RobtheAggie

@Monzanatoris it a funding issue, personalities, what seems to be the problem?

More interesting news out of Russia.  It appears that the RBU elections that are planned for two days from now have seen some very strong influence over the "anticipated" winner of the election.  It has gotten to a point, at least according to this article, that Perm has been suspended.  It seems that Trans-Baikal Territory has also had issues.  

2 hours ago, Grassmarket said:

That looks very like a fake news site to me, mate.

I was skeptical as well.  

Here are a few more articles about it.  Article #1   Article #2  Trying to piece together the translated Russian, it looks like the host federation did not order the bullets until too late and a biathlon race turned into a rollerski race with out much notice.

Russian youth biathlon competition happened without bullets.

Dinara Alimbekova and  Anton Smolsky got married over the weekend.

"After several years of continuous training regime, I decided that I needed a break. I want to rest both physically and mentally, and there is no better time for such a holiday than the period after the Olympics," Hojnisz-Starega was quoted as saying by the Polish Biathlon Association on Sunday.

"It absolutely doesn't mean retirement. I'm still thinking about starting at the Olympics in 2026," she added.

Baltic Biathlon Cup at Otepää

Women's Sprint:

1. Tomingas, Tuuli 0-1

2. Kulm, Susan 2-2 (+15.54)

3. Zhurauskate, Lidija 3-0 (+55.39)

Men's Sprint:

1. Zahkna, Rene 0-0

2. Strolia, Vytautas 0-2 (+23.02)

3. Fomin, Maksim 0-0 (+24.12)

Women's Mass Start:

1. Tomingas, Tuuli  0-0-2-1

2. Klum, Susan 0-0-2-1 (+3.38)

3. Ermits, Regina 1-3-1-(+1.42)

Men's Mass Start:

1.  Rastorgujevs, Andrei 0-0-0-2  - His first race in 18 months due to his suspension.

2. Zahkna, Rene 0-0-1-1 (+10.29)

3. Rankel, Raido 1-1-1-0 (+28.09)

The Biathlon Congress Handbook (agenda) is available here.  

One thing that I noticed here is who was not at the meeting.  The missing Federations were:

Full Members

Argentina

Armenia

Liechtenstein

Chinese Taipei 

Uzbekistan

Provisional Members

Andorra

Dominican Republic

There is already a candidate for the 2028 World Champs.  Hochfilzen has announced their candidature.  It is widely speculated that Le Grand Bonnard will also bid.

The Finnish Biathlon Federation has made a statement on Virolainen.

From the President - 

" ACCORDING TO OUR FEDERATION, SHE IS NOT A FINNISH CITIZEN. THE ATHLETE DID NOT CONTACT OUR UNION. I KNOW SHE HAS BEEN LIVING IN FINLAND FOR A LONG TIME. ALL FINNISH CITIZENS CAN PARTICIPATE IN QUALIFYING COMPETITIONS. ANYONE CAN CONTACT US. THERE ARE STRICT SELECTION CRITERIA. LET’S RESPECT THE TRAINING PROCESS OF ATHLETES."

Sorry for the all Caps, that is what the quote was in.  This is kind of easy to see what they are doing here.  There might be legs to this rumor.

11 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

I thought Virolainen retired years ago  

From what the article said, she recently (2021?) had her 3rd child.  She skied on the Russian Cup last winter, even before the Russian ban.  She is 33 years old, has lived in Finland and participated in the Finnish Summer Biathlon Championships and finished 2nd in one race.  Her Russian career was over, but it seems like she wants to extend her career.

Interesting article about how Biathlon seems to be getting the better youth skiers.

Daria Virolainen might move to the Finnish Team.  

48 minutes ago, Bearas said:

Belarus won't be competing in any championships anyways, they suspended alongside Russia.

I know.  I wonder when both Belarus and Russia are able to compete in IBU races again, what number of slots will they have.  Ukraine was able to retain their previous number.  Will Russia and Belarus be able to do the same?  It will be interesting to see how that side of things is resolved.  

Two more women have announced they are pregnant.  Both will miss the season, but return next year. 

 Anna Sola and Irina Leshchenko of the Belarus team will miss the upcoming season.  

On 9/3/2022 at 9:50 AM, Grassmarket said:

Two good races today at the FourcadeFest, well worth watching, even if the course is flatter than Dutch roadkill.

Maybe true, but it is a whole lot more beautiful!  Also, the US did pretty well.  I was just wishing that they would not get dead last.

Irene Lardschneider of Italy has announced her retirement in the middle of summer training.  She cited "medical reasons" as for the reason.

1 hour ago, Grassmarket said:

Eurovisionsports.tv has the Martin Fourcade event from Annency tomorrow.  Crowds last year were huge.

Schedule:

• 14h35 : mass-start de biathlon dames
• 15h25 : mass-start de biathlon hommes

Women's start-list

Marte Olsbu Roeiseland

Anaïs Chevalier

Dorothea Wierer

Marketa Davidova

Julia Simon

Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold

Chloé Chevalier

Mari Eder

Darya Blashko

Deedra Irwin

Federica Sanfilippo

Susan Kuelm.

Men's start-list:

Quentin Fillon-Maillet

Emilien Jacquelin

Tero Seppälä

Fabien Claude

Antonin Guigonnat

Vytautas Strolia

Michal Krcmar

Sean Doherty

Sverre Dahlen Aspenes

Eric Perrot

Martin Uldal

Karol Dombrovski 

4 hours ago, JonPhi said:

 Justine Braisaz-Bouchet is pregnant and will miss the entire next season. Thus, the French team is missing two important key players, Bescond and Braisaz.

Well, now is the time to see if the younger ladies are ready.

Max Cobb is the new Secretary General of the IBU.

US actually got a medal!  Maxime Germain with a bronze in the Junior Men Super Sprint Final.

Sad news out of Bulgaria.  Yuri Mitev, a two time Olympian (1980 and 1984) who represented Bulgaria has died.  He was also a fixture in the development of the Turkish team.

Now for the Mass Starts:

US Rollerski Biathlon Championships

Sprint

4 hours ago, Grassmarket said:

If you have money, you can have snow.  There actually is a quite rocky mountainous area of Saudi Arabia, There was a pro bike race earlier this year.  

The area they are trying to develop into a ski resort area is up in the Northwest of the country.  If Lebanon can have a ski resort, so could Saudi Arabia.

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1996866/saudi-arabia