heywoodu

It's weird that in the mixed relay they don't get pulled out for being lapped..(at least not last year in Ridnaun)

Vojik coming in 3rd for

Vojik vs Wäger vs Liadov for 3rd

Tyschenko finishes with a clean shooting bout, very convincing win for the Ukrainians

Oh wait, you're Czech, I forgot to support them today

Well Tyschenko, this shouldn't be too hard to finish

Well if they don't have Lightfoot and Dixon here, it's gonna be hard with these unexperienced athletes..

Good start for Kubaliak, Slovakia up to 4th Ukraine on fire so far, easy when you have superb talent Merkushyna

By the way, already after 1 of 8/9 laps, I'm convinced this Kozica is better than Nika Blazenic

Weeellll Gerekova started with 0+3...but never give up hope

For anyone interested, the results of the test competitions in Martell today (where small nations are having their camp) It was rather windy there today and Martell is known as a hard place when it comes to shooting because of the small river running through the shooting range, which explains some high numbers

About Spain: I just got the results of a test competition in Martell today at the IBU-IOC Development Camp and Henar Etxebarria was there, so she couldn't be at the IBU Cup

I believe the chance exists, let's put it like that Come on, help me support the Slovaks

Oh boy...and to think one of them will already have a competition under her belt like 2 hours before the start

I was surprised to say it But seriously, if Gerekova and Kubaliak shoot decent (you know, miracles happen ) they might have a serious shot in this single mixed.

Mladen Plakalovic of Bosnia, Emma Drew of Great-Britain and both Croatian athletes in the single mixed are going to do both the single mixed and mixed Ukraine should probably win the single mixed btw, Slovakia seems a dangerous rival.

I'd say France has an awfully strong team for an IBU Cup right there.. http://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/1617/BT/SIBU/CP02/MXRL/BT_C51B2_1.0.pdf

Chardine!

I doubt it

Dutch Athletes of the Year - Nominations Sportsman of the Year * Tom Dumoulin, cycling - Won the opening time trial of the Giro d'Italia in the Netherlands, won 2 stages in the Tour de France (including the "queen stage"), got pretty badly injured and went on to take silver at the Olympic time trial * Sven Kramer, speed skating - Won his 8th European and 8th world all-round title, won his 7th world title over 5000m and his 4th over 10.000m * Dorian van Rijsselberghe, sailing - Won his second consecutive Olympic gold in the RS:X class and once again did so by deciding the competition before the medal race * Ferry Weertman, swimming - Won Olympic gold in the 10km open water thanks to a brilliant final sprint * Max Verstappen, motorsports - Aged 18, he moved from mediocre Toro Rosso to top team Red Bull and won his very first race for RB, becoming the first Dutch driver in history to win a Formula 1 race, resulting even in fans at a Eredivisie ('Premier League') football game spontaneously singing his name in celebration. Had an insane 2016 season and made more impact than any F1 driver did this year. Sportswoman of the Year * Marit Bouwmeester, sailing - Won Olympic gold in the Laser Radial class, becoming the first Dutch sailor to win Olympic gold in a boat since 1936 * Anna van der Breggen, cycling - Won Olympic gold in the road race (to be fair, much 'thanks' to Annemiek van Vleuten's horrific fall), followed by bronze in the time trial * Elis Ligtlee, cycling - Won Olympic gold in the keirin after going trough to the finals with quite some luck * Sharon van Rouwendaal, swimming - Was injured for a long time, not even sure to start in Rio, started in the swimming pool and disappointed, then won Olympic gold in the 10km open water with a phenomenal swim * Dafne Schippers, athletics - 5th in the Olympic 100m, silver in the 200m, days after getting injured and not even being sure to be able to start at all * Sanne Wevers, gymnastics - Became the first ever Dutch woman to win an individual gymnastics medal and did so by taking gold on the balance beam Team of the Year * Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, beach volleyball - Won Olympic bronze, the first ever Dutch beach volleyball medal * Women's handball team - Reached the 2015 World Cup final (which still counts since the previous election was done before that tournament), then slightly disappointed with 4th at the Olympics * Maaike Head/Ilse Paulis, rowing - Won Olympic gold in convincing fashion in the women's lightweight double sculls There's Paralympic athlete and coach of the year as well, but time's up There also is a ton of discussion about Michael van Gerwen not being nominated even though he absolutely dominated the year in darts more than anyone else has ever done. The NOC gave some extreme bullshit reason for that: "For non-Olympic sports we only count sports where there's at least 55 nations at the World Championships. We count F1 because when you count all things like rally, Formula 3, GP2 and so on, there's more than 55 nations and all those things are part of FIA" At least they should have said "Van Gerwen didn't win the world title, so that's why" instead of bringing up that bullshit and then contradict it immediately by nominating Verstappen. My picks would be Van Rijsselberghe/Weertman, Van Rouwendaal, Head/Paulis.

16-year old Darcie Morton will represent Australia in the single mixed, together with her 20-year old brother Damon https://www.facebook.com/AUSBiathlon/posts/1013550738771369

Bronze medal in the women's 4x100m freestyle for the Netherlands (after the disqualification of Canada for starting in the wrong order, a rather dumb mistake, but at least it gave us a medal )

Yep, apparently she trains in Germany and her team there already announced she'd be in Ridnaun and Obertilliach in November http://www.biathlonteam-saarland.de/

I know Maria Cecilia Dominguez (who competed in the IBU Cup last season) has been competing in Brazilian rollerski competitions last months, but I didn't hear anything about biathlon..if I'm not mistaken, there were one or two young Argentinian girls at the IBU Development Camp in Argentina some months ago, but like with the Chileans, I guess it's too early to compete in the IBU Cup already. Where do you find the list of federations? I know what you mean (the list with the addresses/websites/e-mail addresses etc), but since they migrated to the new website I can't find it anymore

A Belgian woman, cool! Chile must be Claudia Salcedo (who was rather slow in Obertilliach last season) who apparently found a guy to compete with. I believe 10-12 years ago Chile had several athletes competing in Europa/IBU Cups, but it's been a while since I saw Chilean guys there. I know they have two 16/17-year old girls who are trying out biathlon, but I doubt they'll already be in the IBU Cup As for Spain, I guess it's Henar Etxebarria with a woman I don't know yet, since Vicky Padial is at the World Cup. Yet another interesting development! Do you happen to know how to search for athletes from a specific country on IBU's new website? I want to search for all Belgian biathletes, but I can only enter family and given names..