Biathlon IBU Cup 2020 - 2021

[heywoodu 16,004]

Poor young Åsne Skrede, 2nd athlete in the women's relay for Norway, arrived at the prone shooting in the lead group of three....only to miss all eight shots! She had three hits in her standing shooting, meaning she went 3 out of 16 today, damn.

[Grassmarket 4,030]

JTB goes 1 1 on the first two shoots - not going to be his day.

 

JTB keeps up his consistency - 1 1 1

 

Laegreid misses 2 for the first time ever in a World Cup!

 

Heading for an upset.....if they can hold off Tarjei!

[RobtheAggie 340]

This post never posted from a few days ago, so better late than never

 

So my thoughts from the US participants in the first races:

For the Women:

43rd - Levins - she is #6 right now for the women.  She is 22 and this was her first IBU Cup race.  Not bad.

55th - Grossman - Hallie has been on the IBU Cup for a few years now.  She has had the odd WC start.  But this is about where I anticipated her.

71st - Phaneuf - Maddie started the first races in Finland this year and is currently the 5th biathlete for the US women.  

84th - Garso - Jaquelyn was in her first International race ever.  She acquitted herself pretty well.

116th - Stertz - Emma is another one who skied in her first ever IBU Cup event.  She does have quite a bit of Junior/Youth experience.

117 - Hochschartner - Lucy was in her first ever international race, missed 8 shots, but only finished  6:05 back.  

This was about what I anticipated.  I guess what I look for on Saturday is progression for all of the women.  I think that Levins, Grossman, and Phaneuf are on the relay.  I imagine the 4st spot is up for grabs.  I love that the USBA was willing to spend the money to take 6 women.  The US/Canada national this year has been mostly cancelled due to COVID.  Some of the states, ie Wisconsin and Washington have hosted local biathlon races, but those are not at the level needed for development.

 

For the Men

34th - Durtschi - Max did start one of the races in Finland and is a WC and IBU Cup veteran.  No surprise at all that he was best  US men's racer.  Good to see him shoot clean.

64th - Cervenka - Vasha, 21,  lives in Minneapolis, his dad is a Czech immigrant and former biathlete and now coaches lots of the youth in Minnesota.  Vasha now lives in Nova Mesto to train.  This was his first IBU Cup level event.

72nd - Raleigh Goessling - Has been on the IBU Cup since the 18/19 season.  Right about where I thought he would end up, but he 9 hits is a nice surprise for him, he had only done that one before at the senior level.

93rd - Leopold - Lars was another in their first race on the IBU level.  He lives in Lillehammar, Norway to train.  Long time youth and junior international level skier.

107 - Bonacci - VIncent, 20, is from Montana. This was his first IBU Cup level event.  I think that 3 missis will be a little frustrating, but not a bad place to start.  He had only one IBU Junior level competition.

 

Just like the women, I imagine the relay is pretty set.  Durtschi, Goessling, with the other two spots up for grabs.  Cervenka looks to have the massive edge over the other two, but we will see.

 

I love that the USBA was willing to spend the money to take 5 men and 6 women.  The US/Canada national races this year has been mostly cancelled due to COVID.  Some of the states, ie Wisconsin and Washington have hosted local biathlon races, but those are not at the level needed for development.

 

Not a bad start.

 

[RobtheAggie 340]

Croatia is already 2:18 behind before the 2nd shoot of the first leg of the men's relay!

Now 3:32 behind after 2nd shoot.  Will the 2nd leg even get to shoot?

[RobtheAggie 340]

Just how strong is Norway ...  After shoot #6, they were 40 seconds behind with 4 penalty loops!  

[RobtheAggie 340]

So what the first week told me was that Russia and Norway are really deep.  The major difference is that Norway has a much higher ceiling right now, whereas Russia is flatter in their depth.

 

Two short individuals today.  An easy predication on both would be Russian and Norway for the top 3, but this is the event where often someone shoots well.  The shorter distance also helps this, with the greater reliance on the shooting.  155 starters for the men!

[heywoodu 16,004]

5th place for 18-year old Campbell Wright of New Zealand!  

 

It's insane how his shooting has improved over the summer, 0+0, 0+0 and now 0+1+0+0  

[Swewi 460]

A bit less terrible skiing from Stina Nilsson today and 0+0 in standing. Iaf she just could come back to old  ski speed

[RobtheAggie 340]

1 hour ago, Swewi said:

A bit less terrible skiing from Stina Nilsson today and 0+0 in standing. Iaf she just could come back to old  ski speed

I wonder if this is a result of the focus of her training.  She has trained so much on shooting, that has led to a decrease in training for the skiing portion.  It might be intentional by the Swedish Biathlon Team.

[RobtheAggie 340]

I feel bad for Mirlene Picin, 14 missed shots. 2-5-4-3 shooting, but still not last, she finished in 119th.

 

So I counted 39 countries represented in the men's race.  With the Single Mixed and Mixed relays, do all get starts?  How does that work?