Biathlon 2015 - 2016 Discussion Thread

[heywoodu 13,540]

 

For me this unfortunately means I won't pay Obertilliach a 2nd visit, which is a real shame because I loved it there and I would have loved to go back  

 

On the other hand, Martell and Arber are my options to visit next season and at least they talk German as well there. I'm gonna try to find out if it's possible to visit both, either by travelling there by myself or by (hopefully) travelling from Martell to Arber together with the Brazilians just like they took me from Obertilliach to Munich this season  

[heywoodu 13,540]

Time to look back at the season of the Brazilians and look forward at the off-season and the 2016/17 season  

 

Idre and a tough start
After a summer of preparation, including some good results (and a win) in Ushuaia, Argentina, the season really got underway with the IBU Cup in Idre. Both for Bruna Moura and Gabi Neres it turned out to be quite hard: heavy snowfall meant they had to compete in conditions which were completely new for them and were very unfavourable for people who aren't yet among the fastest skiers in the field. For Caio Moreira, Leandro Lutz and the two girls this resulted in the slowest skiing speeds of the fields and the two last places in both sprints.

 

Ridnaun...history!
Then came IBU Cup 2, Ridnaun. The program had a mixed relay in it and this meant Brazil fielded a relay team for the first time ever in biathlon history (and the 2nd South American team ever, after Argentina in Forni Avoltri 2007). Bruna started off with using two spare rounds in both shooting bouts and although the exchange happened in last place, handing over to best friend Gabi was, I quote, "an unforgettable moment". Gabi managed to perform very well and only needed one spare round, before handing over to Caio. His 0+1 and 0+2 was one of his best shooting results so far and it was Lutz who got the chance to reach one shooting bout before the race finished.

 

Fabrizio Bourguignon joined them for the sprint in Ridnaun and the veteran missed one shot to finish 135th out of 136 competitors. Caio's six misses brought him 131st place, 1.4 seconds ahead of Lutz' 5 misses. As for the women: Mirlene Picin stepped in and, having less tired legs because of her not doing the relay, was half a minute faster on the ski's than Bruna. The participation in Ridnaun of Henar Extebarria (Spain), Claudia Salcedo (Chile), Maria Dominguez (Argentina), Angela Banduri (Georgia) and Sara Lucic (Serbia) gave the Brazilians a good chance to finish ahead of some athletes and that worked out well. Picin finished 90th, Bruna 91st and Gabi 95th in a field of 100...progress!

 

Obertilliach...more history!
Next up was Obertilliach and, on a side note, my first taste of biathlon in real instead of on TV (see my report on the trip earlier in this thread). Despite a burning throat and a face that told "This pain is killing me", Bruna managed to shoot well (2+1+0+2) and finished in 87th of 91, one place ahead of Gabi. Day 2 arrived, the sprint, and boy, did Bruna perform! A magical clean shooting, only the 3rd time in history a Brazilian did so, and 88th place out of 100. The 244,46 IBU points were the best result by far and were welcomed with a hearty celebration. Gabi finished 98th because of four shooting errors, but her skiing speed showed a promising upwards trend. 

 

Junior Worlds
After Obertilliach the biathlon season for Bruna was over, but Gabi and Caio still had the junior worlds in Cheile Gradistei to compete. Caio didn't have the best week of his life in terms of performance and had the slowest skiing speed in both the individual and sprint, resulting in 102nd and 101st places respectively (out of 102). Gabi finished in last place in the individual with nine misses, but on the plus side, she did beat two girls in skiing speed. Four misses in the sprint and not the best skiing result meant last place instead of qualifying for the pursuit, but she'll definitely be back next year, one year stronger. 

 

End of season
Meanwhile over in Austria, Bruna competed in some cross-country races. The highlight of this was the Austrian championships in Saalfelden in which Teresa Stadtlober (two times top-10 in the Tour de Ski) competed as well. Looking at relative results, Bruna was closer to Stadtlober than she was compared to the top IBU Cup skiers, meaning her skiing speed kept on improving! The whole team was united after Cheile Gradistei and competed some cross-country races in Switzerland as well...although the very last race could not be reached: there was literally too much snow to go from their hotel to the track, ending their season as the next day would see the travel back home.

 

Comments
I haven't gotten word from Gabi yet (I'll try to get some comments soon), but Bruna looked back at the season with the following: "I believe I had a good season and I'm happy with my results, but I believe I can do it even better next season. If there's one thing I want to keep doing the same way, it is to be focussed on my shooting trainings. I want to shoot at least 80% next season, but apart from that I also want to shoot a bit faster. Also I'm happy with my skiing speed in the biathlon competitions. Maybe I wasn't the fastest, but I could feel improvement and that's what is important for me, because I know I can improve season after season. Compared with last (pre)-season, I know I need to change some things in my training plans, but I have already talked about it with my federation (CBDN) and I'm expecting they will change that for me. I believe if my training changes in the right way, I can improve a lot compared to the two seasons I have had so far." 

