SalamAkhi

I've seen some talks about Stolz going for an Heiden in Milan. He definitely won't win 5 individual races, nobody could today. But with the mass-start under his belt he only needs one more chance ... Of course the team pursuit looks like the easy answer, as his qualities sure wouldn't hurt an already dominant squad, would they ? Put him in one of the three races to gold and have yourself a 5-time Olympic champion. 

It looks like Heerenveen has the edge. There were talks backstage during the WC at Thialf and I assume the Netherlands will offer some interesting favors to the French federation as a reward for this once in a lifetime chance of hosting the Games. French skaters will probably relocate there and benefit from the installations. We'll know soon enough.

Sooooo, after day 2 :
 
 
No change. To clarify, Thorup confirmed she was not going to the Games. But she still collected three quota for  that can be used by any other athlete. Still, Lindenskov has not achieved any minimum qualification time so she's not eligible. 
 
Braun just had to finish the race. She could have started and bailed out like a couple of skaters did in the 500m. But she went all the way and got DQed  So only one Polish skater and Smedding is in (she would have received an additional quota anyways).
 
Horikawa was given the huge edge of starting in A division thanks to a couple of Dutch skips. Despite running 3s slower than Yang she still retrieved a comfortable amount of points to secure her spot. Yang benefited from the quartets but things could have gone to the wire if they ran in the same division. 
 
Italy not starting. Failing to qualify while they only had to be top 12 (with 14 teams competing) is a huge blow. 
 
Nope Nope Nope  
It was tense. Before last pair Semirunniy Lorello and Snellink (in that order with the tie breaker rule) were tied with 110 points, ahead of Henriksen. Meaning that Semirunniy was in and Snellink in too but only in the SOQT ranking, thus depriving the Netherlands of their 9th man. But Eitrem, ranking 0.07 ahead of Semirunniy, and a few seconds later Dawson, 0.10 ahead of Lorello, reshuffled the rankings completely, saving both countryman Henriksen and Dutch matrix selectors. 
 
So Semirunniy, as the world leader in the 10k (not the same event indeed) and 4th of one of the three WC qualifying races is not going to race in Milano. I guess the easy answer is to put that on him. But Sasaki, with 6'21, 13'30 and 6'21 is qualified, because he managed to be a tad faster in the first race of the season on the fastest track in the world. Semirunniy mismanaged his efforts in a flawed system that allows time quota in a World Cup circuit with huge track discrepancies, which works with unfair divisions rewarding way too much already established athletes. Like, look at those injured skaters not even going a hundred meters banking more points than 95% of B division, and yet still taking a spot next week. Erin Jackson could pull this till the end of the season and remain top 16.

Sooooo, after day 2 :
 
 
No change. To clarify, Thorup confirmed she was not going to the Games. But she still collected three quota for  that can be used by any other athlete. Still, Lindenskov has not achieved any minimum qualification time so she's not eligible. 
 
Braun just had to finish the race. She could have started and bailed out like a couple of skaters did in the 500m. But she went all the way and got DQed  So only one Polish skater and Smedding is in (she would have received an additional quota anyways).
 
Horikawa was given the huge edge of starting in A division thanks to a couple of Dutch skips. Despite running 3s slower than Yang she still retrieved a comfortable amount of points to secure her spot. Yang benefited from the quartets but things could have gone to the wire if they ran in the same division. 
 
Italy not starting. Failing to qualify while they only had to be top 12 (with 14 teams competing) is a huge blow. 
 
Nope Nope Nope  
It was tense. Before last pair Semirunniy Lorello and Snellink (in that order with the tie breaker rule) were tied with 110 points, ahead of Henriksen. Meaning that Semirunniy was in and Snellink in too but only in the SOQT ranking, thus depriving the Netherlands of their 9th man. But Eitrem, ranking 0.07 ahead of Semirunniy, and a few seconds later Dawson, 0.10 ahead of Lorello, reshuffled the rankings completely, saving both countryman Henriksen and Dutch matrix selectors. 
 
