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...
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...
Ethan Dreissigacker (USA) skied to a top-20 in the World Junior 10km Biathlon Sprint, for arguably the top international race of his career. Kurtis Wenzel (CAN) was not far behind in 23rd to lead the Canadian squad. The race, which determines the start order for the next event, Sunday’s 10km pursuit, was won by Russian Maxim Tsvetkov just ahead of the French duo of Florent Claude and Simon Desthieux. Both Tsvetkov and Claude missed a...
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...
In the opening junior men’s race of biathlon’s World Youth and Junior Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland, Canada’s Kurtis Wenzel used near-perfect shooting to demolish the field and collect his second world championship title. His teammates, however, were less successful, shooting 80%, 60%, and 40%. “After the individual race I was a little bit down,” said Maxc Davies, who had missed 12 shots and placed 72nd. How things change. In Thursday’s junior 4 x 7.5 k...
On Wednesday, Kontiolahti, Finland, became a venue that was hospitable for biathlon for the first time in perhaps several weeks. After the bitter cold of the World Cup races two weeks ago, a general lack of sunlight, and a persistent wind that has dogged even the best shots at World Youth and Junior Championships this week, today’s balmy sunshine was a welcome reprieve. “Today was an amazing bluebird day and there was almost no wind,”...
With Canada’s Kurtis Wenzel winning gold in the junior men’s 15 k individual, it was easy to overlook the other North American performances at biathlon World Junior Championships on Tuesday. But there were several other notable finishes in Kontiolahti, Finland, including top-20’s from Wenzel’s teammates Aaron Gillmor and Audrey Vaillancourt. Biathlon Canada, it appears, is on its way up. “It was certainly a welcome surprise to hear that Kurtis was in the lead after his...
Canadian biathlon has been on the upswing all year, with top-ten performances from three different athletes on the World Cup and wins and podiums on the second-tier IBU Cup circuit. At World Youth and Junior Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland, the Canadians had been hoping to continue their success, and started off well with a top-ten finish by Julia Ransom. But the athlete most likely to make waves was a young man who was also surrounded...
The top Canadian and American women in the youth individual race at biathlon World Junior Championships on Monday couldn’t have had more different attitudes coming into the event. Canada’s Julia Ransom, for instance, was looking for payback. After a strong showing in 2010 in Torsby, Sweden, Ransom struggled in 2011, producing a top result of just 36th place in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. “Last year was definitely a frustrating year for me,” she told FasterSkier...
At the end of last week, both the U.S. and Canadian biathlon teams announced their rosters for the upcoming World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany, March 1-11. The biggest surprise was the absence of Brendan Green, the top Canadian man who is currently ranked 32nd in the world. Green recently had a trio of career-best results and his first top-ten finishes on the World Cup in Oslo, Norway, but was hit by back problems before the...
Last year, the world’s best biathletes got a taste of northern Maine when the World Cup made stops in Fort Kent and Presque Isle. This season, the top racers are staying firmly ensconced in Europe. But instead of letting the sport get too comfortable on what could be considered its home turf, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) sent their eponymously named IBU Cup circuit across the Atlantic, and for the last week the “second World...
It’s only mid February, but most of the season’s biathlon races are over. 8 World Cups are already done. Most recently, we were racing in Kontiolahti, Finland. In spite of the brutal cold, the team had some of its best results ever with a 6th place mixed relay and 5 athletes in [...]
As the clock ticked down in Sunday’s 10 k pursuit race in Kontiolahti, Finland, the home crowd became more and more tense. Their star, Kaisa Makarainen, sat in second place – which was good. But it looked increasingly as if the win was out of reach, as World Cup leader Magdalena Neuner of Germany was skiing faster and making no more errors than the Finn. Then, halfway through the race, Makarainen caught a break. As...