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I wonder if any more women will qualify for wildcard spots. What I don't understand is the Czech federation's decision to basically cut half of our women's IBU Cup team, who haven't had any worse results than the rest of the team, and who are now racing at only national level. That's why we only have three women there. And then they start complaining about not having any women for the relay.

Looks like they will have women skiiers there http://astanatimes.com/2016/03/afghanistan-confirms-participation-in-winter-universiade-2017/

We'll see at the Asian Winter Games, I guess. The Afghans are going to compete at the World Championships, by the way. They raced in FIS races though and they're about 300 points behind the target. Never say never?

Also emailed a few other federations, South Africa said "there are 4 athletes trying to qualify, it is up to us to decide who to send", Tonga said "they are working tirelessly to get the athletes there", Tajikistan said "yes of course we will send our athletes" (even though none are qualified) and the guy from Nepal asked "Do you have any suggestions?"

Oh yes, Brezno doesn't count except for relay qualification. My bad. Good to know she will be participating in the Nordic World Championships! Hopefully they will air the qualification for the 10km on Eurosport like last year, so we can see her in action. (By the way apparently Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Tonga and Trinidad and Tobago are sending skiers.)

Just an update on Puerto Rico Emailed the ski federation and they said: Thank you for your e-mail. At this time, it is unlikely that we will be sending any athletes to the OWG in 2018; however, that situation may change in the coming months. It has to do with the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee’s staunch refusal to send any athletes to the OWG since 2002, when certain members of our bobsled team were determined to be ineligible to participate for Puerto Rico. We are working to resolve this issue, as the people responsible for that scandal have not been involved with winter sports in Puerto Rico for many years. So maybe a ray of hope there.

Aaaah I wish I still lived there! Might be going January next year so might see some biathlon there, who knows. If I had to go anywhere it would be Nove Mesto! I hope Bruna manages to qualify for the WCH though it'll be tough from here. 3 races left to do it..

About time! Hope they don't drink too much beer while there Are Bruna, Gabi and Caio all competing?

Unfortunately Guzik Novakowska and Gwizdon are quite old I hope the young girls get better. I mean Zuk was OK in the relay.. But yeah they are quite slow After our relay we are concerned too about what will happen when Koukalova and Vitkova retire. We really need Charvatova to finally (!) improve her shooting and for juniors like Davidova to take advantage of their talent. As for the men, I think it is all downhill from here. Soukup Slesingr and Moravec are all in their 30s, yes we have Krcmar and Vaclavik, but beyond that not too great.

I remember Poland used to have a very solid women's and men's team. I guess it's a generational thing I hope you manage to rebound Has the funding gone downhill or something?

Exactly! Fate is an interesting thing

From number 30 to victory in the mass start. Who knew. She wasn't even on the provisional start list! I thought after the fourth shoot Dahlmeier would get it. But Horchler must have been saving her energy. Great race by her! At least Koukalova got a podium, she hadn't gotten a podium in Antholz until today, struggles with the altitude, so glad she made it

I am sure that they will both have four of each gender. (Unless the Fialkovas don't meet the WC and OWG criteria...)

I think you can at least relax about Nations Cup, surely Slovenia won't make up 500 points

Found a provisional list of nations registered for the 2017 World Championships (from the organizers). Definitely some interesting ones in here! 1 AFG Afghanistan 2 ALB Albania 3 AND Andorra 4 ARG Argentina 5 ARM Armenia 6 AUS Australia 7 AUT Austria 8 AZE Azerbaijan 9 BEL Belgium 10 BIH Bosnia and Herzegovina 11 BOL Bolivia 12 BRA Brazil 13 BUL Bulgaria 14 CAN Canada 15 CHI Chile 16 CHN P.R. China 17 COL Colombia 18 CRO Croatia 19 CYP Cyprus 20 CZE Czech Republic 21 DEN Denmark 22 ESP Spain 23 EST Estonia 24 FIN Finland 25 FRA France 26 GBR Great Britain 27 GEO Georgia 28 GER Germany 29 GRE Greece 30 HAI Haiti 31 HUN Hungary 32 IND India 33 IRI Iran 34 IRL Ireland 35 ISL Iceland 36 ISR Israel 37 ITA Italy 38 JPN Japan 39 KAZ Kazakhstan 40 KEN Kenya 41 KGZ Kyrgyzstan 42 KOS Kosovo 43 LAT Latvia 44 LBN Lebanon 45 LIE Liechtenstein 46 LTU Lithuania 47 LUX Luxembourg 48 MAD Madagascar 49 MAR Morocco 50 MAS Malaysia 51 MEX Mexico 52 MKD FYR Macedonia 53 MLT Malta 54 MNE Montenegro 55 MON Monaco 56 NED Netherlands 57 NOR Norway 58 NZL New Zealand 59 PER Peru 60 POL Poland 61 POR Portugal 62 ROU Romania 63 RSA South Africa 64 RUS Russia 65 SLO Slovenia 66 SMR San Marino 67 SRB Serbia 68 SUI Switzerland 69 SVK Slovakia 70 SWE Sweden 71 TGA Tonga 72 UKR Ukraine 73 USA United States of America 74 UZB Uzbekistan EDIT just got the official list, Kenya is out, Virgin Islands are in.

Yeah, let's hope he doesn't leave to Slovenia I agree he has lots of potential, he's quite fast.

Ahhh okay I see

Oh. Hahaha. I'd have gone for it. But now he knows he's capable of making pursuits!

He didn't start in the Pursuit for some reason. Shame, wasted opportunity.

She might well reconsider, actually! http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11777780 Great to see her, though.

That's a shame.. Any ideas why? Hopefully we'll still see them around

Isn't it a while since you had a Serbian in the World Cup? What's happened to your team? Did Rastic and Hrkalovic go somewhere?

They penalized the Mongolians

Well it's still the same time on the IBU website so... Haha If it does go ahead we'll probably see something like that.

You never know. Wonder how it compares to Beitostolen. Remember that time during a WC relay when it was freakishly windy and athletes more often than not went on penalty loops? That was when the Czechs got second