So Semirunniy, as the world leader in the 10k (not the same event indeed) and 4th of one of the three WC qualifying races is not going to race in Milano. I guess the easy answer is to put that on him. But Sasaki, with 6'21, 13'30 and 6'21 is qualified, because he managed to be a tad faster in the first race of the season on the fastest track in the world. Semirunniy mismanaged his efforts in a flawed system that allows time quota in a World Cup circuit with huge track discrepancies, which works with unfair divisions rewarding way too much already established athletes. Like, look at those injured skaters not even going a hundred meters banking more points than 95% of B division, and yet still taking a spot next week. Erin Jackson could pull this till the end of the season and remain top 16.

Qualification status that could realistically change this week, barring (except where noted) new time qualifying performances :
 
Men
 
500m : pretty much done
 
1000m : pretty much done
 
1500m : pretty much done
 
5000m : one outlier at the moment  Semirunniy. He's currently not qualified for the distance being 18/15 in the rankings and R1 time-wise. He could still punch his ticket : 
 
either by getting into the top 15 with a very good result (a podium or even a win would be needed). If it is at the expanse of  Henriksen or, less likely,  Swings, then the loser is out. If it is at the expanse of any other, then  Sasaki is out.  or by hoping Lorello gets into the top 15 at the expanse of Henriksen or Swings. or by going faster than Sasaki (6'08''834) which seems reachable after his 10k, even in Hamar.  
10000m : once again Henriksen is on the bubble. If  Maly, Petzold of  Farthofer gets into the top 9 at the expanse of Malfatti or Snellink, then he's out. 
 
Mass-start : not much at stake considering most of the reserve skaters will already receive an additional quota - at the moment    . Morino  will try to enter top 32 and be in those additional quota spots. 
 
Team pursuit : pretty much done
 
Women
 
500m : pretty much done
 
1000m : with  Thorup not cleared to participate one more spot is up for grabs.  Scholz would need to be in front of both Herzog (done as she's not entered) and Czerwonka (7 points) after this final week.  Silaeva would be left out. 
 
1500m : Lamarche not competing and  Zofia Braun being promoted to A division, Poland has got a real shot at a second quota. Braun will need to stay in front of Scholz and Weidemann, who could still finish ahead of her depending on how good Braun fares in A division.  Smedding would suffer from a Polish rise.
 
3000m : match-up between  Yang and  Horikawa only separated by 3 points. At the moment Yang is out (R2) but if they exchange position in the standings then Horikawa is out (R1). They could also both finish ahead of Hofmann, at the expanse of  Golubeva ultimately.  Jasch has a small shot at a second German quota too, by edging the former two skaters, eliminating them. 
 
5000m : pretty much done
 
Mass-start :  Santo Rodrigues is hanging on by a thread. The cruelty of it is that those immediately behind her -    - will get an aditional spot anyways, so it does not really matter if they finish in the top 24 ahead of her, except it would allow France to enter a second skater and two girls in the MS.
 
Team pursuit : three-way asymetrical tie for the last SOQP spot between   and , all in division A. Norway needs to beat both as they can't rely on a time Q, Kazakhstan needs to beat Norway to ensure (if they fail to beat China) the first SOQT spot and avoid the Italian wild-card*, whereas China is pretty safe.
*  is currently out but they "only" need to get into a reserve spot to be qualified, which is going faster than 3'00'92 (or faster than Norway if they too decide to skate faster). They were not far off this mark in Hamar earlier this year but the team was in a better shape overall. 

Qualification status that could realistically change this week, barring (except where noted) new time qualifying performances :
 
Men
 
500m : pretty much done
 
1000m : pretty much done
 
1500m : pretty much done
 
5000m : one outlier at the moment  Semirunniy. He's currently not qualified for the distance being 18/15 in the rankings and R1 time-wise. He could still punch his ticket : 
 
either by getting into the top 15 with a very good result (a podium or even a win would be needed). If it is at the expanse of  Henriksen or, less likely,  Swings, then the loser is out. If it is at the expanse of any other, then  Sasaki is out.  or by hoping Lorello gets into the top 15 at the expanse of Henriksen or Swings. or by going faster than Sasaki (6'08''834) which seems reachable after his 10k, even in Hamar.  
10000m : once again Henriksen is on the bubble. If  Maly, Petzold of  Farthofer gets into the top 9 at the expanse of Malfatti or Snellink, then he's out. 
 
