Biathlon 2020 - 2021 Discussion Thread

[heywoodu 16,146]

15 hours ago, Werloc said:

Unrelated note, but China is actually pretty strict and they would be capable to make the World Cup work out, but if nothing changes in the near future, it will be completely impossible for the athletes themselves. 

 

Right now, there's an eSports World Championship being held in Shanghai, with European, North American, Korean, Southeast Asian, Russian, South American, Japanese, Australian and Turkish teams that have travelled there.

 

All of them were individually locked up in a hotel room that they couldn't leave for 14 days and would only open their door to pick up their food delivery.

 

In the further stages of the tournament it's also mentioned that a smaller, spread out audience will be able to attend the stadium live.

 

I've been following the journey of the pros closely on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch and other media, so this is one of those rare times when I can say that China is really doing their best to make such a huge event happen.

 

Since they are e-athletes, they could've practiced from the room and that's why I wouldn't put my money on a World Cup happening there, because it would screw up all of the athletes to be in lockdown for 14 days and I'm not too optimistic that their strict regime towards travelling is going to severy change in the following 3-4 months.

Yeah I don't see it happening in China, for these reasons (a World Cup biathlon in hotel rooms is going to be a bit of a challenge), and because China isn't allowing international sports events as far as I know yet (not counting eSports). But in terms of danger, I'd have no problem with going to China, less so than with going to Madrid, Berlin or Amsterdam. 

[RobtheAggie 340]

21 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

@RobtheAggie Do you have any good photos of the new Mt. Van Hovenberg Biathlon Center? I tried to post some the other day, but it didn’t work for whatever reason. The facility (which includes the bobsleigh track, lodge, and biathlon/cross country center) looks really nice, is that the one they plan to use for Lake Placid 2023?

Pictures are here.  The last two are of the new lodge.

[Olympian1010 8,274]

2 minutes ago, RobtheAggie said:

Pictures are here.  The last two are of the new lodge.

That’s going to be such a world class facility. Bobsleigh track right there next to cross country/biathlon center. Plus a nice lodge to top it all off.

[heywoodu 16,146]

17 hours ago, RobtheAggie said:

Pictures are here.  The last two are of the new lodge.

Posting some pictures in a spoiler here would be great, then we Europeans can see them too without hassling with VPN's  

[RobtheAggie 340]

27 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Posting some pictures in a spoiler here would be great, then we Europeans can see them too without hassling with VPN's  

This is what the lodge at the biathlon venue will look like.

 

 

 

 

[RobtheAggie 340]

News of the day:

 

Olga Zaitseva has lost her appeal for doping in the 2014 Olympic Games.  Russia loses the silver in the 4x6 relay.  

 

Olga Vilukhina. Olga Zaytseva, and Yana Romanova won their appeal for a life ban and Vilukhina gets her silver in the sprint back.

 

Ekaterina Glazyrina and Timofey Lapshin have been provisionally suspended.  Both Lapshin and Glazyrina are accused of violating anti-doping rules (ADRV).

 

Although not Biathlon, Ruka Nordic in Kuusamo, Finland with lot have fans for the races on site.  "Ruka Nordic is cooperating with Finland’s other mc organizers, Levi (alpine skiing), Kontiolahti (biathlon) and Lahti, in creating a contingency plan for the corona situation."  - I would imagine that Kontiolahti will have the same rules.

 

And in the random health side of things Tiril Eckhoff announced that she has "two kidnes basins, and that there are alos two urinary outlet routes from the kidneys."  This was causing her much pain.

[heywoodu 16,146]

1 hour ago, RobtheAggie said:

This is what the lodge at the biathlon venue will look like.

 

 

 

 

That's definitely the best Family Club location I've seen  @brunamoura

[Olympian1010 8,274]

https://www.biathlonworld.com/news/detail/ibu-announces-plans-for-first-trimester-of-world-cup-season

 

Quote

With the adjusted calendar, the BMW IBU Biathlon World Cup will kick off in Kontiolahti (FIN) as scheduled but then remain there for another week for the second World Cup event, before the circuit travels to Hochfilzen (AUT) for the third and fourth World Cup events. Originally, Östersund (SWE) and Annecy-Le Grand Bornand (FRA) had been scheduled to host two of these World Cup events. But, following consultations with the Organising Committees, relevant National Authorities and the IBU Medical Advisory Group, the EB and the organisers agreed reducing the number of stops on the circuit would protect participant health and minimise travel challenges.

 

[Werloc 3,191]

Finally, we got a result update from Lithuania.

 

In the men's mass start race, the winners were:

 

1. Karol Dombrovski   1+1+0+2

2. Tomas Kaukėnas   2+2+1+2       +35.0

3. Maksim Fomin       0+2+1+2     +2:07.0

4. Linas Banys           1+2+3+2     +3:24.0

 

Vytautas Strolia did not participate, interesting that Fomin confidently beat Banys, Mačkinė shot really badly and Romanov still very slow on skis.

 

On the women's side, Kočergina didn't start so the results are not really too important.

 

Gabrielė Leščinskaitė won with 0+0+1+3 and had 8 minutes over our junior Sara Urumova in second place, so yeah....

 

Lastly, the results from yesterday's sprint were:

 

1. Karol Dombrovski   0+1     

2. Linas Banys            0+0      +43.0

3. Tomas Kaukėnas   0+3     +1:12.0

4. Maksim Fomin        2+0    +1:45.0

 

On the women's side, again Gabrielė was first, this time she had 5 minutes over Urumova.

 

Kočergina and Strolia not starting in the sprint either.

 

The performances in the youth categories are really tragic, we don't have a future for the next five years on the youth side.

[RobtheAggie 340]

On 26/09/2020 at 13:16, Olympian1010 said:

https://www.biathlonworld.com/news/detail/ibu-announces-plans-for-first-trimester-of-world-cup-season

 

 

Not really a surprise, but I wonder two things.  

1.  Fans?  "Any decision regarding if, and how many, spectators will be allowed to attend the events will depend on the national health authorities’ regulations in place for each venue in connection with the IBU Covid-19 event guidelines."  Looks like we will not know until much later.

2. Does Östersund (SWE) and Annecy-Le Grand Bornand (FRA) get spots back in the future?  The IBU did not comment if they get financial compensation for losing their races, nor did they say if Kontiolahti (FIN) and Hochfilzen (AUT) receive additional.  

 

Additionally there were two other race related announcements:

1.  IBU Cup - Arber (GER), Brezno-Osrblie (SVK) and Ridnaun (ITA) with five event weeks. The Open European Championships will be held in Duszniki-Zdroj (24-31 January)

 

2.  "The EB agreed to financially support regional events in all recently defined IBU regions in which mainly neighboring countries compete. Offering a reasonable number of competitions for youth and junior athletes was of high importance following the EB’s decision earlier this month to cancel all IBU Junior Cup events for the 2020/21 season and the Junior Open European Championships."  This could be interesting to see what develops out of this.

 

The 14th Ordinary IBU Congress, originally scheduled for 13-15 November in Prague (CZE), will now be held virtually on the same dates.