Grassmarket

Eisenbichler doesn’t even make the Second Round!

Who’s this new guy Magnyifikatov we haven’t seen before? Unfortunately it looks like Andy Musgrave has succumbed again to his old vice of over-training during the break. Now is getting thrashed by guys he was easily beating last month.

Awww...Stupak’s son’s first birthday!

Still in there fighting.... Stupak takes the sprint! Karlsson another bad day.

My mother did get better quickly once she got home. Never back to 100%, but certainly much better than in hospital. My father also - much better at home than in a care home.

Geez, bring the Norwegians back! Russia, 7 out of the top 8.

Interesting. I noticed that the athletes in these races were all representing Regions rather than clubs, so it’s possible that the root of the problem is at that level. Also, I have seen that in several sports - cycling, swimming, athletics - that some, at least, Russians take a “Dope ‘em young, serve the ban” attitude. There’s evidence that adults continue to get benefits from doping while they were under 20, even if the doping stops by that point.

Another stormer from Diggins & Brennan. Got the top two & all the bonus points.

Best snow conditions for ages, it’s always been brown hills this last few years. Dunno how this draw has been worked, but all the Swedes are going mid-race, all the Americans in the last four,

Scottish ski resorts have the best snow conditions for 10 years - - unless you live in the same county, you’re not allowed to ski there.

Yay Jess! That was hard work!

Stoch looking good for the three-peat.

Disaster for Granerud, good round for Poland.

Lordy, big shock in the relay as beat up on Bavarian ice!

He has been re-instated on appeal, but with a time penalty that puts him alongside Thailand & Australia.

What was funny was that the English-language ES commentators had just been talking about how the Russian skiers always worked well as a team, unlike the Norwegians etc who were always competing against each other.

In Flanders Engliish-language TV shows are always shown subtitled: in Wallonia they are always shown dubbed. As a result far more Flemish people are fluent in English.

Well, all the on-track incidents would be no more than a routine yellow card. It was his actions after the finish that got him a straight DSQ.

Yeah, but it is all the same English words! I read an article about baseball in Montreal, which is obviously a French-speaking city, and very touchy about it. When MLB started there in the 70s, the French-language commentators were give specially-prepared-by-University-Professors French equivalents for all the English baseball terms. After about a week they just ripped them up & threw them away, because it was just easier to use the English terms.

Ха ха ха! Three Russians take each other out! Cologna profits with second. Don’t quite come to blows, but certainly some ругань.

When I worked at the University, I noticed that International students would often speak English to each other when discussing particular subject. So Indian students would be chatting in Hindi, but when they started talking about cricket, or business, or economics or whatever subject they were studying, they would switch to English. Presumably because the vocabulary of these subjects just did not exist in the native language.

Plus lots more sand.

Yeah, the Russians are always capable of great shooting. I remember years back the women’s relay team shot what was then & probably is still a WR record 41/40 in a relay & then a couple of weeks later, at the next relay, the men did the same. But then ....

Just catching up with the Russian Champs from last week - she is there, representing Khanty-Mansiysk. Will let you know how she gets on in the 15k Individual. 5th after the first shoot - 0 @ 20 secs. Hmm, on-screen graphics following no known logic here. Darya is 0 1 though. Does not help that the commentator seems to think her duty is to imitate a platform announcer at a railway station. Oh dear, dear, not going well - 11th at over two minutes down after 3 shoots - 0 1 1 . Not getting any better - ski speed is there but 0 1 1 2 for 16th & 3:59 back after 4 shoots tells its own story. So at the final - 15th overall. . Will respect spoilers for the winner obvs. Will bring you up-to-date with the sprints when I watch them, probably about late March. Just imagine I am live-commentating from somewhere in interstellar space.

Hill Record for Kubacki!