Biathlon IBU Junior & Youth World Championships 2023

[OlympicsFan 858]

Grotian with the most expected gold of the competition in women's junior sprint, 52 seconds ahead of second place. I think since 2000 there were only 3 women who won by a bigger margin, Wierer won by 61 seconds in 2011, Neuner won by 62 seconds in 2005 and Dahlmeier won by 108 seconds in 2013. 

[Monzanator 4,499]

Campbell Wright wins the men's junior sprint ahead of Jan Guńka. Maxime Germain with bronze.

[OlympicsFan 858]

52 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

Campbell Wright wins the men's junior sprint ahead of Jan Guńka. Maxime Germain with bronze.

I found results from 1997 onwards, but i think this was only the second time we ever had a podium at men's junior level without Norway/France/Russia/Germany/Italy/Sweden, first time was in 2003. I think this was also the first ever medal for both Poland and New Zealand at men's junior level. The most surprising thing for me is that this wasn't a fluke result. All 3 guys had very good skiing times, Campbell had the fastest time, Gunka had the 6th fastest time and Germain had the 7th fastest time. Tomorrow in the pursuit Campbell will start 52 seconds before Hedegart who was 4th today, so him not winning another medal would be rather disappointing. It will be interesting to see how those 3 will develope. In the past we had many great talents from "exotic" nations that never did anything at senior level. I remember that i was very high on Repinc for example and now she looks completely lost. I guess talent doesn't matter much when you don't have the infrastructure to build on it. Not sure if any of those guys could train with bigger nations, i imagine that it would be close to impossible for Wright/Germain to do that.

Edited March 11, 2023 by OlympicsFan

[Biathlonfan 625]

13 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

I found results from 1997 onwards, but i think this was only the second time we ever had a podium at men's junior level without Norway/France/Russia/Germany/Italy/Sweden, first time was in 2003. I think this was also the first ever medal for both Poland and New Zealand at men's junior level. The most surprising thing for me is that this wasn't a fluke result. All 3 guys had very good skiing times, Campbell had the fastest time, Gunka had the 6th fastest time and Germain had the 7th fastest time. Tomorrow in the pursuit Campbell will start 52 seconds before Hedegart who was 4th today, so him not winning another medal would be rather disappointing. It will be interesting to see how those 3 will develope. In the past we had many great talents from "exotic" nations that never did anything at senior level. I remember that i was very high on Repinc for example and now she looks completely lost. I guess talent doesn't matter much when you don't have the infrastructure to build on it. Not sure if any of those guys could train with bigger nations, i imagine that it would be close to impossible for Wright/Germain to do that.

Guess you haven't heard the news that Campbell is switching to the us team next season,sick of New Zealand not caring about him

Edited March 11, 2023 by Biathlonfan

[Monzanator 4,499]

4 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

I found results from 1997 onwards, but i think this was only the second time we ever had a podium at men's junior level without Norway/France/Russia/Germany/Italy/Sweden, first time was in 2003. I think this was also the first ever medal for both Poland and New Zealand at men's junior level. The most surprising thing for me is that this wasn't a fluke result. All 3 guys had very good skiing times, Campbell had the fastest time, Gunka had the 6th fastest time and Germain had the 7th fastest time. Tomorrow in the pursuit Campbell will start 52 seconds before Hedegart who was 4th today, so him not winning another medal would be rather disappointing. It will be interesting to see how those 3 will develope. In the past we had many great talents from "exotic" nations that never did anything at senior level. I remember that i was very high on Repinc for example and now she looks completely lost. I guess talent doesn't matter much when you don't have the infrastructure to build on it. Not sure if any of those guys could train with bigger nations, i imagine that it would be close to impossible for Wright/Germain to do that.

For Poland in men's juniors it was medal number seven and the first one since Kontiolahti 1996 when Wojciech Kozub won two bronzes (sprint & individual). We have one men's junior gold medal in history (Jan Szpunar, individual Lake Placid 1973). Also three golds in relays (Altenberg 1967, Linthal 1972, Lake Placid 1973).

