Werloc

Kaukėnas isn't looking too well yet, but at least he is not spending years on the range. Ski speed should get better as the World Cup continues, but right now he's definitely worse off than Karol or Vytautas.

Wow, Linas shot 0+0 in the sprint, but today he absolutely murdered Lithuania like no one has ever murdered before. 4+3, 14th to 20th, 1:30 behind to 3:40 behind. That's so tragic.

I really want to not get lapped today, because I'm very interested in what kind of form Tomas Kaukėnas is after his Covid.

Don't think the Swiss has a chance for a top 5 at this point in the season. Haecki and Selina not looking too great, Elisa not too great either and Aita right now looks most stable, but used to be the 4th best runner for the relay. Sweden would be the easy bet for the win, but Skottheim could get nervous and do loops in the first leg. Germany looks fairly stable and another good favourite to fight with Sweden. France and Norway could look promising, but they also have clear weaknesses. Norway could find themselves too far behind before the 3rd leg, whilst France will probably bomb after the 2nd leg. Italy doesn't seem ready, Sanfilippo and Lardschneider seem unreliable. My biggest outsider chance would be Austria. Zdouc has hit 40/40 targets, Schwaiger and Hauser also known to be pretty good with the rifle, although Hauser has lost a bit of it. Still, I think it comes down to Innerhofer being able to avoid the penalty loop in the standing and if she does that, Austria could be gunning for bronze. And with the women teams looking a bit weaker than previous years, I'd say Estonia has a decent chance to end in the top 10

I wonder what is the salary of this man and how many other men applied for this position? Anywhere outside of this warm up area and that would be sexual harrassment

Mixed feelings for Lithuania today, the shooting was off for Vytautas Strolia, but the others shot well, just not enough pace on the skis. Takeaway result here is the 66th place from Linas Banys, with 0+0 shooting. It's his PB result, previously it was 76th from Soldier Hollow, so it's nice to see that he's improving. Pretty respectable from Maksim Fomin, knowing that he was thrust into World Cup earlier than expected, due to Kaukėnas illness. Good to see he kept it together on the shooting range today and only missed the final shot. 49th and 60th for Karol and Vytautas. I'd expect Karol to at least get to 40th if he's missing one shot and as for Vytautas, nearly all of his missed shots are the second shot, he needs to fix that. Doubt he's gonna run in the pursuit from that 60th place.

Finally, success for Tarjei

[hide] Nation Captains SWEDEN Hanna Oeberg SWEDEN Sebastian Samuelsson Nation Women NORWAY Marte Olsbu Roeiseland GERMANY Maren Hammerschmidt AUSTRIA Lisa Theresa Hauser BELGIUM Lotte Lie Nation Men ITALY Lukas Hofer FRANCE Emilien Jacquelin LITHUANIA Vytautas Strolia NORWAY Tarjei Boe [/hide]

Wait, I remembered Dzindzaletaitė this one probably looks good for you. And that was Daina Gudzinevičiūtė, our LTOK president for I don't know how many years now. Virgilijus Alekna tried to beat her this year, but lost.

Leščinskaitė probably sounds extremely pronouncable to everyone here, what are you talking about???

I don't know, Scandinavian names and surnames are easier for me to pronounce than Eastern ones. Perhaps it's because those languages have germanic roots and are somewhat similar to English.

Our relay is really gonna feel the absence of Tomas Kaukėnas. Hopefully we get him back for stage 3

I would appreciate if you kept Szczurek out of the team though, he is causing me the same amount of pain as people like Stvrtecky or Fratzscher.

A small startlist rundown, with less effort this time Belarus: Labastau out, Yaliotnau in Canada: Burnotte out, Millar in Czech Republic: Mikyska out, Krupcik in Estonia: Raenkel out, Siimer in France: 6 > 5 starters, Perrillat Bottonet out Italy: 3 > 5 starters, Windisch and Bormolini back in the team Japan: Ozaki out, Kobonoki in Latvia: Birkentals out, Slotins in Moldova has joined the party with two starters: Magazeev and Usov Poland: Szczurek out, Szwajnos in Romania has joined the party with two starters: Buta and Oskin Russia 5 > 6 starters, Babikov in Slovakia: Bartko out, Baloga in Slovenia: Cisar out, Trsan in Switzerland: Stalder out, Hartweg in Ukraine: Lesiuk out, Dudchenko in 101 > 107 starters As for the women, Belarus: Kruchinkina I. out, Sola in Canada: Moser out, Sepandj in Czech Republic: Tepla out, Vobornikova in Estonia: Lethla out, Gaim in Japan: Hachisuka out, Tanaka in Kazakhstan: Kondratyeva out, Kolomiyets in South Korea: Mun out, Kim in Latvia: 2 > 1 starters, Puce out Moldova joins the party, Stremous is in Norway: just thought it was somewhat funny that Eckhoff was kicked to the worst group with a bib 88 Poland: Piton out, Jakiela in Russia: Kuklina out, Goreeva in Slovakia: 2 > 3 starters, Smerciakova joins the team Sweden: 7 > 6 starters, goodbye Hogberg, you will be missed, see you in 2021 Ukraine: Vita Semerenko out, Bekh in Exact same number of starters at 104

Makes sense why they made it U25. There are a lot of teams where you don't really get to make the team in your early twenties and those youngsters that do make it, are usually not high scorers.

Camera men sabotaging Lithuania today

So is Gabrielė

Don't forget about bib number 104. We're coming for a shocking Top 10 too.

My captain is winning!

Lithuania still 13th in the nation cup for now and Vytautas Strolia is 21st in the World Cup. That's the best start we've ever had to a World Cup season.

Nice, Vytautas Strolia might start qualifying for mass starts if he keeps this momentum going Karol is looking faster than any other season, in the top 60 with 3 misses, that's a first for him. Linas Banys needs to work on the skis, but his first lap was somewhat salvagable. Fomin probably expected a better debut in World Cup, but he has still a lot of room to grow. I wonder if Tomas will make it to the second Kontiolahti stage.

Damn, Karol threw it all away, but the result from Vytautas Strolia was much better than expected, he might even remain in the top 30 with that

Yeahhh, pretty poor effort from Vytautas Strolia today. I don't see him getting into the top 40 with these two misses.

What's up with the French though

Samuelsson flying