Biathlon - Östersund (Warning - results given!)

Östersund for the Men’s 20 Km individual – the format where every miss on the range translates to a penalty minute added to the total time! Early pace setters, after shooting 1, were Evgeny Ustyugov (Rus) with Martin Fourcade (Fra) only 0.7 secs adrift but several big names are yet to start. At shooting 2 Ustyugov wasn’t so clean and, like his compatriot Malyshko, missed 2 targets, leaving the way open for Bergman (Swe) to go clear and take the lead, just clear of compatriot Bjorn Ferry – meanwhile at S1 Emil Hegle Svendsen (EHS) took over as the fastest at that stage. Martin Fourcade also dropped a target at S2, while EHS joined the 2 miss club; at S3 Ustyugov went clear – only 2 misses so far and Malyshko matched him again. Among the Germans Andi Birnbacher went 0, 0 in his first 2 shoots to lie only 7 seconds behind Bergman (who missed his first target at S3), better than both Schempp and Peiffer at that stage. Surprise so far was Ondrej Moravec (Cze) – 15 targets down with no misses and a good time too – leading after S3 just ahead of Anev (Bul) with Ferry dropping back after 2 misses. Meanwhile Ustyugov was at S4 and seemed to find his rhythm – another clear round and fast too; EHS did the same at S3 – not over yet! At S4 local boy Bergman drops 2 – for a while Ustyugov is now the man to beat here, especially as Moravec drops 2 on his turn; as the snow begins to fall Martin Fourcade clears S4, well up on Ustyugov – great shooting and his speed is good too.; even with 2 misses EHS goes second after S4, again at the current stage.

As the early starters begin to cross the finish line, Martin Fourcade takes the lead – 20 Km in 50 mins 44.7 – notably faster than my 12 Km time and he was stopping to shoot too, and had 1 minute added for his missed target – very depressing! Meanwhile EHS temporarily goes into 2nd, just 37 seconds back despite an extra miss, losing the place to Dominik Landertinger (Aut), who also only missed 1 target. Now, how are the later starters doing – bit hard to tell as the coverage is moving rapidly from range to finish but Erik Lesser (Ger; ZDF list him as Eric Lessner?) is the new leader at S3, clear so far; Kauppinen (Fin) is still clear after S4 but his ski speed doesn’t seem good enough to get him into the top 5? It wasn’t – Kauppinen into 8th, but great shooting and only 20/20 I’ve seen so far today. Lesser comes into the range for S4; despite the massive pressure he also clears all 20 but he’s almost 4 seconds back on Fourcade’s time as he leaves the range; can he take Landertinger? Alas, no but he does manage to displace EHS from the podium – best of the Germans and he’s really knackered! A few other 20/20 scores showing up, but only 2 in the top 10 at present. For a while Pinter (Aut) looked as though he might join the 20/20 team, and his speed was good too, but he dropped one (or didn’t drop one if we’re being pedantic) at S4 – even so into 6th place at present. Final athletes are coming in, but doesn’t look like any threat to the main places; a great win for Martin Fourcade (1 miss) but a massive effort from Dominik Landertinger (1) got him 2nd only 12.3 seconds back, with Erik Lesser (0) in third. Then EHS (2), Ustyugov (2), and Pinter (1). Two Austrians, two Russians and two Norwegians in the top 10, plus one each from France, Germany, Bulgaria and Finland.

Alas, I missed the Women's event (15 Km individual), which was won by Tora Berger (Nor), who shot clean - interestingly she was only 1 min .03 clear of second placed Darya Domracheva (Blr) with 2 misses - third place went to Glazyrina (Rus), again with no misses but 2 mins 10 back from Berger - good analysis on http://realbiathlon.blogspot.co.uk/