 

Individual men's junior WJC medals:

 

Gold:

Jan Szpunar - Lake Placid 1973 Individual

 

Silver:

Andrzej Rapacz - Zakopane 1969 Individual

Ludwik Zięba - Hameenlinna 1971 Individual

Tomasz Sikora - Ruhpolding 1993 Sprint

Jan Guńka - Schuchinsk 2023 Sprint

 

Bronze:

Wojciech Kozub - Kontiolahti 1996 (Sprint & Individual)

[Monzanator 4,499]

11 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

Grotian with the most expected gold of the competition in women's junior sprint, 52 seconds ahead of second place. I think since 2000 there were only 3 women who won by a bigger margin, Wierer won by 61 seconds in 2011, Neuner won by 62 seconds in 2005 and Dahlmeier won by 108 seconds in 2013. 

Even the Polish biathlon media hype Grotian as the "next Neuner" and she will get a wild card to Holmenkollen this season?

[OlympicsFan 858]

1 hour ago, Monzanator said:

Even the Polish biathlon media hype Grotian as the "next Neuner" and she will get a wild card to Holmenkollen this season?

I think the plan is that she and Spark will compete next week, but i guess first they want to see how she feels after the end of the junior world championships.

I don't think that she is on the same talent level as Neuner, but so far her junior career has been more impressive than Dahlmeier's junior career. Dahlmeier first won gold at junior world championships when she was 1 year older than Grotian is now. Just as a reminder: Neuner won junior world championship gold in 2004 as a 16 year old, 40 seconds ahead of 2nd place despite missing 2 shots. This was probably one of the most impressive performances in junior world championships history, although not quite on the same level as Gössner's performances in 2009 (missing gold in the sprint by only 8 seconds despite missing 5 shots + winning gold in the pursuit despite missing 8 shots). Also Neuner, Dahlmeier, Gössner and Grotian all had the same coach!

Edited March 11, 2023 by OlympicsFan

[OlympicsFan 858]

List of athletes (possibly i am missing some names) who would have been young enough to compete but decided against it:

Men: Perrot, Marecek, Zeni

Women: Kirkeeide, Passler, Auchentaller

 

Italy shouldn't worry, despite "only" winning 3 medals so far. In my opinion Sweden has been the biggest disappointment in terms of medals (only 1 medal), but of course they don't have much pressure (given the amount of talent they already have + 15 year old Elsa Tanglander might be the biggest talent on the women's side).

[SalamAkhi 316]

6 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

I found results from 1997 onwards, but i think this was only the second time we ever had a podium at men's junior level without Norway/France/Russia/Germany/Italy/Sweden, first time was in 2003. I think this was also the first ever medal for both Poland and New Zealand at men's junior level. The most surprising thing for me is that this wasn't a fluke result. All 3 guys had very good skiing times

Well, all three are pretty much established as, at least, competent IBU Cup athletes, if not WC. So no big surprise to find them here, they were in the mix as a dozen others before the race.

Overall the Norwegians are not particularly dominant (often the case at this age group), only Nevland and Frey have been seen outside of Norway (which is telling about their abilities in itself), with very decent results but not enough to deem them as n°1 favorites.

No Russians also. 

The French are particularly poor this year. Combined with the performances in the IBU I fear we might have to reduce our expectations in the near future, but that's something to be expected as French biathlon has a lean production process.

 

6 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

In the past we had many great talents from "exotic" nations that never did anything at senior level. I remember that i was very high on Repinc for example and now she looks completely lost.

Repinc has had recurring health issues. But I don't consider Slovenia as an "exotic" nation and I reckon they have the means to get athletes to the top level. Maybe below what could be achieved if the athlete was German, but still. And look at Sara Andersson, just like Repinc she was the next big thing two or three years ago ... and she's Swedish.

In fact a lot of young athletes never make it to the senior level. But the bigger nations' pool is wider, with more promising athletes. We're biased because we tend to remember the couple of ones who fulfilled the expectations while failed talents fall into oblivion. The umpteenth Norwegian is more easily forgotten than the one and only Serbian. 

Overall building expectations over such young athletes is more often than not destined to fail. Particularly young women, with early puberty, unknown margin for progression, most of the time unknown workload, unavoidable health issues ...

[SalamAkhi 316]

16 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

15 year old Elsa Tanglander might be the biggest talent on the women's side).

That's the point. 

You seem bewildered about Repinc's evolution just to praise to the skies the most precocious athlete immediately after.

Sometimes I think "OK this one is particularly mature. Maybe his/her progression will be hampered by whatever, but if he/she only manages to have a constant curve he/she will be one of the best in a few years time" ... and it just doesn't happen.