Mass-start : not much at stake considering most of the reserve skaters will already receive an additional quota - at the moment    . Morino  will try to enter top 32 and be in those additional quota spots. 
 
Team pursuit : pretty much done
 
Women
 
500m : pretty much done
 
1000m : with  Thorup not cleared to participate one more spot is up for grabs.  Scholz would need to be in front of both Herzog (done as she's not entered) and Czerwonka (7 points) after this final week.  Silaeva would be left out. 
 
1500m : Lamarche not competing and  Zofia Braun being promoted to A division, Poland has got a real shot at a second quota. Braun will need to stay in front of Scholz and Weidemann, who could still finish ahead of her depending on how good Braun fares in A division.  Smedding would suffer from a Polish rise.
 
3000m : match-up between  Yang and  Horikawa only separated by 3 points. At the moment Yang is out (R2) but if they exchange position in the standings then Horikawa is out (R1). They could also both finish ahead of Hofmann, at the expanse of  Golubeva ultimately.  Jasch has a small shot at a second German quota too, by edging the former two skaters, eliminating them. 
 
5000m : pretty much done
 
Mass-start :  Santo Rodrigues is hanging on by a thread. The cruelty of it is that those immediately behind her -    - will get an aditional spot anyways, so it does not really matter if they finish in the top 24 ahead of her, except it would allow France to enter a second skater and two girls in the MS.
 
Team pursuit : three-way asymetrical tie for the last SOQP spot between   and , all in division A. Norway needs to beat both as they can't rely on a time Q, Kazakhstan needs to beat Norway to ensure (if they fail to beat China) the first SOQT spot and avoid the Italian wild-card*, whereas China is pretty safe.
*  is currently out but they "only" need to get into a reserve spot to be qualified, which is going faster than 3'00'92 (or faster than Norway if they too decide to skate faster). They were not far off this mark in Hamar earlier this year but the team was in a better shape overall. 

Qualification status that could realistically change this week, barring (except where noted) new time qualifying performances :
 
Men
 
500m : pretty much done
 
1000m : pretty much done
 
1500m : pretty much done
 
5000m : one outlier at the moment  Semirunniy. He's currently not qualified for the distance being 18/15 in the rankings and R1 time-wise. He could still punch his ticket : 
 
either by getting into the top 15 with a very good result (a podium or even a win would be needed). If it is at the expanse of  Henriksen or, less likely,  Swings, then the loser is out. If it is at the expanse of any other, then  Sasaki is out.  or by hoping Lorello gets into the top 15 at the expanse of Henriksen or Swings. or by going faster than Sasaki (6'08''834) which seems reachable after his 10k, even in Hamar.  
10000m : once again Henriksen is on the bubble. If  Maly, Petzold of  Farthofer gets into the top 9 at the expanse of Malfatti or Snellink, then he's out. 
 
Mass-start : not much at stake considering most of the reserve skaters will already receive an additional quota - at the moment    . Morino  will try to enter top 32 and be in those additional quota spots. 
 
Team pursuit : pretty much done
 
Women
 
500m : pretty much done
 
1000m : with  Thorup not cleared to participate one more spot is up for grabs.  Scholz would need to be in front of both Herzog (done as she's not entered) and Czerwonka (7 points) after this final week.  Silaeva would be left out. 
 
1500m : Lamarche not competing and  Zofia Braun being promoted to A division, Poland has got a real shot at a second quota. Braun will need to stay in front of Scholz and Weidemann, who could still finish ahead of her depending on how good Braun fares in A division.  Smedding would suffer from a Polish rise.
 
3000m : match-up between  Yang and  Horikawa only separated by 3 points. At the moment Yang is out (R2) but if they exchange position in the standings then Horikawa is out (R1). They could also both finish ahead of Hofmann, at the expanse of  Golubeva ultimately.  Jasch has a small shot at a second German quota too, by edging the former two skaters, eliminating them. 
 
5000m : pretty much done
 
Mass-start :  Santo Rodrigues is hanging on by a thread. The cruelty of it is that those immediately behind her -    - will get an aditional spot anyways, so it does not really matter if they finish in the top 24 ahead of her, except it would allow France to enter a second skater and two girls in the MS.
 
