Biathlon IBU World Championships 2021

[JonPhi 250]

1 minute ago, OlympicsFan said:

It feels as if Ukraine almost always overperforms in the relay. Normally they shouldn’t beat Russia/France/Sweden that often.

3 bronze medals at the last three World Champs ... they are excellent when it counts.

[Monzanator 5,071]

11 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

What a surprising turnaround. I don’t even want to imagine what would have been possible without a roadblock like Hettich. Somehow German coaches always find a way to sabotage their own team, I still have nightmares from the 2010 Olympics ...

Norway certainly deserved the gold, but them dominating biathlon is the worst thing that can happen to this sport. They already ruined cross-country. Biathlon relays, especially on the women’s side, are among the most unpredictable team events, much better than pointless events like cross-country/luge/ski jumping/Nordic combined team events.

 

Picking Hettich over "world class" Hammerschmidt as you've described her probably indicates how badly Hammerschmidt has tailed off. Can't use the injury excuse anymore. But who would have been the next in line? Weidel? Grandma Hildebrand?

[Monzanator 5,071]

10 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

It feels as if Ukraine almost always overperforms in the relay. Normally they shouldn’t beat Russia/France/Sweden that often.

They don't have individual stars but they know they strenght lies in the team. Same as these 4x100 Japanese relays that always hoover around Top 5-6 in athletics World Champs or Olympics and even get a medal when one of the big teams drops the baton

[Monzanator 5,071]

23 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Preuss was just as dead not 300 meters earlier and found a sprint out of her tiniest toe in the last 200 meters.

 

Preuss wasn't dead, Pihdrushna had to make up over 5 secs to her after the shooting and wore herself out doing so. Preuss held back knowing she'd have advantage at the finish. Isn't how this works in cycling too? Guy catches up to leader, you think it's gonna be even finish and then the leader pushes big and leaves the catcher all for dead anyway. The same happened here.

[OlympicsFan 860]

16 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

 

Picking Hettich over "world class" Hammerschmidt as you've described her probably indicates how badly Hammerschmidt has tailed off. Can't use the injury excuse anymore. But who would have been the next in line? Weidel? Grandma Hildebrand?

I know that you like to troll, but maybe you should drop it if you want a serious discussion. I never said that Hammerschmidt is world-class, but she certainly has been world class before, which is pretty obvious when you look at her results. Hettich was incredibly slow today, hard to imagine even someone like Voigt would have done worse.

[OlympicsFan 860]

14 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

They don't have individual stars but they know they strenght lies in the team. Same as these 4x100 Japanese relays that always hoover around Top 5-6 in athletics World Champs or Olympics and even get a medal when one of the big teams drops the baton

Weird comparison ... 

In the 4 x 100 m relay you can make up a lot of time with great exchanges, something similar isn’t possible in biathlon. I would rather see it like this: France/Sweden have many athletes who are inconsistent, but can make the podium on a good day without other athletes failing. Ukraine on the other hand has 4 consistent athletes who can’t make an individual podium without other athletes failing. France/Sweden win more individual medals, because they only need one of their athletes to have a good day, but in the relay Ukraine wins more medals because Sweden/France almost always have one athlete who messes up and destroys their medal hopes. I think this is usually the reason, not sure what happened today with the French women in the cross-country, maybe they had bad material. Hettich was incredibly slow, hard to imagine that France was even slower ...

[Monzanator 5,071]

4 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

Weird comparison ... 

In the 4 x 100 m relay you can make up a lot of time with great exchanges, something similar isn’t possible in biathlon. I would rather see it like this: France/Sweden have many athletes who are inconsistent, but can make the podium on a good day without other athletes failing. Ukraine on the other hand has 4 consistent athletes who can’t make an individual podium without other athletes failing. France/Sweden win more individual medals, because they only need one of their athletes to have a good day, but in the relay Ukraine wins more medals because Sweden/France almost always have one athlete who messes up and destroys their medal hopes. I think this is usually the reason, not sure what happened today with the French women in the cross-country, maybe they had bad material. Hettich was incredibly slow, hard to imagine that France was even slower ...

Blashko has some hidden ski speed nobody's paying attention to IMO. Merkushyna was rarely used during these champs IIRC? She could have profited from being fresher than some others. And there were no Semerenko sisters in this relay which is even more impressive.

 

Biggest shock is how slow France was. 0+5 was joint best shooting score and they finished 20 secs behind Poland who had Maka & Zuk taking ages on the range!

[JonPhi 250]

They said they had chose the completely wrong wax. So they died in the last loop. 
They hope the skis will be better in the men’s race. I think they have to, if they want a medal.

[Illya 590]

1 hour ago, Monzanator said:

Pihdrushna was dead at the finish just like in the mixed relay. Not much praise for beating a turtle on skis

Where is Poland ? Too slow Polish team ?

[Monzanator 5,071]

1 minute ago, Illya said:

Where is Poland ? Too slow Polish team ?

Top 6 is as good as it gets for Poland. We never won any relay medals even with Nowakowska & Guzik in peak form