 

Off-season and looking forward to 2016/2017
As an example of why Bruna (and myself) believes she can improve a lot next season: gym trainings normally only happened in the relatively short times in Sweden, but starting this month, she will actually train at the gym in her hometown in Brazil almost daily, effectively doubling her training input compared to last (pre)-season. Depending on how some laws, licenses and documents work out, she could also very well receive her very own laser rifle soon. Obviously this isn't the perfect shooting training, but I think we can all agree that it's a huge improvement compared to absolutely no kind of shooting training at all (like previously when not in Europe).

 

Bruna's goals for the now finished season, set by CBDN (the federation), were to shoot 65% over the course of the IBU-season and get a result below 280 IBU points. She destroyed those goals, by shooting 78% during IBU Cups 1, 2 and 3, a percentage only Jaqueline Mourão could beat in her best days, but never for a full season. She got 244 IBU points in her best race, also way better than the goal. Next season I firmly believe she can reach the first "magical" line of 200 points, which would mean that she qualifies for the next trimester in the IBU Cup. 

 

Talking about next season: during the summer they will have a big training camp in Argentina (Ushuaia), after which the calendar shows a trip to Chile, where the national championships will be held in Portillo (and maybe the South American championships, although they won't have a lot of competition there from Argentinians and Chileans). We won't see the Brazilians in the first IBU Cup trimester. Beitostoelen - Ridnaun - Obertilliach would be too expensive of a combination (it's a shame the season doesn't open in Idre again) so instead, they will be in an IBU development camp in November and December, the location of which isn't known yet. 

 

Their IBU Cup season then starts in January with the competitions in Martell and Arber. Participating in the 3rd trimester depends on getting 200 IBU points or less in Martell or Arber, or, if they compete, at the Open European Championships in Poland in the end of January. There is a small possibility Bruna and Gabi will compete at the Universiade in Kazakhstan, which isn't sure yet, but would be awesome! 

 

All in all, next season is going to be an extremely important one in terms of possible Olympic qualifying or at least getting close to that kind of level. I have a lot of faith in seeing big improvements for the team and I very strongly believe they can break the 200 point-barrier and qualify for a 3rd trimester of IBU Cups, which would give them invaluable experience (and a fun trip to the Kontiolahti Wall!).

[heywoodu 13,540]

Siegfried Mazet has left the French team after 8 years of being the very succesful shooting coach. The French federation is angry and rumours are he is going to Norway. 

[Xander 53]

Vita Semerenko will continue to train with the team in autumn.

Why being so late? Cuz she's pregnant!

 

The president of our federation started this rumour 1 week ago: "she promised to come back like 1 French biathlete" hinting at Marie. And now this pic:

http://cs631131.vk.me/v631131270/20496/XAFwb1HOxtQ.jpg

 

I was afraid that she won't make it but it seems she can start training in September + she's been training this winter already so it won't be a big problem to get in shape.

 

[NearPup 2,156]

Anna Frolina and Alexander Starodubets, two Russian born biathletes, have become naturalized South Korean citizens in hopes of competing in Pyeongchang.

[Xander 53]

As for the new doping case: Germany, Ukraine & Russia denied this is their biathlete.

The rumour says it's someone from Central Europe.

[heywoodu 13,540]

And that's a hit for Bjørndalen, Domracheva is pregnant  (and he will continue his career until after Pyeongchang)

[ahjfcshfghb 285]

On 4/1/2016 at 1:20 PM, Near said:

Anna Frolina and Alexander Starodubets, two Russian born biathletes, have become naturalized South Korean citizens in hopes of competing in Pyeongchang.

Of course there will be people abusing the system.

[Xander 53]

Juraj Sanitra is the new coach of our men's team He used to train Anastasiya Kuzmina and Pavol Hurajt.

We'll see if he can survive here

 

+ our men's team is going to prepare for the next season in Canada for few weeks:

 

The president of our federation said he believes that Vita will go to the Olympics. "I'm 99% sure".

Edited April 8, 2016 by Xander

[heywoodu 13,540]

A real genius has made an Excel sheet for me with which I can calculate and update the IBU Qualifying Points List after every result with only 2-3 minutes of work per competition 

 

This will be good, since IBU never publishes this list, even though it is so extremely important for the small nations (it decides qualifying quota for the Olympics and World Championships, for example). 

 

Anyway, all results of last season are entered and here are some results. It will consists of 4 lists in this post. 

 

For all lists, remember that there's a maximum of 2 quotas per country.

 

As for the Olympics, it doesn't decide anything now, but this is just to show that next season I can update the list after each and every World Cup or IBU Cup, which will be great (especially if you're a fan of smaller nations like, say, Brazil  ) 

 

--------------------------

 

- List of all women from countries outside the World Cup Nations Cup top-22 - the best 5 or 6 of these would qualify quota places for the Olympics (of course these quotas aren't decided yet, it's only how it would be if the Olympic quotas would be decided now)  

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

- Same thing, but for men

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

- List of all women from countries outside the World Cup Nations Cup top-30 - the best 10 of these qualify quota places for the 2017 World Championships

 

Spoiler

 

- Same thing, but for men

 

Spoiler