Team pursuit : three-way asymetrical tie for the last SOQP spot between   and , all in division A. Norway needs to beat both as they can't rely on a time Q, Kazakhstan needs to beat Norway to ensure (if they fail to beat China) the first SOQT spot and avoid the Italian wild-card*, whereas China is pretty safe.
*  is currently out but they "only" need to get into a reserve spot to be qualified, which is going faster than 3'00'92 (or faster than Norway if they too decide to skate faster). They were not far off this mark in Hamar earlier this year but the team was in a better shape overall. 

Qualification status that could realistically change this week, barring (except where noted) new time qualifying performances :
 
Men
 
500m : pretty much done
 
1000m : pretty much done
 
1500m : pretty much done
 
5000m : one outlier at the moment  Semirunniy. He's currently not qualified for the distance being 18/15 in the rankings and R1 time-wise. He could still punch his ticket : 
 
either by getting into the top 15 with a very good result (a podium or even a win would be needed). If it is at the expanse of  Henriksen or, less likely,  Swings, then the loser is out. If it is at the expanse of any other, then  Sasaki is out.  or by hoping Lorello gets into the top 15 at the expanse of Henriksen or Swings. or by going faster than Sasaki (6'08''834) which seems reachable after his 10k, even in Hamar.  
10000m : once again Henriksen is on the bubble. If  Maly, Petzold of  Farthofer gets into the top 9 at the expanse of Malfatti or Snellink, then he's out. 
 
Mass-start : not much at stake considering most of the reserve skaters will already receive an additional quota - at the moment    . Morino  will try to enter top 32 and be in those additional quota spots. 
 
Team pursuit : pretty much done
 
Women
 
500m : pretty much done
 
1000m : with  Thorup not cleared to participate one more spot is up for grabs.  Scholz would need to be in front of both Herzog (done as she's not entered) and Czerwonka (7 points) after this final week.  Silaeva would be left out. 
 
1500m : Lamarche not competing and  Zofia Braun being promoted to A division, Poland has got a real shot at a second quota. Braun will need to stay in front of Scholz and Weidemann, who could still finish ahead of her depending on how good Braun fares in A division.  Smedding would suffer from a Polish rise.
 
3000m : match-up between  Yang and  Horikawa only separated by 3 points. At the moment Yang is out (R2) but if they exchange position in the standings then Horikawa is out (R1). They could also both finish ahead of Hofmann, at the expanse of  Golubeva ultimately.  Jasch has a small shot at a second German quota too, by edging the former two skaters, eliminating them. 
 
5000m : pretty much done
 
Mass-start :  Santo Rodrigues is hanging on by a thread. The cruelty of it is that those immediately behind her -    - will get an aditional spot anyways, so it does not really matter if they finish in the top 24 ahead of her, except it would allow France to enter a second skater and two girls in the MS.
 
Team pursuit : three-way asymetrical tie for the last SOQP spot between   and , all in division A. Norway needs to beat both as they can't rely on a time Q, Kazakhstan needs to beat Norway to ensure (if they fail to beat China) the first SOQT spot and avoid the Italian wild-card*, whereas China is pretty safe.
*  is currently out but they "only" need to get into a reserve spot to be qualified, which is going faster than 3'00'92 (or faster than Norway if they too decide to skate faster). They were not far off this mark in Hamar earlier this year but the team was in a better shape overall. 

Violette Braun  6'57 over 5000m is the best ever u20 time at sea-level. She's now very close to clinching a spot at the Olympics in the 3000m, which would be the first time a Frenchwoman qualified since 1988. What is more impressive is that 14 months ago, her name was absent of any speed skating database, as she had never started a race on ice of her life. 

Le retour. 
Les quotas sont déjà plus ou moins acquis dans les sports de neige, mais les qualifications sont en cours au niveau de la glace. 
 
