RobtheAggie

The provisional start lists for the relays are out. 30 nations in the Single Mixed, and 28 in the Mixed.

Wide range of start times for the Women's Individual tomorrow. 6. Preuss 8. Roeiseland 13. Eckhoff 14. Herrmann 16. Chevalier C. 26. Oeberg. E. 35. Hauser 38. Wierer 40. Oeberg H. 47. Simon 48. Davidova 58. Hintz There is quite a spread. Even for some the later ones will be interesting to follow. Emma Lunder starts 89th, she is having a good season.

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?

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.

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!

I also enjoyed the races these past two weekends. Oberhof was always the track that was kind of "blah" the fog affected my memory. But this year was great racing.

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

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?

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.

Great result for Weger! His last podium was in 18/19 in the Mixed Relay at Pokjuka. His last individual podium was the 11/12 season in the sprint at Kontiolahti.

133 for the women's sprint and 161 for the men!

Swiss did about what I thought the would do. Weger was strong, Finello and Wiestner were solid. Burkhalter just did not have the speed to keep up. The US was a mixed bag. They did better than their ranking of 16th. I do like splitting Nordgren and Doherty. Brown and Schommer were serviceable. This was the first relay since Burke and Bailey retired that I felt there was a chance to get in the top 10. I think one of the amazing things was how Belgium was the only team lapped. US Women back with Dunklee then Egan. They tried splitting the two earlier this season with questionable results.

From redit - so trust the source, but according to the thread, Tandervold "got heart fibrillation on the way out of the mat after the last shot. Felt acutely unwell and that I lost all energy in my body. I immediately recognized the symptoms as I have experienced this once before, in fact here in Oberhof in 2017. "

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 - Vaclav, 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.

Eckhoff is on amazing form right now. It was also good to see Wierer finally (since the Individual in Finland) really compete for the win. I think that she is too far back, to really make a run at defending her title. It was good to see Hauser on the podium again. I am not sure what is going on with Susan Dunklee. She has not had a clean shoot all season (relays not counted) and missed 3,1,2,3,6,2,4,5,3. Claire Egan skied slower than in Austria, but still got points. Is it just me or is Franziska Preuss have a very quiet solid season. No race below 23, 9 races in the top 10 and 2 podium finishes.

Good catch. I can not remember the last time there were 6 US entries in one race.

A little more on the Fialková sisters. I hope they recover and are able to right the proverbial ship. OEC will take place in Poland as planned, and the Arber schedule is slightly changed. This is due to the tons of people registered. The men have 190 and the women 170. There are going to be some massive time gaps and that course is going to be really busy.

I thought she retired from biathlon at the end of last season. Wow - look at these start numbers for the women: Australia - 2 Austria - 6 Belgium - 2 Bosnia - 1 Brazil - 1 Bulgaria - 4 Canada - 3 Croatia - 2 Czech Republic - 6 Estonia - 4 Finland - 4 France - 7 Great Britain - 2 Germany - 8 Italy - 5 - Including Gontier and Carrara Japan - 2 Korean - 2 Latvia - 2 Lithuania - 1 Moldova - 3 Mongolia - 3 North Macedonia - 1 Norway - 6 Poland - 6 Romania - 4 Russia - 8 Slovenia - 5 Switzerland - 7 Slovakia - 4 Sweden - 7 Turkey - 2 Ukraine - 8 USA - 6 Over 30 nations. Are there enough flag poles?

I mixed the week up, but still, small steps for the US men.

You are right, I did not expand my search that far. I only looked in Bodenmais and Bayerisch.

US put three into the pursuit! Not too bad at all. By the way, I love the drone that they are using for the downhill.

I thought Arber was tiny. How is there housing for all the teams and athletes. I also anticipate a lot of Junior's as well

There are 190 entered for the men and around 160 for the women. That is 89 more than are scheduled for the sprint today for the men! That is a lot of people.

I am seeing it I can get it through my college's library. If so, I will let you know.

According to the IBU, eight people have recently tested positive for the coronavirus six from Bulgaria's team, one from the Czech Republic's and one from Japan' Nastassia Kinnunen who was born in Belarus and raced for Belarus in Olympic and World Championship cross country and biathlon for them, has been given permission to represent Finland. She has lived there since 2017, and will start the IBU Cup event in Arber. If you are a statistics guru, here is an interesting article about the mass-start. You do not actually need to read the article, they summarize the findings. Pretty interesting.