Winter Sports this week (Mainly biathlon Worlds)

A busy weekend coming - it's the Biathlon World Championships (at Nove Mesto; starting 7 Feb with the mixed relay), and the FIS World Championships are already taking place at Schladming; Tina Maze won the women's Super G, and Ted Ligety took the men's race - both impressive efforts! BBC are covering the FIS events on the red button.

Unfortunately Lindsey Vonn is now out for the rest of the season after a very nasty crash in the super G; three injuries to the right knee (2 ligament and one fracture) - all the very best to her for a speedy recovery (the hope is that she will be back next year and able to compete in the winter olympics at Sochi)

Finally well done to the women's skeleton team; Shelley Rudman won what I believe is Britain's first gold medal in the women's skeleton in St Moritz, with fellow Brit Lizzy Yarnold in 4th.

Well, great start to the championships for Norway - Tora Berger took the lead on leg 1 and they pretty much kept it, although it was open to challenge at times! So, Norway first (Tarjei Boe back on form from the look of it), France second and, to the obvious delight of the home crowd, the Czech Republic took bronze! Not sure what happened to the Germans; Miri Gössner looked a shadow of herself - shooting a bit flakey as normal but her usual blinding speed over the snow just wasn't there and the team eventually limped in 13th, with Andi Birnbacher being outsprinted for 12th by Weger (Swi). They'll be hoping for better in the individual races (glimpse of the blindingly obvious!!).

Alpine update: Well, firstly well done to Maria Höfl-Riesch who won the women’s super combined world championship in Schladming (8 Feb) from Tina Maze (the overall world cup leader at present) and Nicole Hosp – good result in the downhill section and a great slalom run to take the title! Men’s downhill (9 Feb) was also plagued by poor visibility at times (as the women’s super G) and icy too; how Max Franz managed it with a duff knee is amazing! Although the BBC have produced some good coverage of the Worlds at times they didn’t cover this live (holding it for Ski Sunday presumably?) – poor show! Luckily there are other options – exciting race; like a few others I thought Eric Guay had this in the bag, but one mistake spoiled that and he eventually skied out lower down. Next down was Aksel Lund Svindal; what a run!!!!!! That pretty much left the remaining skiers to dispute the silver and bronze; Dominik Paris came closest, taking the silver and David Poisson held on for a well deserved bronze. Huge crash later on for Bostjan Kline (Slo) when he looked like breaking into the top 10, but luckily he managed to get on his feet and is hopefully OK – tough bunch!

Anyway – back to the really important stuff and the men’s 10 Km biathlon sprint at Nove Mesto. Good to see Jaroslav Soukup (Cze) back up with the best after his bad mountain bike (?) accident earlier in the year. Andi Birnbacher (Ger) started well, with a clean prone shoot and better speed than in the mixed relay, but then missed 2 in the stand – disappointing! Tarjei Bø also clear in the prone and marginally faster than Andi – in the lead until Martin Fourcade and then Emil Hegle Svendsen (EHS, Nor) take over – Bø also misses 2 in the standing shoot, as does Soukup – it’s infectious! Martin Fourcade manages a little better with only 1 miss in the stand, same for EHS! At the finish, Lindström (Swe) is fastest for a while – some 46 seconds ahead of Andi B, which is worrying for the Germans as they are both on 2 misses? Shipulin (Rus, 1 miss) takes over from Lindström, until Fourcade goes even faster, taking over until EHS goes 8 seconds faster. Meanwhile, back at the prone shoot, Bjorndalen [OEB] (Nor) is very fast and shoots 5/5, and Malyshko (Rus) is also looking threatening! Meanwhile Boeuf (Fra) goes third to displace Shipulin from the podium – in his turn he is pushed off by Malyshko. It’s all happening – OEB comes into the standing shoot and misses 1 – still fast though, about 10 secs behind EHS, but Jakov Fak (Slo) is also going well, and now he’s in the bronze slot – can OEB get on the podium? Alas no, but even so 4th just 20 seconds off the pace – good comeback by the old (39? Mere youth!!) man. Gratifying to hear that Kevin Kane (GBR) has shot 10/10 – good effort although he hasn’t qualified for the pursuit. No late upsets, so, at the end – Svendsen, M Fourcade and Fak.