Short-track (étape 3/4) : 4 athlètes, 10 quotas individuels 
 
Epreuve Hommes Femmes 500 0 2 1000 2 2 1500 2 2 Relais
Non Non Mixte Oui   Ca avait commencé doucement à Montréal sur la première étape, un peu mieux sur la deuxième, ce qui laissait augurer un bon retour en Europe. Que nenni, troisième étape compliquée ce week-end en Pologne, même si on ne s'en sort finalement pas si mal.
Quentin Fercoq, le leader de l'équipe est à la rue, et on risque de ne pas avoir de quota sur 500m masculin (distance où il a été médaillé mondial). Il peut encore gratter une place au bénéfice d'un bon dernier week-end mais il va être mal placé au départ de son 500 (quasiment rédhibitoire). Les deux départs individuels sur 1000 et 1500 semblent assurés. 
Chez les filles on a récupéré un deuxième départ sur 500 (de 1 à 2), et perdu un sur 1500 (de 3 à 2 ce qui fait perdre une athlète à inscrire). On devrait réussir à garder deux départs par course. On a aussi fait un rapproché sur le relais au gré des chutes et des disqualifications (9ème pour 8 qualifiés) et mine de rien, avec le retrait du plus mauvais résultat à l'issue de la dernière étape on a notre destin entre nos mains (il faudra se comparer avec la Pologne).
Le relais mixte sera qualifié.
 
Patinage de vitesse (étape 2/4) : 5 athlètes, 5 quotas individuels
 
Epreuve Hommes Femmes 500 0 0 1000 0 0 1500 1 0 3000/5000
1 1 5000/10000 1 0 Mass-start
1 0 Poursuite Oui Non Au bénéfice de son podium la poursuite par équipe masculine a validé son billet, ce qui assure trois athlètes à minima au départ à Milan. Logiquement 4 quotas individuels = 4 athlètes à inscrire chez les hommes, il faudrait que Belloir repasse dans les qualifiables sur la mass-start pour en avoir un cinquième, sachant qu'on pourra normalement aligner un deuxième coureur sur la mass-start en "bonus" même sans avoir deux quotas basiques. Les quotas individuels sont relativement sûrs et on n'ira pas en chercher d'autres normalement. 
Côté filles le quota de Braun sur 3000 est à confirmer mais elle est plutôt en bonne posture sans forcément avoir son destin entre ses mains. Il faudrait aller chercher un quota sur la mass-start pour obtenir une deuxième fille à inscrire et potentiellement deux départs sur cette épreuve (encore une fois quota bonus).
 
Bobsleigh (étape 1/7) : 6 athlètes, 4 quotas 
 
Epreuve Hommes Femmes Monobob - 1 Bob à 2 1 1 Bob à 4 1 - Romain Heinrich et Margot Boch devraient sans trop de problèmes assurer leur place dans les deux épreuves. D'autres équipages seront alignés plutôt en Coupe d'Europe, ce qui reste un moyen d'optimiser son classement, et ça sera à suivre. Chez les hommes avec le système de qualification qui mêle bob à 2 et bob à 4 il y a moins de prétendants puisque les équipages qui ne s'alignent pas à 4 sont hors course. 
 
Skeleton (étape 1/7) : 1 athlète, 1 quota
 
Deux athlètes sur le circuit, et comme expliqué au-dessus c'est paradoxalement celui engagé sur la coupe Nord-Américaine qui est le mieux placé, en l'occurrence Lucas Defayet, qui a gagné deux courses à Whistler. Une victoire sur les circuits secondaires (NorAm, Europe et Asie) rapporte l'équivalent d'une 13ème place en WC, ce qui est largement suffisant pour aller chercher son ticket. Le classement n'étant mis à jour qu'après chaque étape de WC il a une "course d'avance". Il va enchaîner à Park City et s'il aligne encore encore deux succès il aura déjà enregistré quatre courses bien solides sur les sept nécessaires au ranking. Autrement dit le job sera quasiment fait avant de revenir je présume sur la Coupe du Monde. Maxime Mingeon a fait la WC de Cortina mais il va redescendre en CE pour la suite, il ne se qualifiera probablement pas. 

Winning in speed skating, fluent English (not Dutch it seems), something is off with this guy. 

Winning in speed skating, fluent English (not Dutch it seems), something is off with this guy. 

Winning in speed skating, fluent English (not Dutch it seems), something is off with this guy. 

