Biathlon 13/14

First topic message reminder :

As we have dedicated threads for other winter sports, here's one for biathlon events & comment. Worth mentioning here that there is a wealth of information at http://realbiathlon.blogspot.co.uk/ and a quite lively forum at http://realbiathlon.freeforums.org/index.php

One week to go until the first "real" race of the winter season - the mixed team race at Östersund on 24 Nov!

Also, an interesting update on the German team for this season at IBU Site

Oslo Sprints - Women: Over to Holmenkollen, where it's rather foggy, to put it mildly - the jury seem OK with the visibility though, and the women's 7.5 Km sprint is underway. We also have the "usual" Eurosport commentary team back - despite the fact that this is the women's race we seem to be spending a lot of time wittering about OEB! Snow looks a bit soft and slushy; fog is thinning but I can see the wind starting to move the trees a little more? Looks a little windy on the range but Vilukhina clears and the fall of shot looks very good. Soukalova, Henkel and Berger also clear in prone, and now Dasha joins them, as does Susan Dunklee but Eckhoff has missed 2. Vilukhina has cleared again at S2; Zaitseva has hit her first 5 - all happening! Berger is clear, and away from S2 faster than Vilukhina; Soukalova is also clear but slower than both; Henkel misses 2 here while Kaisa misses one in prone - about 24 seconds lost; meanwhile Dasha has missed one in the stand (commentators are back on the topic of OEB again!). Dunklee has shot 10/10, she's about 20 seconds back on Dasha who is currently fastest out of S2. Ooops - Kaisa has flown round the tracks, but she has missed 3 in her standing shoot - that will make the overall even tighter - she's out of S2 in 15th, at this stage. Interesting that Dasha has just finished 10.7 ahead of Berger, despite one penalty - very fast skiing. Tracks are breaking up badly - think it's about 5 degrees; doesn't bode well for the men. Looking back down the field, Gwizdon is looking good although I suspect the condition of the track won't help her. Valj Semerenko and Horn are also in touch at S1, but Gwizdon has missed 2 in her stand; Horn has missed 1 - at present Berger is second and less likely to be pushed down, but Kaisa looks vulnerable to being pushed further down the points - although if it's really bad then this might end up as one of her discards (looks like that will happen - she's out of the top 20 today now). Looking at the course times, Kaisa was fastest, just ahead of Dasha with Berger only 9th (at present); however Berger was fastest on the range, and very accurate, with Preuss second best although she did miss 1. That snow looks awful! Anyway - Darya Domracheva (0.1) wins from Berger (0.0) and Dunklee (0.0). Best German seems to be Laura Dahlmeier (1.0) in 10th with Preuss 11th and Hinz 21st.
Kaisa Mäkäräinen might take consolation from the fact that since Berger didn't win this sprint, the small globe goes to Kaisa, but this result might well have cost her the overall as she will start 1:16 or so behind Berger in the pursuit. Points at present (fm IBU website) KM 799; TB 778 & DD 710.

