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Sad news, I really liked both Dominik and Simon, gonna miss rooting for those guys.

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Was really hoping our athletes would do better at home. Susan Külm seems to have found her best skiing form ever, too bad she can't hit the targets to make a good result out of it.

Tuuli Tomingas said she felt dead tired already yesterday and knew she wouldn't do much in the race, she finished the season and even skips relays on Sunday.

 

But as France is my favorite biathlon country I am very pleased with the sprints results

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Kadri Lehtla has announced her retirement. She had plenty of top 40 finishes 10 years ago but then had some health issues and only got worse and worse over the years.

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Next stop, Otepää

When I saw it is going to be held in almost mid March I was worried because usually it is quite warm and rainy already but this year it is still a nice winter with temperatures below 0 and a lot of snow.

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A gold for our guy

 

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Ugh that one freaking target that Regina failed to clear in 4 attemps Ehh still by far the best SMR result for Estonia ever.

 

Some really good relay races for our teams lately but I am quite sure mixed relay is going to be a flop for us today.

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Hell yeah QFM

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12 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

 

What's the best ever result for EST biathlon? Eveli Saue's 5th place in Hochfilzen 2006?

I am pretty sure yes. Well, there was also Kaija Parve who is 7 times World Champion, sadly this was in the 80s under Soviet Union flag.

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Our women keep on delivering, everyone with PB or near PB results and first time ever 3 Estonians getting points Tuuli showed today that with clean shooting she can finish in top 10, hopefully she keeps this form.

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What a race from our girls Oja and Tomingas did a really good job, especially Tuuli who I have never seen skiing so well before. Talihärm was better last year, easily the best of our girls, now she needs to catch up, but she still did her job. Gaim is sadly not even close to the rest of the team, even without the penalty loops I don't think we had finished higher than maybe 8th.

 

This was Estonia's women's relay's first top 10 since 1993! 26 years! (8 out of 9 teams with 12 minutes loss lol) This clearly is the actual best ever really.

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11th looks good for us on paper but being in top 6 in half of the race and also 7th after 3rd exchange got my hopes up for a rare top 10 finish. Sadly, we don't have a more reliable 4th member, just like in women's team, and it is tough to reach higher.

Zahkna finally with a good first leg again, great to see him gaining some form.

 

Overall, another really boring men's race for the top positions

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Great race, bad winner

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Estonia was 7th after 3rd exchange   Sadly it was NID that Gaim will drop quite a few places. She did actually quite well, she usually loses much more. This is a rather young team, hopefully they continue improvement and reach top 10 one day.

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Our commentators jinxing is real. First leg, 2nd shooting Tomingas hit a fast 4/4 and had she gotten the last one down Estonia would have taken the lead. Before that 5th shot our commentators got all excited, telling something extraordinary might happen and we could leave the 2nd shooting as the leaders! Then miss-miss-miss-clean

There were so many misses in 2nd leg prone shooting and they started again with "Johanna has a great chance to take back a lot time and gain some places" and 3 penalty loops happen. And then Estonia was never seen again

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It was probably the best performance in a relay ever for Regina Oja  and this came only a few hours after compeating in SMR where she looked really exhausted in her last lap. Too bad Tomingas followed it up with one of her worst relay race.

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Yass Martin Would have been really awful to lose the gold by a few centimeters again.

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OMG Martin not a single time missing a podium this season and the streak had to end in the worst place possible

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Out ladies finally made it to the finish line It has been 1037 days (March 2015) since our women's relay team last crossed the finish line.

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What a mess Windich

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12 minutes ago, Werloc said:

You know, I've always felt that your Lethla and our Rasimovičiūtė were pretty much peaking at the same time, having seasons with similar success and all in all being pretty equal rivals for many years. It's pretty sad to see both of their results going down so drastically

I know.  A few years ago, I don't remember if it was Kadri or Eveli Saue, was co commentating a women's race and also talked about a friendly rivaly with Rasimovičiūtė because of similar results

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10 minutes ago, Werloc said:

Hm, I'd argue that Lethla is a safer pick for the relay than Gaim. Both Lethla and Gaim lose a lot of time on the snow, but it seems that Lethla is a pretty reliable shot for relays.

Lehtla has more experience but she is very slow on skis, even compared to Gaim. Gaim also is much faster in range. A few seasons ago Lehtla was very reliable and quite always did her job well but last seasons she has gotten worse and worse and this season all her starts have been abysmal. Gaim at least has showed some promise at IBU races.

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Well done France Germany's streak finally over.

 

Our team did pretty well...that until the last 2 shots in standing shooting at 3rd leg. But this was still the best showing in recent years. Need Talihärm to return and replace Lehtla and with a good shooting they can even see the finish line next time

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Johanna Talihärm 29th and career best result Start of the season wasn't promising at all but now she is surprising us. 11th best course time today but she shoots veeery slow.

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22 hours ago, Werloc said:

Well, your men look pretty decently. You can't have it all

Yes, on a good day they could get some decent results as they have showed from time to time but or best and most reliable are already 34 and 39 year old. But we have a great hope for the future, gotta wait about 18 years til my now 3 year old nephew who loves biathlon and says he wants to become biathlete is old enough

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17 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

On the other hand, Tuuli Tomingas qualified for the World Cup yesterday, that might be a bit hopeful considering she was a really good junior a few years ago. 

We have had quite a many "used to be a good junior" winter athletes, sadly they just can't break through once they reach pro tour. Hopefully Tuuli or some other younger biathlete makes a slow but steady progress and we have someone to cheer for rather than seeing them at the bottom of the results list.