23-year-old Synnøve Solemdal used the best shooting of her career to propel herself to a dominating, 30-second win in Hochfilzen, Austria. “Everyone was cheering ‘Synnøve’ all the way to the finish," she marveled after the race. Tora Berger placed second, giving Norway two women on the podium for the first time since 2005.
After winning Olympic bronze and then a World Championship in 2012, Jakov Fak of Slovenia was on the hunt for his first regular World Cup victory. He got it in a 12.5 k pursuit today, edging Dimitry Malyshko of Russia and dropping France's Martin Fourcade on a punishing final climb in Hochfilzen, Austria.
Rosanna Crawford scored points in a World Cup biathlon race for the first time today, beating her previous best finish by almost 30 spots to place 24th. Meanwhile, Jean Philippe Le Guellec wrote in an e-mail that he was "totally happy with following up last week with a top 10."
Andreas Birnbacher paid Martin Fourcade back for his tough tactics last weekend, this time around notching a 0.4-second victory over the Frenchman in a 10 k sprint. Darya Domracheva of Belarus also collected her first win of the season, and the tenth of her career, thanks to rifle problems that slowed down Kaisa Makarainen on the range.
The culture of Quebec is special, says Biathlon Canada High Performance Director Chris Lindsay, and it's no surprise that the province produced both Myriam Bédard and Jean Philippe Le Guellec - and, of course, Alex Harvey. Le Guellec wants to do for biathlon's visibility, and for Canada, what Bédard did in the 1990's.
Norway's Petter Northug and Marit Bjørgen won World Cup mini-tours, while Tora Berger swept three biathlon races; JP Le Guellec made history for Canada by winning a biathlon World Cup. In North America, exciting racing in Bozeman and Canmore helped national teams decide which athletes to send to the upcoming Quebec and Canmore World Cups.
JP Le Guellec's coach Jean Paquet told him to stop putting so much pressure on himself - so Le Guellec did, focused on skiing relaxed and knocking down targets, and saw his (and Canada's) first World Cup victory.
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden – Here’s a sampling of FasterSkier’s photos from the IBU World Cup pursuits this weekend, which were won by Tora Berger (NOR) and Martin Fourcade (FRA).
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden – Some snaps from the IBU World Cup sprints on Saturday, 7.5 k for women and 10 k for men.
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden – To beat Tora Berger these days, you have to defeat her not only on the trails, but also on the range. And that has proved more or less impossible here in Östersund. In three races, the Norwegian has taken 50 shots and missed just two of them. That feat was matched by only four women: Andrea Henkel of Germany, Marie Laure Brunet of France, Nadezhda Skardino of Belarus, and Eva Tofalvi of...
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden – For two guys who were aiming for the medals last year and ended 2012 ranked in the top 20 of the World Cup, the biathlon season doesn’t, by outward appearance, seem to be off to a great start. Neither Lowell Bailey nor Tim Burke made a strong impression in Wednesday’s 20 k individual (they placed in the mid-30’s), then Burke skied from 18th to 15th in today’s pursuit and Bailey from 30th...
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden – After placing a disappointing tenth in yesterday’s 10 k sprint, Martin Fourcade of France was seeking redemption – and to stay in the overall World Cup leaders bib that he had earned after winning Wednesday’s individual race. Last year’s overall champion missed only a single one of his twenty shots in today’s 12.5 k pursuit, which put him on a trajectory towards the front. The penalty came in the second standing stage,...
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden – After watching teammate Jean Philippe Le Guellec win Canada’s first World Cup earlier in the afternoon, Zina Kocher had her work cut out for her to stay on task for her own 7.5 k sprint. “It was so exciting,” she told FasterSkier. “It took me actually a long time before my race to just calm down, because we were so excited. We watched the flower ceremony, and I was so pumped up...
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden - U.S. biathletes take windy shooting conditions in in stride Östersund, Sweden and are looking ahead to the pursuit.
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden – It took perfect shooting for Canada’s Jean Philippe Le Guellec to ski to an 18-second win earlier this afternoon in the men’s 10 k sprint. Tora Berger in the women’s 7.5 k edition? Not so much. The Norwegian powerhouse missed a shot in standing, but still cruised to a 16.9-second victory over Olena Pidhrushna of Ukraine, with Olga Vilukhina of Russia placing third another two and a half seconds behind. In fact,...
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden – The way some people look at it, today definitely didn’t present ideal conditions for biathlon. With gusty, raging wind that flapped at the international collection of flags here in the stadium and chilled athletes and spectators alike, shooting was a challenge. Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway and Martin Fourcade of France, who dueled through last season in pursuit of the overall World Cup crown, each missed three shots. Lowell Bailey of the...
Tora Berger set out to achieve a couple of goals Thursday in the first biathlon World Cup of the season. For one, she wanted to make every target. Check. Then, she wanted to work toward an overall World Cup title, and did so beating Darya Domracheva (BLR) by more than a minute.
"Sometimes you go down in order to go higher.” That’s what Martin Fourcade said Saturday after finishing 48th in a cross-country World Cup race before resuming his winning ways in the biathlon World Cup opener 20 k individual race Wednesday.
Four-time World Champion Martin Fourcade placed 48th in Saturday's cross country World Cup, but was left disappointed on a day where he said he couldn't have done well even in a biathlon race. Fourcade told FasterSkier that biathletes have nothing to prove, and he still hopes to race the World Championships relay for France.
SuperTour racing kicked off on the West Yellowstone plateau with point-to-point 9k's and sprint prologues; the FIS and IBU World Cups started in Scandinavia, where the U.S. women made history and the Canadian men had a strong relay. Recap, reporting, photos, and results.