15 Km Mass Start: And, like Lena Neuner in the women’s race, the potentially strongest German, Arnd Peiffer, will not start. A total climb of 535 metres, so one of the hardest courses in the calendar and the flat light won’t help the shooting; is the wind a bit stronger than for the women? Svendsen is back in the yellow bib today and must be one of the favourites, but with Ustyugov, both Fourcades, Birnbacher (red bib, leading the discipline), Bergman and Shipulin also here it’s very open. At the first split Bø (Nor) is just in the lead – is he back on form? Into the 1st prone, at what seems a sensible pace; Martin Fourcade (Fra; brother Simon misses 1), Lowell Bailey (USA), Andi Birnbacher (Ger), Ben Weger (Swi) all go clear and leave in that order followed by Garanichev (Rus), Svendsen (Nor) and Malyshko (Rus). On the next lap Svendsen closes on Fourcade, overtaking several athletes as he moves into the lead coming into the range. The wind is tricky and Martin F misses 2, while Svendsen misses one, but Garanichev is clear and away from Birnbacher, Malyshko and Tim Burke (USA) who had a better second shoot than his countryman Bailey. Garanichev is pulling away slightly, but with 10 athletes within 20 seconds; Svendsen back up to 5th.

First standing shoot – Garanichev is just clear enough to be able to settle before he gets company; good shooting but the last one is a miss, and Burke drops 2 – Birnbacher and Malyshko take advantage, they are clear as we start the next lap, but Garanichev and Svendsen are still in touch and the Norwegian is closing again. Meanwhile OEB has had something of a melt down in his third shoot – pity. As they approach the final shoot, Svendsen is back up so the leading 4 are pretty much together; if they falter there is a chasing group ready to pounce. The 2 Russians both drop a target, but Andi and EHS are both clear – we know how fast Svendsen is, but have the 2 penalty loops given Birnbacher an edge? Tricky tactical problem for Andi – trying to outsprint Svendsen, especially in Oslo, isn’t really a good bet, but equally is it possible to lose him on the hills? Behind them are the 2 Russians and then Martin Fourcade. Andi can’t shake off Svendsen, but Garanichev has dropped Malyshko and is possibly closing on the leaders. Final steep climb and Svendsen injects enough pace to take the lead as they swing right; Svendsen wins (2 misses) with Birnbacher (0) 2nd and Garanichev (2) third – his third podium of the weekend. Malyshko (1), Martin F (3) and Ustyugov (4) fill the next three places. Off to Finland next weekend!