On to the women’s 7.5 Km sprint, with the wind lightish but quite variable in direction: Disappointing start for Kuzmina who got a round jammed and lost the equivalent of a penalty loop getting it sorted; both Domracheva and Gössner miss in the prone 3 and 2 respectively – however Zaitseva, Palka, Vita Semerenko and Solemdal are clear. Zaitseva manages just one miss at her standing shoot; Miri Gössner shoots 5/5, which is a superb effort but she doesn’t seem quite as sharp over the snow? Early leader at the finish is Palka (Pol), but Vita S is clear and fast and now Tora Berger is 5/5 at shoot one and Vilukhina is flying – so is Pidhrushna! At this stage it’s Vita S (0 misses) from Zaitseva (1) and Vilukhina (0) at the finish with Miri 4th (2 misses) – Berger is trying to recover the time she lost with one miss on the standing shoot. Outstanding – Pidhrushna (0) takes the lead, with Berger (1) getting into 2nd place; amazing comeback – she really is on form this year and must be delighted that she didn’t retire! Gwizdon (Pol) was also looking good at shoot 2, but a miss here (2 total) dropped her out of contention for the podium. Meanwhile the French aren’t looking as rock solid on the range as normal, and also aren’t a threat – possibly that horrible new suit they’re wearing is putting them off! Looking as though it’s settled – Olena Pidhrushna wins the World Championship; what a day for a PB! Another medal for Berger, this time a silver, and Vita Semerenko gets bronze – good day for Ukraine!

Alpine update: Women’s downhill – another exciting race on a tough course; second down was Nadia Fanchini (Ita) with a slow burning start leading to a fantastically fast finish! As a result most of the following skiers went green on the top two intermediate times, after which the light went red and stayed there. As we moved on to the favourites, a few managed to keep the green light on a bit longer but still lost too much time on the final section. Eventually Marion Rolland (Fra) managed to spoil the Italian’s day by going 0.16 faster – final result Rolland, N Fanchini and Maria Höfl-Riesch (Ger) in bronze. Some epic crashes, which luckily everyone seemed to walk away from.

Back to biathlon – and the men’s 12.5 Km pursuit at Nove Mesto: The first three after yesterday’s sprint, Svendsen, Martin Fourcade and Fak, all took off like scalded cats – gutsy pace for a 12.5 Km race! In to S1 at a more moderate pace – both Fourcade and EHS clear but OEB misses 2; Fak and a Russian horde all go clear too. Bø and Garanichev also miss 2 each – some changes in the order early on. Coming into S2 it’s EHS and MF leading with Shipulin up to 3rd – EHS is clear again but Fourcade misses one – back onto the track it’s EHS from Fak, Shipulin and Boeuf; OEB goes clear this time and is 9th! Martin Fourcade closing back up on the next lap, and Simon Eder (Aut) also going well – into the first standing shoot (S3) – EHS ice cool and still shooting clear but Fourcade, up to second, misses again; into lap 4 with EHS 17 seconds clear of Fak with Malyshko and Shipulin next in line; Fourcade 5th nearly 40 seconds back on the leader. Some good shooting today, and that’s bringing some of the mid-field starters like Landertinger back into contention. Now the crucial final shoot – EHS in nicely clear, with the wind rising – 1 miss! Fak has a chance but also misses; Malyshko goes 20/20 and he’s out just 2 seconds behind EHS; Fourcade goes clear and is 3rd, ahead of Shipulin, Fak and Landertinger – exciting final lap coming up! At 11 Km only 1.2 seconds separate the leading 4; who is the best sprinter? Photo finish as Svendsen and Fourcade cross the line – the Frenchman horizontally! The fall across the line gives EHS the win from Fourcade and Shipulin; that’s Svendsen’s third gold in a row here.