Oslo Sprints - Men: Maybe a bit less windy, and not too foggy but warm (5 degrees). Schempp off to a flyer - hope he's not going too fast? J T Bø is shooting fast but has one miss at the prone (and one of the hits was a bit lucky!!). Bit windier for Simon Schempp and he misses 2; Beatrix has gone clear, as has Sumann. Hofer and Rastorgujevs are flying on the first lap; Fak is clear at S1 and very fast. Both Hofer and Svendsen have missed one at S1, and so has Rastorgujevs. Eder and Ferry both clear at S1, but Martin Fourcade has missed one, and Bø has at S2 as well - 2 in total today. Nice shooting by Erik Lesser at S1, and OEB is also clear here; Sumann misses his final shot at S2 - pity. The flying Fak misses one at S2, but that's a good time. Ustyugov misses 4 at S2, very odd. Svendsen misses 1 but Rastorgujevs goes clear - Ferry is amazingly fast at S2 and clears; he's just 0.6 faster than Fak. Fourcade has missed another at S2; Lesser misses 2 (and so does Peiffer a little later) and OEB 1. Tim Burke is, sadly, not going to match Dunklee as he's missed 4 at S2. Jakov Fak is over the finish line; that time might well take some beating, and neither Ferry nor Rastorgujevs can manage it. Loginov might make the podium? Looks as though Loginov might get it; currently third having knocked Rastorgujevs down into 4th - pity as I think he does deserve a podium finish; worth a few bets next year!
Good ski speed from Lars Berger; despite his 2 misses he's currently the best of the Norwegians! The track might be breaking up, but Garanichev has just cleared - 10/10 and he leaves the range just over 7 seconds ahead of Ferry and Fak's time; what's he got left for the final lap? At the final split he's just off Fak's pace; at the finish he can't catch the Slovenian but he does get into second, pushing Ferry down into third and denying his compatriot, Loginov, a podium! Good result given his late start (69). Poor Bogetveit (Nor) seems to have shot at the wrong targets; he thought he'd missed 1, and did one penalty lap, but he will now be penalised (time) for the other 4 misses that he hasn't done a lap for.
Looks like there are no surprises coming - Jakov Fak (0.1) wins from Garanichev (0.0) and Ferry (0.0). Good runs from Loginov, Rastorgujevs and Eder (4-6 in that order). Svendsen is 10th, just 1 place up on Martin Fourcade with OEB 12th, which gets Svendsen back ahead of J T Bø in the overall. Another disappointing day for Germany, with some poor shooting - Pieffer (0.2) is best in 20th, then Böhm (0.0 but 8 seconds or so off Pieffer's time) in 24th; Lesser and Doll also both missed 2. Should be a good pursuit!

Women's Pursuit - Holmenkollen: Well, a very tight series, and it's the last women's pursuit - all very exciting, so naturally Eurosport stick with the late running ski jumping (again!!) and eventually condescend to join on lap 3!
Anyway, at the beginning it looked like Kaisa wasn't making up time - in fact she seemed to lose time against Dasha. Domracheva cleared both S1 and S2 while Berger missed 1 at both prone shoots; Kaisa 0.1 on those 2. The standing shoot is where it all began to change - Dasha missed 3. Berger missed 2 and Kaisa cleared - Kuzmina looking good and Dunklee coming back from an early miss. At S4 Dasha's bad day gets worse as she misses another 3; Berger goes clear, Kaisa misses 1 - in the wider picture Kuzmina has come through and leads out of S4 with almost 50 seconds advantage over Vilukhina with Berger now into third ahead of Dunklee and Andrea Henkel who has cleared all 20 (only one to do that?) and has gone from a start number of 31 into 5th. Dasha is up to 6th and Kaisa 8th. Berger is going fast on the final lap (no real surprise there) but so is Kaisa! Now to the finish -   a great win for Anastasiya Kuzmina (1.0.1.0), with Berger (1.1.2.0) pulling back to second; Vilukhina (0.0.2.0) third with Kaisa (0.1.0.1) going from 23rd to 4th! Dasha (0.0.3.3) somehow still getting into 5th. Dunklee (1.0.0.1) gets another good result, with Laura Dahlmeier (1.0.0.1) the best of the Germans in 11th just one place ahead of Henkel, who does seem to be the only 20/20, making her one of the day's gainers (31 to 12) - the most obvious being Kaisa (23-4)! Vita Semerenko has also done well, 34 to 8, as has Marie Dorin-Habert (nice to see her getting back on form after injury), going from 33 to 7. Gerekova (also a gainer today) was fastest on the range; Berger 6th  while Dasha was only 23rd. Unsurprisingly Dasha was the fastest  on the tracks, ahead of Zina Kocher and Kaisa. That leaves Kaisa just 10 points ahead of Berger, but when the discards are included Eurosport reckon Kaisa needs to get 18 points more than Berger tomorrow to get the big globe - hopefully they might manage to cover all of that race!!
On another forum someone has raised the question of how Starykh's ban will affect the points, which also raises the Evi question (did she beat Kaisa or Berger this season??) - I don't know but that might give the scorers a few more hours on the spreadsheets?

