SalamAkhi

Sad for Strolia ... so close

And now she's not in Saint-Moritz Don't know why but that's obviously playing with fire ... only 6 results when other have 7. Only Vannieuwenhuyse and Kim can overtake her. They're both in Europa Cup, where there's pretty much no competition. The Belgian needs a top 6 to get ahead, consider it done, the Korean a victory With a 2nd place they would be even, with an even best performance, and an even last performance Anyway, supporting Germany for once

Despite a pedestrian start (0.3 slower than Galea, 1 full second slower than Nikitina), Torres Quevedo manages to beat the Maltese by two seconds The real race is on Friday though, the last shall be first

Biathlon will be the key sport. First of all because both France and Sweden can win a huge amount of medals in it, then because it's probably the most unpredictable and open to surprises sport of the Games. France could get 10 medals in biathlon, but could also get 3, same applies for Sweden. France have higher chances though, since our team is stronger overall. Pretty much every French biathlete can win a medal individually, not the case for the Swedes. Ice Dance is not a maybe, that's a probably. Probably gold by the way. 3 in Cross-country would be a maximisation of the chances, manageable but still hard to attain. Snowboard-cross is also a great supplier (between 1 and 3).

Keep an eye on Ana Torres Quevedo

Finally, only 7 races taken into account so the current IBSF rankings are pretty much set in stone. Men : Doyle needs 87 points to overcome Mirambell, i.e top 17 in Saint-Moritz. Women : Stratton needs 99 points to overcome Bessard, i.e top 15 in Saint-Moritz. Paradoxically, Terauda only gets the 10th/11 individual quota, but Latvia (Zunte) is only 4 points away from stealing the second quota to Deas. If the later finishes next race on her sled, GB will obtain two starters easily though.

210 points today for China. I think the job's done (almost). They will probably get 4 women and the relay in a month.

I think our Slovak friend will stop ranting after this

Oh thanks Changes a lot then.

There are 8 WC races so 8 results counted

Don't know why but the French girls decided to skip both Winterberg and Sigulda, or in fact any race at any competition during these weeks. So in the end they will only score 7 races, as opposed to 8 for the others. Qualification is manageable in both disciplines but with only one extra race it would have been a no-brainer ...

Would have put China in the top 10 for the SMR with Chu/Cheng but Yan and Meng is a very strange strategic choice. The second Chinese man could bury their chances in the MR.

But Japan is still behind so if only one of the two overtake Slovakia then you're still in. And Slovakia has got more leeway to score in the mixed relays : both have a 80 points best in the XR but Estonia has a best of 110 points in the XSR when Slovakia has 70 points. Considering Fialkova's form a good single mixed could do it.

But fellow IBU Junior Cup athlete Zawół has done better and will make the pursuit

German mafia. Hopefully no win for them here.

That seems a bit optimistic. Qualifying for the pursuit is a respectable goal at first.

It seems has its first ever WC starter : 19 y.o Enkhsaikhan Enkhbat !

In a way, the introduction of Decathlon as a sponsor marks a French investment Concerning Austria, Hochfilzen is already a German venue, as is Antholz btw.

Just f*ck 'em.

Hopefully Oberhof won't organize any World Championships in a near future

But Wright mainly trains in Europe and I don't think his federation provide him that much support, probably financially. But we're not even talking about investing a lot of money in biathlon, we're talking about not putting a spoke in an promising athlete's wheels, more so since this athlete could easily represent another country with more room for improvement.

French sprinters still doing great. Hopefully they can keep it that way until Beijing.

There's a two hours gap between them, seems manageable Easier as the relay is in first.

So Jamanka with the 2nd best start time, only 0.05 shy of Meyers-Taylor Are we witnessing the Burghardt Effect ?

Oh what a surprise See you in 4 years (no).