On to the women’s 10 Km pursuit, with Tora Berger (Nor) as the overwhelming favourite. Quite an easy course, which makes good shooting even more crucial. Another fast start – Berger off like a rocket and into the lead. Into the stadium for S1, wind looks exciting! Berger, Pidhrushna and Zaitseva clear and the first away, in that order; alas Miri Gössner misses 3 which is surely her chance gone, and looks like no medal for Germany in the first week. So, into S2 – missed first target for both Berger and Zaitseva; so Olena P away first with Berger 4th about 20 seconds back, Palka (Pol) up to 3rd. At the next timing point Berger is back to 2nd and has caught up about 8 seconds, and she’s continuing to close on the leader. Here we go – S3; wind seems to be lighter – Olena and Tora miss 2 each which lets Zaitseva through; can Vitkova delight the home crowd and take advantage – 1 miss for her. Out for the next lap – Zaitseva from Palka (just 3.1 seconds back) and Berger (+23.4). At the next timing point Berger hasn’t closed, possibly keeping a reserve for her scorching final lap? Meanwhile, among those who are coming up the ranks, Henkel is 15/15 and up to 9th; by contrast Miri is 21st from 6th. Into the crucial final shoot – Zaitseva and Palka both miss 1 while Berger goes clear and leads out – meanwhile Henkel is clear again and up to 7th from 33rd. Berger is giving it volllgas, pulling away – what has happened behind? – suddenly Zaitseva is behind Palka and Flatland has vanished??? Presumably a fall, but not on camera. Berger (3 misses) cruises to another gold, with Palka (2) getting silver – Pidhrushna (2) manages to hold off Zaitseva (3) for bronze – Andrea Henkel (0) in 6th, which is some consolation perhaps for the German team? Now we have seen the fall – Flatland cut across Zaitseva and both fell – careless and cost the Norwegian a probable silver; I imagine Zaitseva is fairly annoyed as it probably cost her a podium too. Nice to see Amanda Lighfoot in the pursuit, moving up from 58 to 52 today.

Alpine update: Men’s super combined was won by Ted Ligety, who frankly produced one of the most outstanding slalom runs I’ve seen; a very well deserved gold medal. Kostelic was 2nd and Baumann, the leader after the downhill stage, was 3rd. Some very high profile DNFs, especially on what looked like a very tricky, technical slalom! In the Nations Team event (which inexplicably didn’t seem to be on the BBC coverage?) there was some very close racing and a few surprises .. eventually Austria won from Sweden, with Germany taking bronze after a very close decider with Canada.

Now back to biathlon and the women’s 15 Km individual – no penalty loops, just a 1 minute penalty added to the score for every miss and the wind can be a bit gusty today! I joined this late, just in time to see Valj Semerenko (Ukr) shoot her third 5 clear – 1, 0, 0 so far and a good time, ahead of Kaisa Mäkäräinen (Fin) who is 2, 0 ,0 here but faster on the tracks. Meanwhile at S1 Gwizdon (Pol) is the one to beat; sadly Darya Domracheva (Blr) isn’t going to do it – melt down at S1 with 4 misses. Back to S4 and Valj Semerenko goes clear here too – 19/20! Tora Berger (Nor) is at S1, and quite fast but steady – 5/5 so the tactics are good and she’s only marginally behind Gwizdon; Andrea Henkel (Ger) also in touch here as is Palka (Pol) despite a ponytail malfunction! At S2 Soukalova (Cze) is clear and fast – out leading at that stage – quite an open competition; exciting stuff! However, Berger is very fast on her second lap, and clears S2 as well – she’s now in the lead at this stage (24 secs faster than Soukalova!), until Kuzmina (Svk) goes even faster; Henkel also clear and in touch.