Men's Pursuit: Not so crucial here, but it should be an interesting race with the "chasing pack" including Svendsen (+0.39), Fourcade (+0.45) and OEB (+0.46) - who'd want that lot snapping at their heels? Interview with Martin Fourcade to start, confirming that he will be trying some 15Km cross country races next year, while also running in the biathlon WC series - quite a mouthful!
So, Jakov Fak is away with his 14 second advantage; will his standing shoot mirror Dasha's? At split 2 of lap 1, Fourcade has opened slightly on OEB and is marginally ahead of EHS. At S1 Fak has missed 1; Garanichev and Ferry are clear, so are others including Svendsen; Fourcade & OEB both miss 1. Jo Bø is also clear and gaining places - the positions are getting mixed after the top 4. On the second lap Svendsen is losing time to the top 4, but I wonder if Garanichev might be pushing too hard? On to S2; Fak clear and fast, but so are the others in the group; Bø and Svendsen both miss 1, so does Fourcade; out of the range it's Fak, Ferry, Loginov and Garanichev, within just over 10 seconds. Fak does ski nicely; very elegant and easy looking (I need to watch more of that, might learn something!) and he's pulling out time again. OK - time for the standing shoot; it's Dasha time as Fak misses 3; Loginov clear, so are Ferry and Eder - out Loginov, Ferry, Eder, Bergman. Fourcade, Bø and Svendsen have all missed 1. At the next split the top 4 are within 5 seconds of each other; very close, with Bergman looking good; at the next split they are even closer - all to shoot for! At S4 - Eder is clear - that's 20/20 for him and he leaves 23.7 up on Ferry who missed 1; Loginov in 3rd ahead of Bergman as they both missed once here too - Volkov up to 5th from start number 24 with perfect shooting! Fourcade is consistent - 1 miss every shoot, but he's still pulling away from Svendsen!
Now the run to the finish - Simon Eder is looking good but Loginov and Ferry are having a good fight for 2/3; Eder (0.0.0.0.) takes the win, Loginov (0.0.0.1) broke clear well and didn't lose it to get second with Ferry (0.0.0.1) third. Fourcade came in 5th (1.1.1.1) behind Bergman from a start in 11th. Arnd Pieffer (1.0.0.1) is the best German and a gainer going 20 to 7; best climber is probably Volkov (24-6); Fak ended 8th, Lars Berger went backwards from 8 to 21, OEB missed 6 going from 12 to 32 and Desthieux dropped from 7 to 35. Eder gets the best isolated pursuit time and was also 3rd fastest on the range - Volkov best here! Best ski time was Eberhard, with Martin Fourcade second. Svendsen (0.1.1.1) ended in 20th