So Fercoq gets past the prelims in the 500m, is illegally brought down in the heats while he was taking up the third spot (could even have secured a q by time) so he's assigned ... a 4th position on the line for the repêchage heat, behind guys who finished 4th in their prelim race. Make it make sense please. 
The starting position draw is do dumb. Why consider sheer time and not the spot you finish in first ? Why penalize athletes with a terrible position on the line (even if you manage to climb back up your time will be shit and you'll get the same awful position in the next round, against better athletes) though they were "no time" through no fault of their own ? 
 
The advancement system is not that bright either. You get free bye if you're tripped in the battle for second in a race where only the first gets the Q, but you're not advanced if you were fighting for third when the race offer 2 Q.

Going well for Slovenia. They're overperforming as of now (+20) when their direct opponents, Turkey (-27,5) and Ireland (-28) are under-par.

No more physical Statistics Handbook starting this edition of the European Indoor Championships. They’re replacing it with a digital service which, by the beginning of the second quarter of 2025, will charge an annual fee to users. 

2nd  win of the season. No doubt the best year ever for French speed skating with a women's team building in the same time. 
 
For Loubineaud these things will happen (like Contin) :
1. He'll draw attention to himself in French media. Which is good because at least there is a project. They don't talk about the sport at all, especially with no rink in France, which suffers from a "poor" image like "ah the Dutch sport, they win all the medals, they exist at Winter Games only because of it, too much medals distributed, it's unfair" (like we didn't boost our total thanks to biathlon and its inflated program).
2. With the Olympics around the corner those media will start to evoke a shot at a medal.
3. If he manages to be successful early in the Olympic season, the bubble will inflate. 
4. He won't medal in Milan. The bubble will explode, people will laugh "ah ah all of this for that, typical French Lose mentality".
 
I hope he will. But World Cup and championships are two different beasts. No doubt the Italians will sort a plan out, the Dutch will have to cooperate and appoint a leader, Médard will work for Swings, etc. He won't have an easy way out and I fear he's got no chance if it ends in a massive sprint. 

Résultats satisfaisants pour ces deuxièmes CDF délocalisés. Pas de grandes envolées chez les hommes mais la confirmation du potentiel du junior Arthur Lebeaupin, en espérant qu'il puisse au moins prendre part aux Mondiaux de sa catégorie. Chez les filles des records nationaux battus dans toutes les épreuves dont le 500m où Mathilde Pédronno passe sous les 40'' et s'acquitte des minima internationaux. 
 
Championnats d'Europe allround ce week-end au mythique Thialf. Deux garçons : Mathieu Belloir et Valentin Thiébault (Loubineaud forfait pour retrouver la forme). Une fille : Julia Nizan (Violette Braun a des examens apparemment). Elle était un peu en dedans lors des France, peut-être pour axer la préparation sur ces championnats "à la maison" (elle s'entraine aux Pays-Bas) ?
 
----
 
Et sinon en skeleton Lucas Defayet obtient son meilleur résultat en carrière à Winterberg : 11ème. Avec une grosse deuxième manche et des temps au départ très intéressants. Saint-Moritz vendredi, piste assez "ouverte" aux belles performances. 

Résultats satisfaisants pour ces deuxièmes CDF délocalisés. Pas de grandes envolées chez les hommes mais la confirmation du potentiel du junior Arthur Lebeaupin, en espérant qu'il puisse au moins prendre part aux Mondiaux de sa catégorie. Chez les filles des records nationaux battus dans toutes les épreuves dont le 500m où Mathilde Pédronno passe sous les 40'' et s'acquitte des minima internationaux. 
 
Championnats d'Europe allround ce week-end au mythique Thialf. Deux garçons : Mathieu Belloir et Valentin Thiébault (Loubineaud forfait pour retrouver la forme). Une fille : Julia Nizan (Violette Braun a des examens apparemment). Elle était un peu en dedans lors des France, peut-être pour axer la préparation sur ces championnats "à la maison" (elle s'entraine aux Pays-Bas) ?
 
----
 
Et sinon en skeleton Lucas Defayet obtient son meilleur résultat en carrière à Winterberg : 11ème. Avec une grosse deuxième manche et des temps au départ très intéressants. Saint-Moritz vendredi, piste assez "ouverte" aux belles performances. 

