RobtheAggie

Russian Summer Biathlon Individual: Men's 20 km 1. Semyon Suchilov (KhMAO-Yugra) - 49.28.0 (2 misses) 2. Matvey Eliseev (Moscow) - +39.3 (2) 3.Igor Malinovsky (Omsk region) - +57.4 (0). Women's 15 km 1. Victoria Slivko Upcoming IBU Vote - The article talks about what Canada will do with the loss of the IBU Junior Cup and the early IBU Cup races. But near the end is the nugget. "Currently, the full BMW IBU World Cup schedule is going ahead as planned. However, the IBU executive board is meeting from Sept. 26-27 to decide whether adjustments will be made to the world cup’s November and December events. Wadsworth said there is a concern similar changes could be made to the world cup circuit. His gut feeling is that the races before Christmas will be scaled back." Wadsworth is the head coach of the Canadian National Biathlon Team. I think that this is also the meeting where the IBU World Championships are awarded. I do not remember if the new locations for the IBU Cup will be announced as well. You wonder how many people will travel to China for that race.

Akimova is back. No idea what level she will be at. It looks like the Russian Summer Biathlon Championships start today in Tyumen.

Paul Smith's college in NY opens their new biathlon range. Russia says they have paid almost 500,000 Euros to the IBU to pay back the debt they owe. They still owe around 350,000 Euros.

The Swiss Summer Biathlon Championship was held this past weekend in Andermatt. Sprint Results 4.5km/6km are here. Results of note, Sebastian Stalder was only .7 behind Benny Wegner. On the women's side, 2 of the 3 Gasparin sisters raced. Short Individual results are here. Aita Gasparin won the womens Stalder won the men's with Sergi Seminov of the Ukraine in 2nd. Last event was "Hit the Peak". Just look at this. The women run a 4.5km and men 6k up the mountain on roads, then finish with the last part what seems like it is just up.

Is it just me, but it seems that if you have a last name that begins with "H" in Germany, and are a female, you have a much better chance in biathlon.

It is so hard to train for anything without a way to test yourself against others. We might see a lot of youth/junior biathletes leave due to this. I hope not, but hard training, with limited access to reward is hard enough (all of biathlon). Hard training with very limited access to rewards is even harder (Junior/Youth) now. Unless a nation has a youth/junior schedule, things could get bad. The US is focusing on regional events this year.

So I was looking at the IBU Datacenter. The IBU Cup no longer has dates with the events. I looks like those events will be organized on short notice. If so, I would expect some of the traditional locales (provided they can host) to get those events. When in times of crisis, the tried and true and known are usually better ideas than brand new.

I think the article was heavily influenced by Google Translator. But thanks for the info with the last name. I could not remember how it worked.

Gabriela Koukalova and her husband have gotten a divorce. Honest question with the Czech language. Does she lose the -lova in her last name?

Thanks for the summary. I was at a cross country race, so I have been away from my computer. Not surprised about the announcement. I do feel bad for the youth/juniors. So, I guess in the long run, who does this benefit the most? A nation like Norway or Russia with a robust domestic scene that allows for continued youth/junior races? Or does this announcement kill the domestic races as well? No idea.

Kaisa Mäkäräinen won three races at the Finnish Summer Championships. No she is not making a comeback, but just having fun. German Summer Biathlon Championships. 15km - Johnannes Donhaus 20 for 20 at 37:30.8 10 km sprint - Dominiks Šmuks 24:25.3 10 for 10 12.5 km - Simon Shemp 31:38.2

This was announced elsewhere but no Winter University Games in 2021. So no Biathlon at Lenzerheide for that.

Here is the license list as of the Spring. I think that there will still be a season, but I do not know what it will look like. IBU License List.pdf

I wonder if provisions would be made if no fans in the stands, would they be willing to go to smaller venues, that do not have an A license, to stay closer together. Norway has a bunch of biathlon venues. Germany as well. Italy has at least 3. Austria has at least two. So maybe you could do it in groups of two races, then travel to the next group. I am jsut throwing out ideas here.

Yep, it seems like that might be in the cards. If that were to happen, my bet would be Kontiolahti or Ostersund.

26-27 September is D-Day for the first 4 stages of the World Cup. The IBU Executive Committee will meet then to figure out what to do. “As the IBU noted in its latest press release, it is evaluating various options. Including the option that involves a reduction in the usual number of trips and a longer use of one of the sports facilities,” the international organization explained. The first four stages of the World Cup of the new season should alternately be hosted by Kontiolahti (Finland), Ostersund (Sweden), Hochfilzen (Austria) and Annecy (France).

That would have been about the time that she and OEB started to have fond feelings for each other. Maybe he was a NATO spy, she was a KGB spy and they fell in love not through biathlon as we are led to believe, but through their spycraft. Perfect cover!

Nice little article about Campbell Wright of New Zealand.

Another round of random news: The Romanian team grew by three as Anastasia Tolmacheva, Anatoly Oskin and Elena Chirkova all had their switch from Russia to Romania approved. Tolmacheva is the youngest and maybe the best known. Here are their exploits - "Elena Chirkova is the owner of two bronze medals of the 2019 Universiade in Krasnoyarsk. Anastasia Tolmacheva is a two-time bronze medalist of the 2017 Russian Championship, and Anatoly Oskin took part in the 2013 Summer World Championship." Biathlon Canada posted on their facebook page: Whatever the new and exciting thing is, it will be announced on Wednesday.

So an update with Nilsson, she will still be able to train, but without poles. She fell on rollerskis while going down a hill. To be honest that could have happened if she was training for Nordic skiing only. So this is not a sport specific injury. It does put her six weeks behind on shooting though, which is where she had the most to learn. Now for the random news of the day: The Turkish Biathlon team has training, but like other nations can not travel. So they are making the best of their situation. Last in Belarus, where their soccer/football league did not stop during the Spring shutdown, over 30k children participated in youth activities this summer, including biathlon. Why is this important, I think that fewer than 30k Americans have done the sport total since 1956 when the first race in the US was held.

So COVID closures are starting to affect the fall/winter sports. Norway's planned fall camp in France at altitude might be moved it Italy or cancelled competley. Sweden also announced that they will not have an out of the country training camp this fall.

Pretty basic interview with Amanda Lightfoot, but interesting to note that she served in Iraq.

More of the random stuff: The Canadian Province of Ontario might get a new Biathlon training facility far in the western part of the province. From what I can gather from this Google translated article, Eva Kristejn Puskarčíková contracted Lyme's disease. - There is one of the classic google translate comments in the article : "The former biathlon star is also infected. She added a strong message and showed her how to have fun in bed." The Blinkfestivalen happend this weekend. Clips are not up on Youtube yet, but from the write-up on Biathlonworld, it looks like they were not downtown this year, but at an actual biathlon range. This is the climb in the 7.5 km race - Wow!

Shipulin and all his family have recovered and have now tested negative for Covid19.

The Mongolian team, or 5 of the 8 athletes, have arrived in Belarus for 3 months of training. Alexander Popov is training them. Interesting article with Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold where she talks about a wide range of things including the great Norway season from a year ago to Stina Nilsson.