Biathlon IBU Junior & Youth World Championships 2019

[Werloc 3,164]

34 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

 

Yes, these juniors from top biathlon nations like Germany, Norway or Russia are like destined to be left on the sidelines due to the strenght of the World Cup team. However those Russians for instance could think about changing nationality to Belarus or sth like that? I'm sure Germans or French could represent Belgium or Luxembourg for what it's worth? Of course there are some extreme cases like South Korea too (Frolina, Laphsin).

 

Poland & Czech Republic or Slovakia are quite different for that matter, any successful junior faces very little competition in the seniors and has a clear shot at World Cup full-schedule. Davidova is making the most of that already but Zuk simply isn't (and that in a season where Guzik & Gwizdon are out of the WC squad).

Yup, that is felt even more in our team, when we don't even have enough athletes to fill the three cups, not even the 3 starter positions for the women's world cup...

 

Every single one of our successful juniors have not really made an impact in senior biathlon, sadly.

[RobtheAggie 340]

51 minutes ago, Gianlu33 said:

It's "only" bronze but it was a great performance for our guys! Congrats

 

 

Congrats to Italy.  

Final 

Russia

Germany

Italy

Norway

France 

Czech Republic

 

Congrats to Australia who although they ended up in 22nd place, they shot 1+16 for the event.  

[RobtheAggie 340]

37 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

 

Yes, these juniors from top biathlon nations like Germany, Norway or Russia are like destined to be left on the sidelines due to the strenght of the World Cup team. However those Russians for instance could think about changing nationality to Belarus or sth like that? I'm sure Germans or French could represent Belgium or Luxembourg for what it's worth? Of course there are some extreme cases like South Korea too (Frolina, Laphsin).

 

Poland & Czech Republic or Slovakia are quite different for that matter, any successful junior faces very little competition in the seniors and has a clear shot at World Cup full-schedule. Davidova is making the most of that already but Zuk simply isn't (and that in a season where Guzik & Gwizdon are out of the WC squad).

 

Last year, and to the middle of this season Belgium's two best male athletes were German and French.  I wonder from a larger perspective the sheer numbers of people in the pipeline for Russia, Norway, Germany and France.  Compare that with Austria, Lithuania, or even the USA.   

[heywoodu 15,135]

18 hours ago, RobtheAggie said:

If youth/junior success was a clear marker of World Cup success, Sean Dougherty should already be challenging for the overall crystal globe.  I have no idea of the statistic, but it would be interesting to see what % of Youth/Junior WC medalists ever make it to the podium at the World Cup Events, let alone the World Championships.

Chardine Sloof, double junior world champion, should have a bit more results too then  

 

It's not an absolute marker of success, but obviously it's better to show talent than not show talent  

[heywoodu 15,135]

14 hours ago, Werloc said:

 

 

A lot of these cases, the juniors dropped the sport mostly after the junior championships, some of them trying a couple of IBU races. A lot of Russians and Norwegians, I think some might have quit since it's very hard making the team and most of others left the sport, because it was their hobby and they did not want that as a career after university. Lastly, a lot of them are medalists from the individual race. Sidenote: Tom Barth looked like he had a lot of potential.

 

It's such a shame that athletes quit who had biathlon simply as a hobby and even so managed to win junior/youth world championship medals. Imagine if they had it as career dream.. 

[Werloc 3,164]

Well, if we're looking at this situation that straightforwardly, then it means that every single junior world champion still needs to beat the other 12-20 junior world champions from earlier years as well to get their hands on that overall crystal globe

 

At this very moment, it is Wierer beating:

Davidova

Oeberg

Vasnetcova

Zhurakov

Pavlova

Frolina

Bankes

Zuk

Dahlmeier

 

and Johannes is destroying:

Kuehn

Eder

Leitner

Desthieux

Hofer

Loginov

Slesingr

Pettersen

Roesch

Doherty

Claude

Latypov

 

Surprisingly enough, there is only one athlete in this junior world champion list that actually has an overall crystal globe and I guess that should be a nice tell how much impact that title does have to your success. It all depends on the character and on the training. Makarainen was a horrible junior, but she had character.

[RobtheAggie 340]

Junior Womens 3x6 coming up.

24 teams including Australia and Greece!

[RobtheAggie 340]

Just now, Werloc said:

Well, if we're looking at this situation that straightforwardly, then it means that every single junior world champion still needs to beat the other 12-20 junior world champions from earlier years as well to get their hands on that overall crystal globe

 

At this very moment, it is Wierer beating:

Davidova

Oeberg

Vasnetcova

Zhurakov

Pavlova

Frolina

Bankes

Zuk

Dahlmeier

 

and Johannes is destroying:

Kuehn

Eder

Leitner

Desthieux

Hofer

Loginov

Slesingr

Pettersen

Roesch

Doherty

Claude

Latypov

 

Surprisingly enough, there is only one athlete in this junior world champion list that actually has an overall crystal globe and I guess that should be a nice tell how much impact that title does have to your success. It all depends on the character and on the training. Makarainen was a horrible junior, but she had character.

 

This is why it is fun to pay attention to the results from Youth/Junior Worlds, but trying to figure out who is going to do what moving forward is next to impossible.  I does make for good discussions though.

[Werloc 3,164]

17 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

It's such a shame that athletes quit who had biathlon simply as a hobby and even so managed to win junior/youth world championship medals. Imagine if they had it as career dream.. 

Well, that's a problem that every sport has. My friend is extremely cynical towards results in younger categories, because a massive amount of athletes drop out after they finish school or after they finish university, because that's when you have to get a job and have to support yourself and many people don't see sports as a reliable way to support yourself.

[Werloc 3,164]

23 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Chardine Sloof, double junior world champion, should have a bit more results too then  

 

It's not an absolute marker of success, but obviously it's better to show talent than not show talent  

She was on her way towards good results, but she missed an entire season, I assume to injury?

 

Edit: as for showing talent, it is a positive thing for most athletes, but quite detrimental to some. When you easily beat everyone around your age and are immediately thrust into senior environment with 70th-80th places, some people are motivated through it and some people don't work hard enough and quit.

Edited January 30, 2019 by Werloc