Back to S3, and Soukalova has missed one, dropping her behind Glazyrina (Rus); Vita Semerenko (Ukr) takes the lead until the unstoppable Berger machine pushes her aside – a 42 seconds margin! Nerves coming in; Soukalova misses her final target (18/20) and Kuzmina also drops one in her third shoot. Currently at the finish it’s Valj S from Zaitseva and Glazyrina, but with some fast competitors still on the course, which doesn’t seem to be slowing yet. Vita S misses one at S4, but Berger makes no such mistake and goes 20/20 nearly 1.5 minutes ahead of the previous best at that stage and she hasn’t even done her blazing last lap yet; looks very much like yet another gold – not sure she’s human!!! Podium still looking interesting; Kuzmina in touch despite 2 misses and Andrea Henkel joins Berger in the 20/20 club – can the Ukraine twins both stay on the podium? Their compatriots are also doing quite well – worth a bet for the women’s relay? Anyway, at the finish Berger now leads by 1 minute 42.5 seconds! Kuzmina goes 3rd and knocks Vita off the podium, but then Henkel goes into silver position to displace her in turn – some good news for Germany (especially as Miri has shot 1, 1, 1, 3! Good shooting from Horchler though – 19/20). Bad day for Domracheva too – fast skiing but 6 misses and currently one place above Miri, also on 6 misses. Final result – Berger, Henkel and Valj Semerenko on the podium in that order and all 4 Ukraine athletes in the top 20!

Men's 20 Km Individual - Biathlon: Very exciting race! Svendsen was not racing (sore throat), so we'll never know what he might have done, but Martin Fourcade was on sensational form and, at last, got a very well deserved gold medal (1 miss). Big surprise was Tim Burke (USA, 1 miss) who took the silver after a brilliant run - I think the first silver medal for the USA in 26 years? Third was Freddie Lindström (Swe, 1). Local boy Ondrej Moravec ended up 4th - a very good result for the Czech Republic who are really giving everything in these championships. Nice to see Simon Fourcade come in 6th, and very sorry for Lukas Hofer who missed his last two shots when the podium was beckoning!

Women's 4 x 6 Km Relay: A real nail biter! Before the race the pundits were wondering if .... Solemdal would crack; Ukraine could handle the pressure of being favourites; Sweden and Germany knew what they were doing putting putting a World Cup novice in their teams etc. Early on Norway seemed out of it, with flakey shooting resulting in lots of spare rounds and a penalty loop; the Czech team were well up, as were Ukraine and Poland, but while Miri Gössner was fast (ish) she needed spare rounds and at the third handover Germany were 38 seconds off the lead. A really sensational debut by Laura Dahlmeier (10/10!) put Germany not only back in contention but marginally in the lead as she handed over to Andrea Henkel for the final lap. Alas for the fairy tale, Henkel (who has shot brilliantly so far) needed spare rounds and although Tora Berger also missed one target her unbelievable speed over the snow took yet another gold for Norway! Ukraine didn't crumble as suggested, and took a very well deserved silver, juts ahead of Italy - who I don't think anyone tipped for the podium! Russia were 4th and Germany 5th - more disappointment for them but tempered by the arrival of a new star - with France 6th. Great effort from the Czechs who were right up there until the third leg. Men's tomorrow!

Alpine: Women's GS - good win by Tessa Worley (Fra, but the Austrians are also trying to claim her!!) from Tina Maze and Anna Fenninger. In the Men's race, another gold for Ted Ligety (great championships for him) from Marcel Hirscher and Manfred Mölgg.

