Biathlon 2016 - 2017 Discussion Thread

[heywoodu 15,135]

Laura/Germany 

[Xander 53]

lol, we had a half team from the reserve and almost got that bronze

My family is a little Laura's fan club  but her shooting today...

[heywoodu 15,135]

2 hours ago, Xander said:

lol, we had a half team from the reserve and almost got that bronze

My family is a little Laura's fan club  but her shooting today...

 

Well to be fair, with Zhuravok and especially Merkushyna the future is definitely looking good for Ukraine  

[hckošice 14,822]

Okay, so let sum up todays race...almost half of the race I thought I´m just lost myself in some parallel galaxy, Both Fialková sisters (especially Paulína ) showed amazing and extraordinary efforts ! All respect babes, thanks for this afternoon ! you, me, we all needed it but as usual the fairytale came to end in the last 2 legs, without Kuzmina we didn´t expected anything great, but destroying such amazing and promising evolution of the race is so..what a pitty...

 

so from a realistic attempt of a huge result we finished 14th...our traditional place...

 

still 17th in the Nations Cup, at least the gap is higher against 21st place..

 

Spoiler

 

[Xander 53]

Vita Semerenko will start training with the team in a week. She will come back next season.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2jmx05XcAIrKaK.jpg

 

Abramova will be a reserve biathlete for WCH. Our federation appealed that doping case in Lausanne. It was the 1st meldonium case. She took it when it hasn't been prohibited & nobody (even WADA scientists) knew that it can take up to 6 months or even longer until it disappears. I'm shocked that people who took it in January were justified and she wasn't We agree that her results should be canceled but her 1 year DQ should be stripped off too. It ends on February 4 anyway but it's a matter of honour.

 

4 hours ago, heywoodu said:

 

Well to be fair, with Zhuravok and especially Merkushyna the future is definitely looking good for Ukraine  

 

Imho after Zhuzha gave Dzhyma our proud 21st place  at the exchange... 90% of Ukrainians buried their hopes

Merkushyna improves our mood with every race indeed. Of course we're unsure if she can spend the whole season on a decent level but after this race I'm personally very satisfied with her.

 

As for our reserve I meant Valj Semerenko.. she hasn't trained with the team before come back so her conditions aren't good, to say the least. She's not used to such tense races and her last lap is tragic by her standards. She was supposed to be a reserve biathlete but she started because Varvynets & Pidhrushna are ill (just a lite temperature but trainers decided do not risk before WCH, they will stay in Antholz to catch up).

 

Valj will have to show something better than that after the full pre-season training cycle with the team this summer. We will have so many competitors for the Olympic places next season that she can stay at home.

Edited January 22, 2017 by Xander

[rybak 3,217]

11 godzin temu, ahjfcshfghb napisał:

I remember Poland used to have a very solid women's and men's team. I guess it's a generational thing I hope you manage to rebound

Has the funding gone downhill or something?

No, it's not about funding, Krystyna Guzik had accident at training during off-season, by this she had surgery and she lost few months of trainings which is visible by her weak skiing and shooting in this season, Weronika Nowakowska had her first race in this season just yesterday at local competition, all because she was pregnant and prefered spend more time with her twins instead compete in World Cup, what is understandable, Monika Hojnisz as always is very inconsistent, she can be in top5 in one day but later also can be outside top60 in next race... Only Magdalena Gwizdoń is good in this season. I will not wrote anything about Kinga Mitoraj, Anna Mąka and other young girls as they are terrible slow. I'm worried about our quotas to Korea Games

 

Men's are bad and weak as always. After Sikora's retirement big achievement for our men's biathlon is if anyone will qualified to pursuit and if relay won't be lapped... Also juniors aren't good too

[ahjfcshfghb 287]

8 hours ago, rybak said:

No, it's not about funding, Krystyna Guzik had accident at training during off-season, by this she had surgery and she lost few months of trainings which is visible by her weak skiing and shooting in this season, Weronika Nowakowska had her first race in this season just yesterday at local competition, all because she was pregnant and prefered spend more time with her twins instead compete in World Cup, what is understandable, Monika Hojnisz as always is very inconsistent, she can be in top5 in one day but later also can be outside top60 in next race... Only Magdalena Gwizdoń is good in this season. I will not wrote anything about Kinga Mitoraj, Anna Mąka and other young girls as they are terrible slow. I'm worried about our quotas to Korea Games

 

Men's are bad and weak as always. After Sikora's retirement big achievement for our men's biathlon is if anyone will qualified to pursuit and if relay won't be lapped... Also juniors aren't good too

Unfortunately Guzik Novakowska and Gwizdon are quite old  

I hope the young girls get better. I mean Zuk was OK in the relay.. But yeah they are quite slow

After our relay we are concerned too about what will happen when Koukalova and Vitkova retire. We really need Charvatova to finally (!) improve her shooting and for juniors like Davidova to take advantage of their talent.

As for the men, I think it is all downhill from here. Soukup Slesingr and Moravec are all in their 30s, yes we have Krcmar and Vaclavik, but beyond that not too great.

[heywoodu 15,135]

Update for the Czech contingent of our fan club: the Brazilians spent the night in Prague  

 

They left Ramsau to go there yesterday, and just left Prague a couple of minutes ago on their way to Duszniki-Zdroj  

 

[ahjfcshfghb 287]

7 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Update for the Czech contingent of our fan club: the Brazilians spent the night in Prague  

 

They left Ramsau to go there yesterday, and just left Prague a couple of minutes ago on their way to Duszniki-Zdroj  

 

About time! 

Hope they don't drink too much beer while there

Are Bruna, Gabi and Caio all competing?

[heywoodu 15,135]

4 minutes ago, ahjfcshfghb said:

About time! 

Hope they don't drink too much beer while there

Are Bruna, Gabi and Caio all competing?

 

No, only Bruna and Mika Picin  

 

Gabi and Caio have already been in Pokljuka for almost a week now for another IBU camp, and for the IBU Junior Cup later this week. They will go to the Czech Republic later as well by the way: after the Junior Cup in Pokljuka they're travelling to Nove Mesto for the Open Junior European Championships

 

Bruna will travel to Kazakhstan for the Winter Universiade on Saturday, what Mika's going to do I have no idea  

Edited January 23, 2017 by heywoodu