RobtheAggie

22 hours ago, Swewi said:

Stina Nilsson changes sport again, back to cross country but this time Ski classics. Her biathlon career ends with one individual podium and one in relay. 

She gave it a legitimate attempt, but could not make it work.  I give her lots of props for the attempt.  It had to be frustrating to go from the top of the world to one who is almost irrelevant.  Still a better biathlete than I could ever be :).  Good luck Stina, thanks for showing the world how difficult biathlon is.

I wonder if Emma Lunder is retire as well.

Great shooting by so many yesterday.  Now lets see if the men can do the same today.

1 hour ago, Grassmarket said:

Maybe was looking at someone else’s targets & thought he’d got them all down. 

I would have thought the same, but there were only three or four people out of the 100 that shot at lanes 29 or 30, and none were shooting at the same time as him.  Who knows.

Here's hoping for two good pursuit races today.

QFM shot right in front of me.  No idea how he skipped the loop.  I agree, that once the first 10 finished, the crown noise went down quite a bit.  Still a fun experience.  

3 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Yeah, Tomingas is huge and has towers for legs  (wait until you see Maya Cloetens though)

 

Awesome that you're involved as volunteer! Without people like you sports can't happen, so thanks, and have fun!

Other observations.  Many of the coaches/biathletes uses the English language as it is the common language between them.  One that I did find odd though is the Korean shooting coach spoke to two of of the biathletes (Choi and Ko) in Korean, but Avvakumova in English.

Kuzmina is pretty tall.  Dale-Skjevdal is very friendly.  Seriously, if there is a race near you, give it a shot.  There are over 350 volunteers this week.  Plus, it is the best seat in the house.  

So quick update from Soldier Hollow.  Tomingas is really a tall athlete.  Anna Mangasson is not.  There was a very skinny Lithuanian female that was right in front of me on the range who I think weighted about 40 kilos.

The Men's relay was really fun to watch as the US did well.  The sprint was interesting.  I was the sweeper for lanes 25-30, only about 10 of the 95 biathletes shot from those lanes.  You can actually see my on the broadcast if you look at Stina Nilsson standing shoot, I am in the background.  Also, if you look carefully at 1:09:45 you can see me do my vital work

This has been a fun few days.

What do you mean?  This was about 30 miles from Soldier Hollow on Saturday evening.

The World Cup heads to Soldier Hollow next.  I am volunteering on the range Thurs-Sat.  Maybe I can be the guy who sweeps the range

Benedikt Doll has announced his retirement at the end of the season.  

The wind was pretty difficult today.  The shooting reflected that.

Mona Brosson will retire at the end of the season.  I think Dorothea Wierer will retire as well.

Lots of fun races.

Fun race to watch.  Great tactics by Vittozzi on the last hill.  I was hoping that Irwin would hang onto 4th, but they were in the picture for a long time.  Great race for them!

Fun race to watch, terrible conditions.  

Joanne was pretty public about what happened to her earlier this summer.  She felt the changing of the qualifying procedure was targeting her.  Good for Deedra Irwin! 

Very happy with the way the US competed today.

From an American perspective, I loved the Single-Mixed.  Lots of fun to watch and Campbell Wright - Deedra Irwin team looks like a good one in the long run.  The Mixed Relay, although not as interesting at the back end of the race, was fun near the front.  Good day of racing.

Fun race to watch, as I was pulling for Switzerland!  I am not sure if I like the Short Individual and the Individual going together for the same globe.  They are two different races.

Some really poor shooting today among some of the favorites.  

5 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

I was reading the "Competition Rules and Format" report for biathlon, and I noticed an interesting quota limitation. NOCs will be allowed to enter four athletes per gender in the Individual, but only two in the sprint. I have no idea why the IBU and/or IOC made that decision, but the document is very clear about it @heywoodu @RobtheAggie

That is a really odd rule.  The start list should be very interesting to look at. 

Fun races yesterday.  Good to see Campbell Wright do well this past weekend.

It happened in the Mixed and Single Mixed Relays again today.  Lots of lapped teams.  There were 9 teams lapped in the Single Mixed relay, including four who did not get off their first biathlete.  How in the world is Brazil going to be able to compete Erdal?  The mixed relay had 8 of the 19 get lapped.  5 teams did not get off the women.  I know I have ranted about this before, but if the IBU Cup is about development, don't pull people out after they are lapped.   

Could anyone get the Eurovision stream to work today?  On mine it looks like nothing has been updated since Pre-Christmas.

Great weekend of races.  What a beautiful location.  I loved seeing Lena going for it, and the fans eating it up.  Deedra Irwin coming through for the US!