Can they check if the pool is indeed 25 m and not 20 m.. It was very fun in the beginning, but now it's getting absurd, especially with Walsh, who's every swim is basically a WR. I thought the "enormous number of broken WR's at the same event" years were behind us, but here we are.

Bilan plutôt positif (euphémisme) de ces CDM asiatiques.
 
victoire pour Loubineaud à Nagano sur la mass-start, deuxième succès français de tous les temps victoire pour Belloir sur la mass-start B, ce qui devrait maintenir les deux Français en A désormais. Le problème pour Loubineaud c'est qu'à l'emballage il n'est pas forcément en mesure de lutter, et qu'il est vraiment attendu maintenant, difficile de l'imaginer partir en solo. Belloir a probablement plus de chances de ce côté là, donc plusieurs cartes à jouer. excellentes prestations de Braun, 4 courses (1500/3000), 4 records de France, une qualification aux Europe all-around validée + une montée en groupe A sur la mass-start lors des prochaines CDM. côté - hormis Loubineaud sur 5000 difficile encore d'exister en individuel mais les chronos ne sont pas si loin de l'an passé aux même dates, en attendant Calgary. La poursuite un peu loin aussi, il faudra passer un cap pour se donner une chance de qualification olympique la saison prochaine.   
Next : les championnats de France à Inzell le 20-22 décembre. 

Bilan plutôt positif (euphémisme) de ces CDM asiatiques.
 
victoire pour Loubineaud à Nagano sur la mass-start, deuxième succès français de tous les temps victoire pour Belloir sur la mass-start B, ce qui devrait maintenir les deux Français en A désormais. Le problème pour Loubineaud c'est qu'à l'emballage il n'est pas forcément en mesure de lutter, et qu'il est vraiment attendu maintenant, difficile de l'imaginer partir en solo. Belloir a probablement plus de chances de ce côté là, donc plusieurs cartes à jouer. excellentes prestations de Braun, 4 courses (1500/3000), 4 records de France, une qualification aux Europe all-around validée + une montée en groupe A sur la mass-start lors des prochaines CDM. côté - hormis Loubineaud sur 5000 difficile encore d'exister en individuel mais les chronos ne sont pas si loin de l'an passé aux même dates, en attendant Calgary. La poursuite un peu loin aussi, il faudra passer un cap pour se donner une chance de qualification olympique la saison prochaine.   
Next : les championnats de France à Inzell le 20-22 décembre. 

Bilan plutôt positif (euphémisme) de ces CDM asiatiques.
 
victoire pour Loubineaud à Nagano sur la mass-start, deuxième succès français de tous les temps victoire pour Belloir sur la mass-start B, ce qui devrait maintenir les deux Français en A désormais. Le problème pour Loubineaud c'est qu'à l'emballage il n'est pas forcément en mesure de lutter, et qu'il est vraiment attendu maintenant, difficile de l'imaginer partir en solo. Belloir a probablement plus de chances de ce côté là, donc plusieurs cartes à jouer. excellentes prestations de Braun, 4 courses (1500/3000), 4 records de France, une qualification aux Europe all-around validée + une montée en groupe A sur la mass-start lors des prochaines CDM. côté - hormis Loubineaud sur 5000 difficile encore d'exister en individuel mais les chronos ne sont pas si loin de l'an passé aux même dates, en attendant Calgary. La poursuite un peu loin aussi, il faudra passer un cap pour se donner une chance de qualification olympique la saison prochaine.   
Next : les championnats de France à Inzell le 20-22 décembre. 

Allez 
He tried to pull this one lots of time and finally managed to go all the way.

Violette Braun is the first  woman in a World Cup since 2009. Today she obliterated the NR in the 1500 by 3 seconds (2'04) on a rather slow track. Second 1500 ever for her, first was in Inzell a few weeks back (2'07) with what seemed like very good conditions.
 
It means a lot of room for improvement and a good sign for the 3000 which is her real strong event at the moment - she lacks basic speed but had one of the fastest final laps today, 10th over Div A and B. Faster last than penultimate lap must be quite unusual too.