RUHPOLDING, Germany – In Saturday’s World Championships sprint, Darya Domracheva of Belarus tried her hardest to best Germany’s Magdalena, but it was to no avail. On Sunday, their battle spilled over into the 10 k pursuit, with the two women at many times so close that they shared the shooting range with each other. Each was confident that they could be the first across the finish line. “I am very strong at the moment,” Neuner...
RUHPOLDING, Germany – After Saturday’s World Championship sprint race, the silver medalist Emil Hegle Svendsen swore that he was going to chase down bib number one, Martin Fourcade of France. But in Sunday’s 12.5 k pursuit the focus was all on Fourcade, who was often leading and never far from the front. And instead of the Norwegian, he battled his way to the finish with Saturday’s bronze medalist, Carl Johan Bergman of Sweden. The stage...
RUHPOLDING, Germany – With more than 250 racers contesting yesterday’s World Championships 7.5 and 10 k sprints, there was plenty of news that didn’t make it into our race reports – both from international stars and from our own interviews with U.S. and Canadian athletes. Here are some of the notable bits that we couldn’t fit in: – Bronze medalist Carl Johan Bergman of Sweden wasn’t really expecting a medal yesterday, but he was expecting...
RUHPOLDING, Germany – Canada’s Zina Kocher had a lot to think about during today’s 7.5 k sprint. But this her tenth World Championships, and Kocher says she’s learned a few things along the way. Today, she didn’t let all of the worries and problems get to her head. Instead, she stuck to business and finished 18th. “This is probably the most calm I’ve felt in a long time for a World Championship, so that’s crucial...
RUHPOLDING, Germany – Not a single one of the North American men was pleased with their race in the World Championships 10 k sprint today – at least that’s what they said at the finish. One after another, the biathletes reported that they felt slow. Tim Burke. Jean Phillipe Le Guellec. Lowell Bailey. Russell Currier. Nathan Smith. Marc-Andre Bedard. Here’s a typical soundbite, this time from Le Guellec. “Skiing wasn’t really awesome, actually,” the Canadian...
RUHPOLDING, Germany – What Norway is to skiing, Germany is to biathlon. And the thousands of German fans filling the Chiemgau Arena today wanted only one thing: German gold. They’d been denied that pleasure in Thursday’s mixed relay, where a combination of shooting errors and a last-minute time reduction for the Norwegians bumped the German team from what seemed like a sure win down to third place. And in the men’s sprint earlier today, the...
RUHPOLDING, Germany – Martin Fourcade of France and Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway have butted heads all season, passing the yellow World Cup leader’s bib back and forth; each has won three races so far and owns several more podiums. Svendsen started today’s World Championships sprint with bib No. 1 and wanted to end that way. Fourcade started with both the yellow bib and the red discipline leader’s bib, and he wanted to finish that...
With racing taking a break for the day in Ruhpolding, Germany, here’s a gallery from the kickoff race, yesterday’s mixed relay. Norway took the win followed by Slovenia and Germany. Click any photo to enlarge.
RUHPOLDING, Germany – It’s never a good start to a relay when the leadoff skier tags off in tears. Unfortunately for the U.S., that’s exactly what happened today at World Championships. Scramble leg Sara Studebaker suffered a minor implosion (although it was nothing compared Race report
RUHPOLDING, Germany – After placing sixth in a World Cup mixed relay earlier this season, the Canadian team came into today’s race at World Championships with high hopes. But they couldn’t handle the heat – literally, in this case, as temperatures neared 50 and the snow turned to slush. “Everything in the sun is pretty soft and mushy,” second-leg racer Zina Kocher told FasterSkier after the race. “It’s actually a pretty hard race, not just...
RUHPOLDING, Germany – There were plenty of errors at the IBU World Championships mixed relay today, mistakes that were big enough to have a surprising and significant impact on the outcome of the race. France’s third-leg racer, Simon Fourcade, received the tag from Marie Dorin Habert in second place, just 11 seconds behind Norway. But he imploded in spectacular fashion, using all six of his spare rounds, hitting the penalty loop, and losing almost two...
RUHPOLDING, GERMANY – After a raucous opening ceremony in downtown Ruhpolding last night that featured speaches, music, and fireworks, biathlon World Championships will finally get underway in about an hour and a half here at the Chiemgau Arena in Germany. The opening event is a mixed relay, with women skiing six kilometers and men seven; each leg will feature one prone and one standing shooting stage. The French are the top seed, starting stars Marie...
As soon as biathlon World Youth and Junior Championships ended on Sunday in Kontiolahti, Finland, the Canadian team headed for home, making for a hectic afternoon. Because of the quick turnaround time FasterSkier was unable to touch base with the athletes directly after their races, but now that they’re back on home turf – along with the medals they earned – a few of the top competitors were willing to talk about the week. It...
After notching his first World Cup top-tens two weeks ago in Oslo, biathlete Brendan was having the best season of his life and hoping that he’d peak for World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany, which start on Thursday. But when his Canadian team kicks things off with a mixed relay, it will be without their best male athlete, because Green will be watching from home in Canmore. While taking a corner in his warmup for the...
This week’s roundup truly is a weeklong affair: FIS World Junior and Under-23 Championships began on Monday in Erzurum, Turkey, as did IBU World Youth and Junior Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. The action continued every day this week, and after literally dozens of races, North Americans came home with one gold and two silver medals. In Erzurum, the big story was the complete dominance of the Russian team. No matter which way you cut it,...
Sunday was the last day of competition at biathlon’s World Youth and Junior Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland – and it was also the busiest. For the first time all week, four races were held on a single day, with participants in both the youth and junior divisions competing in pursuit races. In the youth men’s race, Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø put on a clinic, extending his already 50-second lead from the 7.5 k sprint into...
In Kontiolahti, Finland on Sunday, the youth women’s 7.5 k pursuit was the only one of four races to crown a totally new champion at biathlon’s World Youth and Junior Championships. Hilde Fenne of Norway, the leader after Friday’s sprint, choked on the range, missing a total of eight shots including three in the final stage, which dropped her out of medal contention.With Niya Dimitrova, the sprint runner-up, sitting out the pursuit, there was opportunity...
Despite the presence of several former champions in the field, a new gold medalist rose to the top at biathlon’s World Youth and Junior Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland on Saturday: Elena Ankudinova. The diminutive Russian was perfect on the range and collected an eight-second victory in the junior women’s 7.5 k sprint. She bested, among others, Tuesday’s individual champion, Chardine Sloof of the Netherlands; last year’s youth individual champion, Thekla Brun-Lie of Norway; and teammates...
On Friday, Julia Ransom came thisclose to picking up Canada’s second medal of the week at biathlon World Youth and Junior Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. Thisclose, it turns out, means four and a half seconds over six kilometers and two shooting stages. That’s the margin that separated Ransom, who wound up fifth in the youth women’s sprint, from third-place Lisa Theresa Hauser of Austria. If she had any regrets about missing the podium, Ransom kept...
In the first four days of racing in Kontiolahti, Finland, American hopes for its biathletes just hadn’t panned out. In race after race at the World Youth and Junior Championships, the U.S. racers were held back by one thing after another. They notched a few finishes in the high 20’s and 30’s – and mostly placed far lower on the results sheet. On Friday, two Americans broke out of the slump and raced into the...