Holmenkollen - Women's Mass Start: This is the crucial one! Interesting that this year the results in the Olympics don't count for the crystal globe, which they always used to - that would have tipped the scales in Dasha's favour! Probably fairer as it is, but ... Anyway, the race has started; tracks are apparently very wet and soft. Berger away quite fast, with Eckhoff also looking good; into S1 - Berger misses 1, Kaisa & Dasha miss 2 each; out from the range it's Zaitseva from Dahlmeier and Hildebrand - interesting, is the pressure really getting to the contenders, and what might yesterday's effort have taken out of them?
Berger is currently 16th, Dasha 23rd and Kaisa 27th!! OK, on to S2: Olga misses 1, Laura Dahlmeier clear as is Zina Kocher; Berger is clear but Eckhoff has missed 3; Kaisa clear, as is Dasha. Laura D leads them away, from Zina Kocher and Teja Gregorin. Next lap Dasha is closing the time gaps, and passing Berger; Kaisa now 10th but possibly looking tired? Now for the standing shoots, and the wind is up a bit - Dahlmeier misses 1, Kocher 3 and Zaitseva 2; Dasha misses 1, but Berger has missed 3 - Kaisa only 1 - I can hardly watch!! Out in order - Laura D, Teja, Dasha!! As they head to the last shoot there are a lot in the +30s bunch! Last 5 targets - Laura misses 1, so do Dasha & Teja AND Kaisa! Berger also misses 1; out of the range Olga Zaitseva has cleared and leads out from Laura D, Kuzmina and Gregorin. Dasha is 5th, only 2.6 behind,  Kaisa 11th and Tora Berger 19th. Final lap - what is going to change? Kuzmina is flying, despite 4 misses in total - Dasha looking tired now. At the final split Kuzmina looks to be away, with Olga Z and Dasha fighting (are Dasha's skis OK?) - Gregorin still in it, and Dorin-Habert also looking very good. Over the line - Anastasiya Kuzmina (1.2.1.0) gets her second win in two days, Gregorin (0.0.1.1) is second and Marie D-H (1.2.0.0) gets on the podium - really glad for her! Dasha is 4th, Olga Zaitseva 5th and Laura Dahlmeier is 6th (what price "no talent" in the German team, Uwe!!). Kaisa 7th which I'm sure gets her the globe (yes 860 to 856, and she got the pursuit globe yesterday to add to the sprint trophy) and Berger 14th. Now, did 4th get the mass start globe for Dasha; looks like it!?
Andrea Henkel was 13th, in her final race - she already has a glass of fizz on the go in the finish area!! Statistics time - Dorothea Wierer was fastest on the range ahead of Vitkova and Zaitseva; Kaisa fastest on the tracks from Dasha, Kuzmina and M D-H; can't see anyone who cleared all 20.

Men's Mass Start: Not so crucial to the outcomes, which may explain why it isn't live on Eurosport! Loads clear at S1 (the data center [sic] graphic showed a miss for Svendsen, although it seems he did clear) with Landertinger leading away from Svendsen and J T Bø; all very close. At S2 front runner Arnd Pieffer has missed one, costing him the lead - they leave the range - Landertinger, Böhm, Eder with Rastorgujevs 4th despite a miss at S1. OEB clear and in 5th. At the next split Martin Fourcade is moving up, but Böhm seems to have lost nearly 30 seconds - another fall?? It's standing shoot time - Fourcade misses 1 but Andrejs Rastorgujevs and Landertinger are clear; OEB has missed 1 and Bø 3! Young Rasto seems to be jet propelled - he's pulled out about 15 seconds on Landertinger as they pass the next split and even a couple on Fourcade; hope he doesn't regret this at S4! I suspect he will - 3 misses! Fourcade clears, as does Landertinger and they leave the final shoot in that order; somehow Andrejs has done his 3 loops fast enough to be 3rd just ahead of OEB, but that's a quite large chasing group! Now that the shooting is over Fourcade seems to have lit up the afterburners, and he pulls out 10 seconds on Landertinger by the next split; the chasing group are over 50 seconds back, but the 7 of them are within 10 seconds of each other; going to be a real battle for the final podium place! Martin Fourcade (0.0.1.0) wins, dominating this race which is a fitting end to his season; Dominik Landertinger (20/20!) takes second and Jakov Fak (0.0.1.1) sprints his way to third, beating Desthieux, OEB, Garanichev and poor Rasto to the line - I would have like to see Rastorgujevs on the podium but that last shoot really blew it for him - pity. Best German was Arnd Pieffer (0.1.0.2) in 8th, just ahead of Tim Burke. Rastorgujevs very fast on the range, and joint fastest on the tracks, with Pieffer - good efforts from them both but positions lost by relatively poor shooting. And - "that's all folks" for this season