SalamAkhi

As for Vittozzi's prone, it appears her shooting was actually "good", very concentrated but just on the, wrong, edge.

Great showing from Maya Cloetens nearly getting points in a sprint with 8/10 on her debut ...

Dude, winning relay golds with Norway is like a German winning in luge, nobody cares. Also considering how far back was Boe after Oberhof your point is off track.

Don't want to seem overly patriotic but why does Johannes Boe appear multiple time in the nominees and not Quentin Fillon-Maillet ? At the Olympics (individual events of course) they're even, with a slight edge for QFM (2-1-0) vs JTB (2-0-1). Apart from the Olympics QFM won 6 races in 2022, JT Boe 4 and last but not least QFM clinched the 2022 Big Crystal Globe.

Well I know it so it doesn't work

He's not far off the truth

The rest of the team could match these performances soon. Polona Klemenčič is establishing herself as a more than decent skier, 15th ski time today, almost getting points while shooting at 7 ... Of course Repinc is a star in the making, but when will she make her individual debut in the WC ? Then you have Zorc, K.Vindisar, with Z.Klemenčič doing the job.

I was so wrong Very very impressive indeed on the skis, and above all her shooting may not be as erratic as it could. Didn't see her prone but 5/5, 36s, that's fair enough. Then the standing, with three mistakes of course but look at how she managed to put the last two, in 31s total which is quite decent. Will be very interesting to see her in a peloton (or alone then) and shooting in confrontation, but this performance is encouraging. Also really exciting as for the skiing abilities of the young IBU Cup guns

Same in France. In winter sports (meaning on snow here, kinda) most of the elite athletes are enrolled in the Gendarmerie, the land Army or the Customs.

Well, I think points with a 7/10 is maybe a bit far-fetched. She impressed in IBU Cup, skiing-wise, that's for sure, but the field was not as strong as usual. It was more or less a very strong Junior Cup. Without the Russians and with most of the Norwegian B-team in WC, only the Germans were fielding their "journeywomen", who are not the fastest out there. My call is she will be within 30-50s of the best ski time today. Considering her pedestrian shooting speed (44s in Idre) it's like she's starting with only 9 bullets, so "6/10" would be short of the top 40.

Bakken's problems are related to his third covid jab.

Lol. End of the joke.

The mighty Fijians have fallen ! too strong in the final minutes edges them out (20-17). First loss for in HK for the first time since 2014 ... overtakes for the bronze. Since their return, Samoa have qualified for every semi-final (5), only to finish 4th each time. Very interesting first tournament as a core team for without key players such as F.Etcheverry, T.Inciarte or B.Amaya. They win they "Shield", dominating their likely direct opponents towards relegation, and . So, with the new rules : at the moment would be relegated without ceremony, , and would play with the Challenger Series winner in a 4-teams tournament to keep their spot in the WS.

Xandra Velzeboer has just OBLITERATED the 500m WR by half a second 41.936 -> 41.416 And the times overall aren't this good, she's really standing out on her own. Her start is not particularly strong, I guess she could take a second off it in a mixed race.

But the real information from this first day is that the World Series will go from 16 to 12 teams next year ! I guess they want tot reduce the tournaments' length. But the Challenger Series will need to be really established, not like what we've seen so far, or 7s will unfortunately become another Commonwealth/rugby inbred sport.

Well, the squad is pretty much team Scotland (8) with a bunch of Englishmen (4) and a token Welshman, the lack of cohesion is therefore a bit odd. None of the three program was going well before the merger anyhow, so seeing GB struggle now is quite logical though the impression left this morning is concerning.

Does anyone know what kind of nationality transfer is at stake ? Regarding his ability to overpower Lavreysen I'm all eyes. His unofficial WR was set on a very quick track so he may not have the edge that this performance suggests. And the gap itself is not that big time-wise, mind that even when Hoogland manages to equal Lavreysen's times, he's still unable to beat the latter. Yakovlev is really good strategically though, so we'll see, in the Track CL hopefully.

Kouamé

First ever medal for a French women's team pursuit, unthinkable even a couple of years back. Still a young squad, pretty much following Italy closely but always a bit late. Not the same pool as the Italians but hopefully the successful youngsters will provide the team with talent in the years to come.

Don't see anyone stronger than Capewell or able to do better than her today in the British squad.

So is Olympic runner-up Olena Starikova . Surprisingly so Emma Hinze only managed the 6th time of the qualifying round, not that it would take the favorite status away from her but the title is not awarded yet. I would give Van Riessen the edge over Grabosch.

Women's sprint qualifications underway, with first rider Yuan Liying (17) taking the Junior World Record (10.697), previous was held by Mathilde Gros since 2017 (10.709).

The Dutch have been beaten ! At last the "lack" of a leading rider is felt, with van den Berg being sub par even for his standards (17.45) and a very strong Australian team overall.

Harsh loss for the French team sprint. Don't know why the race restarted so quickly since the French n°1 went all out for about a half-lap. As a result he lost 0.4 compared to the qualifications, which cost his team the win and a real chance to earn the bronze medal.

Not surprising, Brennauer has retired, Klein is injured and their alternates (Süssemlich and Reissner) are noticeably weaker, hence the gap.