Werloc

And I'm back for changes of the men's nation cup rankings. Interestingly enough, the TOP 7 is completely identical except for Italy being bumped down to 6th, by Austria coming up to 5th this year. Norway win again by a solid margin. Let's start with the ones that fell down: Slovenia fell down from 8th to 13th this year, mostly due to Fak's illnesses and Bauer having a mediocre season. Finland lost their four starters, dropping to 19th Latvia barely survived with their three starter positions, falling to 22nd place. Romania lost their three starters, falling to 24th. The gains: Belarus went up three spots from 15th up to 12. Estonia will be allowed four starters next season, from 18th to 16. A good season from Japan, lands them up to 21st and they gained three starter positions. I guess non-Olympic season is kind to the smaller nations, since it's easier to qualify to the World Championships and near impossible to qualify for Olympics. Nonetheless, last season there were 30 nations in the World Cup and this year we had 34 (3 of whom started only in the championships, yes I'm looking at you @heywoodu ). China, Moldova, Hungary, Spain, Macedonia in, Great Britain out.

Seems that shooting is becoming less fun now

What a beautiful race. Everybody is giving their all.

Be happy there's more countries

Anyways, with the women's nation cup already done and dusted, let's have a look at the major changes, comparing to last year. Norwegian women made a huge surge from 5th to 1st this year, nearly a thousand points seperated them last year from Germany (and that's with 6 races less) Interesting fact is that Italy has nr. 1 and nr. 2 women in their team, but that didn't help them as they dropped to 5th, compared to the 3rd place last year. Finland took a nosedive from 12th to 17th. They scored more points last year with 6 races less. Belarus and Poland fell back three spots both. Kazakhstan from nr.14 down to 23 due to their problems. Lithuania lost three starter women to China. And, when someone goes down, someone must climb. Austria with a nice effort going from 16th up to 10th United States from 19th spot up to 13. Estonia leaped from 20th place to number 16. Lastly, in this post-Olympic year, 32 countries had the chance to start in the World Cup and that's two more than last year! (Greece, Australia, Belgium, Croatia entered, whilst Great Britain and Hungary were not present)

Well, if anybody dared to say that Gabrielė Leščinskaitė was going to beat Lisa Vittozzi today, they'd probably be locked up in a mental facility by now, but that actually happened

"Can we have a surprise top 10?" "No, we have a surprise big miss" Lovely

I hate the Swedish team that they didn't give chances for Hoegberg. She deserved to start in the World Championships

I have the weirdest feeling about this song. I think it was some type of cover contest over in China. This is definitely the same song, but I remember it differently Feels like the instrumental in this one is different or I'm just going crazy.

Every competition has to have that one "yolo" horse

Or 0 if the horse is having fun

Laura Asadauskaitė has started in her first competition after her injury. She secured a win with 1107 points over Elodie Clouvel of France and Freya Atkinson of Great Britain.

OH MY GOD, I can't believe it It was a rather scoreless day for everyone. I thought that not picking JTB for sprint would haunt me till the end of time This is the first time that I win a prediction contest and it's super meaningful, since it's biathlon. Not my first biathlon medal, but super rewarding after last year when I lost the bronze due to tie-breakers. Anyways, thank you @Wanderer for hosting, this is pretty much the only prediction contest that I'm always looking forward to since I actually know what I'm doing Congrats to @SteveParker and @Kirkpatrick , it couldn't have gotten any closer than that

Well, Moravec and Vitkova struggled to find any form this season and Davidova didn't show up in Ostersund.

Two years have passed since the Biathlon World Championships in Austria. It is time to look at the medal table statistics and see what's changed? In 2017, we saw 11 different nations on the podium, compared to the 10 in 2019. Nations that haven't continued with their medal success from 2017: Czech Republic, United States, Belarus and Finland. New nations that scored a medal: Sweden, Bulgaria and Slovakia. The medal table in 2017 was topped by Germany with impressive 7 golds and 1 silver. This time Germany got second with one medal less, but only two of them gold. The medal table in 2019 was won by Norway with 9 medals of which 5 were gold, compared to 2017 where they were 6th on the medal table with 4 medals, 0 of them gold. Another interesting development is that not a single one of them were from a relay, 3 silvers for JTB and a bronze for Bjoerndalen. Biggest losses of the championships go to the Czech Republic that were in third place with four medals back in 2017, France that were in second place with seven medals this year finishing in 8th with four. Whilst the biggest gains can be attributed to Norway that I've already mentioned, to Italy that won a massive 5 medals compared to 2017's bronze medal by Alexia Runggaldier in the individual and to the hosts Sweden that won three medals. Countries that managed to repeat their performance were Ukraine that went from 1 medal to 2, Russia with 2 medals in 2017 took 3 in this edition and Austria went down a medal from 2 to 1.

Well, 1/20 points for me today, I guess I'm done. RIP hopes & dreams

Well, 0 points for me in this one. Anyone had Wierer and/or Herrmann in their top 3?

Individual: predict Wierer's win - misses, Vittozzi medals. Mass Start: predict a medal for Vittozzi, Wierer decides that she'll hit 15/15 today

Lovely, all three of my medalists for today miss 1, 2 and 3 in the first shoot

I'm gonna be a nervous wreck tomorrow I honestly just want a medal and I'll be thrilled. If I'll lose the bronze for not picking JTB in sprint, I'll be depressed till next year's contest

I told you to not pick on my man Christiansen!

Honestly, people are disrespecting Norway far too much. The last time that France or Germany actually won a men's relay, was 2017 for both, so until they prove everybody otherwise, Norway is still the biggest favourite. I'd say Norway is the likeliest to win, then Germany, France and Sweden are very close. Russia is dangerous, but not as good on paper, so the shooting will be important as well as an off chance for Austria on a good day as well as top 10 performances for probably Switzerland, Italy and Czech Republic.

Who would dare mess with this man?

Well, he held his own in the mixed relay against Doll, in his first ever World Championship competition. This is some Dahlmeier level of reliability

I'm slightly surprised that Germany went for Hinz over Preuss. Italy with 0 ambitions to go for gold with the way that they organised their relay. For France it will be all about the shooting. Norway is a mixed bag of stress with Solemdal's performance and standing shooting from both Tandrevold and Eckhoff. As for men, I would have actually liked to see Fillon-Mallet on the 4th position, because Martin does not really look as ambitious or prepared to race for a medal, especially if it's going to be a ski race on the last lap. Germany and Norway look rather solid as well. Sweden might really do something with good shooting.