Biathlon 2021 - 2022 Discussion Thread

[Werloc 3,164]

3 hours ago, RobtheAggie said:

A few more results from National Championships:

 

Italian Single Mixed - Vitozzi wins again with Michele Molinari.  Dominik WIndisch finished his career with a bronze.

Sweden Mass Start - Tobias Arwidson won for the men.

Sweden Mass Start - Johanna Skottheim finished in 1st ahead of Monna Brosson and Stina Nilsson

Norwegian Men's Relay

You know, what's really interesting for me is that a Nordic country like Sweden pulled in so little athletes in their championship. 14 men and 19 women in the mass starts, I'd imagine the numbers would be closer to Norwegian numbers. 

[Werloc 3,164]

46 minutes ago, JonPhi said:

No Super Sprint in World Cup next Season, but 4 individuals. No Opening Weekend anymore, World Cup starts on Tuesday. Hochfilzen again on 4 Days. Early Start Times in Kontiolahti and Hochfilzen due to the Football World Cup.

4x Individual
8x Sprint
8x Pursuit
5x Mass Start
6x Relay
3x Mixed Relay

INDIVIDUAL SUPREMACY!!!  

 

6 relays are a bit too much over the top. Least interesting discipline for me and alienates more than half of the field in being competitive. If I wanted to see a 30s Norwegian lead every weekend, I'd tune into cc skiing. 

[heywoodu 15,141]

11 minutes ago, Werloc said:

INDIVIDUAL SUPREMACY!!!  

 

6 relays are a bit too much over the top. Least interesting discipline for me and alienates more than half of the field in being competitive. If I wanted to see a 30s Norwegian lead every weekend, I'd tune into cc skiing. 

And then be disappointed almost half of the time?  

 

But yeah, awesome to see the Individuals and especially to see the SuperSprints stay down in the IBU Cup  (where I'm not a fan of them neither, IBU Cup should be a very very large part sprints and individuals, with very few relays and basically no pursuits, but alright)

[Werloc 3,164]

2 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

And then be disappointed almost half of the time?  

 

But yeah, awesome to see the Individuals and especially to see the SuperSprints stay down in the IBU Cup  (where I'm not a fan of them neither, IBU Cup should be a very very large part sprints and individuals, with very few relays and basically no pursuits, but alright)

I don't know how good it would be to overload the IBU cup with individuals, since there are quite a few junior and youth athletes running the IBU cup and they don't really do the 15/20k just yet. Though short individual could be a solution, I agree with you on super sprints, it's a stupid format and it doesn't really show the level of the athletes.

 

I think pursuits are necessary and should be made somehow accessible to lower tier athletes, because athletes need contact race experience or they're fucked when they qualify to the World Cup. Lithuanians are a good example with this, since regional championships are never competitive, everybody grew up with close to zero experience in contact racing, which is why Vytautas needed 3 years to start being able to climb in pursuits and he spent this entire year trying to learn how to mass start.

 

Nobody from Lithuania is good at pursuits and we often screw up in relays as well. It would be good if our juniors and youth had the ability to do more contact racing on an international level. 

[RobtheAggie 340]

A few more National Championship Races:

 

Slovenian National Championships - Klemen Bauer won in his last race.   Nika Vindisar won for the women.

Sweden National Championships (Sprint) - Stina Nilsson won with a 9/10 ahead of Mona Brosson who was 10/10.  Viktor Brandt defeated his brother by just under 5 seconds.

[RobtheAggie 340]

3 hours ago, Werloc said:

You know, what's really interesting for me is that a Nordic country like Sweden pulled in so little athletes in their championship. 14 men and 19 women in the mass starts, I'd imagine the numbers would be closer to Norwegian numbers. 

It is really odd that so few raced.  

[Werloc 3,164]

Nobody is talking bout Kaisa Makarainen just casually taking two silver medals in the Finnish championship, only losing out to Mari Eder.

[RobtheAggie 340]

1 minute ago, Werloc said:

Nobody is talking bout Kaisa Makarainen just casually taking two silver medals in the Finnish championship, only losing out to Mari Eder.

I had not seen that.  Eder might retire as well.  That would not be good that the top two would both be retired.

[Grassmarket 3,409]

19 minutes ago, RobtheAggie said:

It is really odd that so few raced.  

Seems a bit strange. Obvs the Norwegians treat their nationals as a weekend to emphasise the Club scene, whereas the Swedes see them as a National Team event.

[heywoodu 15,141]

3 hours ago, Werloc said:

I don't know how good it would be to overload the IBU cup with individuals, since there are quite a few junior and youth athletes running the IBU cup and they don't really do the 15/20k just yet. Though short individual could be a solution, I agree with you on super sprints, it's a stupid format and it doesn't really show the level of the athletes.

 

I think pursuits are necessary and should be made somehow accessible to lower tier athletes, because athletes need contact race experience or they're fucked when they qualify to the World Cup. Lithuanians are a good example with this, since regional championships are never competitive, everybody grew up with close to zero experience in contact racing, which is why Vytautas needed 3 years to start being able to climb in pursuits and he spent this entire year trying to learn how to mass start.

 

Nobody from Lithuania is good at pursuits and we often screw up in relays as well. It would be good if our juniors and youth had the ability to do more contact racing on an international level. 

You're right about the long individuals, I did mean the emphasis should be on sprints. They could somehow try to find a way to split the field in half or something, because in the qualifying competition that is the IBU Cup, it just sucks to have a lot of top-x-only events. Plus only sprints and individuals (and supersprint qualifiers, nowadays) give IBU qualifying points, which are essential too.