Grassmarket

Germany, always the same. Even if their individual form is poor, they are always in form for the relay. Was that Norway lapped on the range?

When I first started watching biathlon Sweden did not even field a women’s relay team. Sanfilippo is the unlucky Italian girl who is going to take them from third to eighth. Norway three minutes twenty-five down.

Belarus’s good day comes to an end.

Going to be lapped! Geez, was that them only about 200m ahead of France at the handover?

Four loops for !

Still no sign of Norway.

Bad day for Gasparinistan. Two loops. More trouble for Norway.

Disaster for Canada, two loops already. Just horrible for Norway, so s-l-o-w!

Well, pretty good, Adam Zampa leads with 8 to go...has got every chance with heavy snow faling.

Oh sure, there’s no point in being in top form in December unless you are ranked number 6 or 7 in the Norway team. Good to see high bib numbers coming home in top positions.

Takes the lead! Jacquelin pays the price. Think JTB might lose a couple of places, he slowed down badly on the last lap on Thursday. Yup, Claude & Laegreid go past on the climb.

Ooh, first miss from JTB - pursuers take advantage. Tarjei Boe right back in it, Jacquelin up to 7th @ 35 secs!

Great old-time photo there.

Wind gauge at last gets some respect. Tarjei Boe 2/5, day over.

Oh! does it by just .008!

We have John Morgan joining Tim on comms today!

He quickly decays when no-one is there to correct him.

Love the bilingual commentary! Very educational.

Biathlon Relays are always strange - even though are red-hot favourites, I still think Norway & Germany will be close. It’s just the way biathlon works, individuals always find that extra 10%. It’s not like athletics or swimming.

See, this is why Protestantism was so popular in the Czech lands before the Defenestration of Prague. We can eat bacon seven days a week now! We don’t have to eat horrible muddy river fish anymore!

How do you tell a good carp from a bad one, as a matter of interest? In Britain we have carp fishing contests live on TV. We catch ‘em, weigh ‘em - then put them back into the lake because we don’t eat ‘em. That would be cheating.

Israel Start-Up Nation appoint first ever female DS at World Tour level, Britain’s Cherie Pridham. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/55189411 She’s been DS at British domestic level for quite a long time, so has done Tour of Britain etc.

First time since 2012, before you ask.

And all it took was several of the biggest countries to stay away! Mind you, we got our man into the men’s race last week on the same principle.

It’s not that vaccines don’t work, or that Americans are stupid. It’s that a vaccine is in itself dangerous to a certain percentage because a vaccine is not a cost-free option. There is always a risk. People die from allergic reactions to vaccines. At one time I used to get cholera vaccinated twice a year, & I was always a little ill afterwards. I knew plenty people who got it worse. If you are in a low-risk group for COVID, it’s perfectly possible in theory that a vaccine is statistically a bigger risk. There just has not been enough scientific work done, and we won’t find out what the true risks are for several years. We are already being told that pregnant women should not take it.