Biathlon IBU World Cup 2019 - 2020

[heywoodu 13,546]

Just now, Monzanator said:

So, literally eveyone gets a globe to take home 

 

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[Monzanator 3,594]

1 minute ago, heywoodu said:

 

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[Monzanator 3,594]

Here's my rundown for the women (I'll spare the men because the only chance for a points finish for any of them is 10/10 in Oberhof like Grzegorz Guzik has done a couple of times). On a normal day 9/10 barely gives the men a chance to crack Top 60.

 

Monika Hojnisz - 12th in the overall with ten Top 10 finishes (but no podium). If only she didn't fell in Hochfilzen sprint which broke the rifle and ruled her out of pursuit (and the Annecy mass start) she would have been comfortable inside the Top 10. She's the highest ranked athlete this season without a single podium.

 

Kamila Zuk - 38th in the overall. The fastest skier of our girls but still too unreliable in 4-shoot races. Obvious comparison to Marketa Davidova whom she battled in the juniors. Has a huge potential which remains unfulfilled but she can easily finish Top 10 in the overall if she gets the shooting woes out of her way.

 

Kinga Zbylut - 56th in the overall. Good enough for a random Top 20 result on her best day. Doesn't have the ski speed of Zuk & Hojnisz but should be around 30-40th place on a regular basis if she improves her shooting.

 

Magdalena Gwizdon - unranked this season. What can I say? Turns 41 in August. Started in World Cup in December 1995. Should be out of the 'A' team by now but that depends on...

 

Joanna Jakiela - turned 21 two weeks ago. We should put her on a full-time World Cup duty next season. No trolling around with grandma Gwizdon or eternal IBU Cup also-run Anna Maka. Krystyna Guzik is basically semi-retired so we might as well invest in Jakiela as the fourth member for the relay squad going forward.

 

Michael Greis as the head coach of the women's team has done a great job, he's doing more with less than Nadia Belova for years before him (not to mention Adam Kolodziejczyk who caused all the controversy within the group - and Nowakowska in particular). The Belova/Kolodziejczyk best quarter (Nowakowska/Palka-Guzik/Hojnisz/Giwzdon) was better than what we have now.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Monzanator

[hckošice 13,241]

22 hours ago, heywoodu said:

 

I still don't really know why they wouldn't go after the pursuits, since it doesn't seem to make an actual difference, but sure  

 

Here the reason, the special plane was send to bring home not only the complete biathlon team but also our ice hockey players from the league (cancelled as well) and female floorball players from league and all 16 members of our Alpine Skiing juniors team from the Juniors World Championships...

 

All our athletes must undergo mandatory 14 days quarantine now

 

 

 

[hckošice 13,241]

Paulina Fialková saying in the video she is super happy to be finally in Slovakia and wanted to thanks once again to the authorities for this plane.

 

Ivona Fialková said that she will now close herself in her appartement and will not leave it for the whole 14 days for anything

 

The first interviewed guy is our hockey player Michal Krištof, he said he and his fiancee will be quarantined in his appartement

[heywoodu 13,546]

Did Mäkäräinen announce her comeback yet?

[Werloc 3,127]

Anyways the medal table has shifted quite a lot when comparing 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.

 

2018-19 there were 15 nations on the medal table and 14 nations this year. 

 

There were 10 first time winners and 10 athletes for the first time on top of a podium in 18/19, compared to 2 first time winners and 8 athletes with a first podium.

 

There were 12 different women that won a race and 8 men, compared to only 8 and 6 for this season.

 

Although there were less races, Norway became even more dominant, getting 55 medals (32 gold) this year compared to 48 medals (28 gold) last year.

 

France stepped up EXTREMELY this year, they went from 32 medals (7 gold) to 51 medal (15 gold) this year.

 

For the second time in succession, Italy finishes above Germany on the medal table, although they went down from 21 to 12, due to Vittozzi and the women's relay underperforming.

 

Germany is falling down even further after Laura's retirement from 33 medals in 2018/19 to 22 with even less golds.

 

Another 3 big losses of the season go to Russia, Slovakia and Makarainen, going down from 14, 12 and 7 medals to 7, 1 and 1. Loginov's and Makarainen's underperformance as well as Kuzmina's retirement are the likely cause of these.

 

Sweden remains relatively unscathed going from 12 medals up to 13. Good relay performances and Hanna Oeberg kept them above their 2019 performance, but a huge dip of strength on the men's team with Samuelsson being invisible all year as well as Nelin and Ponsiluoma not getting much better in the off-season.

 

Czech Republic and Ukraine stay somewhat on the same spectrum as last year and Switzerland improves by a huge margin to finish above them in the medal table.

 

Austria has not had a good year. With the women not being strong enough to challenge for the podium, it was all on the men, but Eder and Landertinger are not exactly young now and Eberhardt did nothing to help the Austrian cause, so they went down from 6 medals to 3.

 

No medal for Bulgaria and Poland this season, but Estonia got on it in a midlly competitive single-mixed relay.