Men's 4 x 7.5 Km relay: Another epic race! The amazing strength in depth of Norway (OEB, Henrik L'A-L, Bø & EHS) couldn't be denied and they took yet another gold; frankly I don't think anyone deserved to beat them on the day! Germany shot brilliantly and hit the first 35 targets with no spare rounds used to be in a comfortable second place after shoot 7 - I don't think I'm the only one though who questioned their choice of running order, and thought that putting arguably their least experienced athlete, Erik Lesser, in slot 4 against Svendsen, Martin Fourcade and Co was a mistake. Lesser has apparently said in interview that his final shoot was just badly executed and it wasn't specifically the effect of any pressure, but I thought he looked ill at ease on the final leg, and for whatever reason he ended up doing 2 penalty loops after his final shoot. With the lead he had, he did come out ahead of M Fourcade and Malyshko but despite really wiping himself out on the final leg (and with an extra 300 metres skied) he couldn't hold off Martin F who got France up into silver medal position. To Lesser's credit he managed to hold off the Russians and Germany took the bronze - a very welcome second medal for them (after Henkel's silver) and some consolation - but he looked absolutely exhausted at the end and certainly no one can say he didn't give it everything he had - all respect to him! So, Norway, France and Germany on the podium and Russia fourth in yet another race, with only one bronze (?) so far in these championships.

Women's 12.5 Km Mass Start: I gather the bookies were making Tora Berger the absolute favourite for this one, but she got off to a shaky start by missing one of her targets in shoot 1, and remember this format does favour the really fast skiers (such as Kaisa M, Darya D and Miri G). This developed into a fascinating race, with Domracheva pulling away nicely before the first standing shoot; Miri Gössner was also well in touch with a real battle behind the two of them. Coming into the final shoot Darya was well clear and had shot 1, 0, 0 so far - she dropped one further target but was still comfortable unless Miri (0, 1, 0 so far) cleared the lot - Germans must have been hoping for another medal but sadly Miri missed 3 and had another 450 metres to ski on the penalty loop; this looks very much like head problems, as her shooting had been fine up to then? So, goodbye medal for her, and Berger went clear (1, 0, 1, 0) to go into second behind a tiring but safe Domarcheva, where despite her awesome speed Berger stayed to the finish - another silver for her and a record breaking 6 medals in this championships! Bronze went to Monika Hojnisz (Pol) after a brilliant performance (0, 0, 1, 0) - Poland have had a good championships (Palka 7th today too) and it's great to see the so called "minor nations" really getting into podium contention. Vita Semerenko was 4th, with Zaitseva finishing 5th (so this is shaping up to be one of Russia's worst championships - just a bronze so far) in a photo finish with Miri Gössner, the best of the Germans as Henkel had another bad day on the range after her earlier run of 80/80 - great shame. Just the men's mass start to go!

And - Men's 15 Km Mass Start: Another great race - theory was that it might start slow and get tactical, but it went off fast, despite which it remained very open - nasty crash on the faster, slightly warmer tracks which upset Tim Burke (damaged sights?) and others. Very tight after S2, where Martin Fourcade missed 1; he then went from about 19th to first on the next lap - fantastic change of pace. After S3 Tarjei Bø, on 15/15 led out from Birnbacher (1,0,0), Martin Fourcade (0,1,0), Lowell Bailey (15/15) and EHS (0,1,0) - by the next timing point there were 7 athletes within 7 seconds of the lead and 13 within 17 seconds - still all to play for. The final shoot was, once again, the one to worry about - Bø remained clear (brilliant shooting) and led away from the range ahead of Svendsen (also clear on S4), Ferry (Swe, 20/20) Erik Lesser (1,0,0,0) - what a recovery from him - Shipulin and Moravec. Bø really attacked the first climb, which hasn't always proved a good tactic, but managed to hold off Svensen (still a bit off from his cold?) who lost a place to Shipulin, and that's how it ended - Bø got his first gold of the championships, Shipulin rescued Russia's statistics with a well deserved silver and EHS got his 5th medal! Moravec gave the home crowd a thrill by coming in 4th, a great effort given their relatively small budget, Erik Lesser was the first German home and Landertinger was 6th. Good effort also by Simon Fourcade, who just beat brother Martin (9 & 10 respectively) and Lowell Bailey (0,0,0,2) who was so nearly the second medal winner from the USA. OEB was 24th after missing 6 targets. Hard to pick a "man of the match" - suppose it ought to be Bø, but my vote goes to Erik Lesser for a massive recovery after what must have been a mentally and physically draining relay yesterday!