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Merkushyna just... Aaand it's all over for Slovakia

Yeah... Though they won't get much experience if they get lapped after one leg. In the mixed relay I think they can hold out until the last shoot unless they are double-lapped

Macedonia, Britain and Belgium already lapped... In the mixed relay they should last longer, Britain COME ON SLOVAKIA!!! WIN SOMETHING!!!

Agreed! Go Croatia! Slovakia...

Oh dear... I guess gone are the glory days of Croatian biathlon, with Jakov Fak and the women's relay teams...

Yay! I do recall she was complaining about not being treated fairly in the team. The fact that she's leading their mixed relay is surely a good sign. I am seriously rooting for Slovakia. It's time they won something! By the way there are two Chilean guys with Salcedo, one of them is Yonathan Fernandez, who was a cross-country skiier at the 2014 Olympics (I remember him because he had an interesting fall during the sprint qualification). Guess he's turned to biathlon! There's another guy who I've never heard of. http://www.biathlonchile.cl/team-chile-de-biathlon-inicia-su-gira-europea/

A lot of the teams withdrew unfortunately Maybe due to JWC commitments?

Ah, she could be quite good then!

http://www.biathlonworld.com/about-ibu/member-federations/ Argentinian 'website' hasn't been updated since 2010

Well I don't know of a way, but in Belgium's case their federation's website (the websites of many countries can be found on IBU's site under 'Federations') list a certain 'Rieke De Maeyer' as part of the IBU Cup team, so it must be her, she's the only female there. Chile will be cool. She was quite slow, but it's great that she's competing. That means all the Latin American countries have done relays. Is Argentina competing this year, I wonder? Same strategy as Brazil, maybe? I wonder about Greece's relay team, will the second woman be Nimpiti? I remember her in the JWC, she wasn't too great, but maybe she's improved?

By the way... interesting start lists (zeroing allocations) for the IBU Cup mixed relays. The single mix has Macedonia, Australia, Chile and BELGIUM. Yes, they apparently have a woman now. Mixed relay has Greece and Spain. And both of course have Hungary, Bosnia, Croatia, the UK and Moldova. Should be fun to watch! https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/1617/BT/SIBU/CP02/MXSR/BT_C45C2_1.0.pdf https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/1617/BT/SIBU/CP02/MXRL/BT_C45C2_1.0.pdf

I recall they had a guy at the 2013 and 2015 WCH, and was always over a minute off the pace in each race. Never say never?? It would be pretty awesome if they did make it

Will definitely be rooting for them. Maybe they will become a member, who knows. Shame about the ISU. I don't know what motive they would have to block those athletes..

I think Vrabcova is going to return at some point, she did say that the Olympics 'might' be a motive for her to put the skis back on, so to speak. I certainly hope so, although I doubt she would be able to repeat the 5th place from Sochi with the lack of training.

Let's hope she can get a wildcard for the WCH! Her and Tsakiri. Under-19s can compete there, I'm pretty sure, because one of the criteria is that you finish in the top half of the Junior WCH, which I'm sure she can do.

Wow! Is Sri Lanka a member of IBU? Because Cambodia got blocked in skating disciplines for not being an ISU member.

Oh no You did say Slovak cross-country was going downhill... total embodiment of that... Don't worry we're not doing so great either, I think we will be lucky to qualify both relay teams for the Olympics

True, it's very telling when Gerekova misses 4 and Poliakova misses 1 and yet they have almost the same time in the sprint. But perhaps it's best for her to go into the IBU Cup to regain her form. We are doing the same with Soukup, he's not had very good results in Ostersund but the coach has said we are counting on him for Nove Mesto, and so they are putting him into the IBU Cup to relieve the pressure. I do think it will be an interesting IBU Cup. On a side note I'm kind of rooting for Latvia this year... I think that they can get 25th in the women's Nations Cup with Bendika alone, Romania's women are imploding without Tofalvi even though they have 3 starters. Do you have any other favourites besides CZ/SK?

Yeah we had a few club hockey players called Holub I think and a biathlete called Holubec, which I guess kind of means 'Pigeon person'?

Amazing!

She was born in the Ukraine apparently. I was hoping she was of Czech origin. Haha

I wonder what's happened to the Chinese. They've apparently pulled out of Nove Mesto as well, and I don't see them travelling to Europe for one WC stage.

That is a shame The races were very windy, surely it's not the most accurate measure of her strength. I'm sure she'll come back.

If the list is to believed and the athletes are decent this could mean either in 2018 or 2022 athletes from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, UAE and Gambia debuting. Also Madagascar would have a shot at a return, and Uganda I guess would count as a debut because they have only participated in the winter Paralympics. Nice to see Nepal, South Africa, and Tajikistan there as well.

She was apparently 80th or something last year. Pretty amazing.