One man has won all five 10 k Sprint competitions so far this season, so even with 112 starters in today’s BMW IBU World Championship Sprint, there was no doubt about the favorite. Johannes Thignes Boe of Norway has been untouchable on skis since November, regularly out-skiing his nearest competitor by over 30 seconds. The 150m penalty loop in biathlon usually takes athletes about 23 seconds, so Boe can afford to miss once and still...
The 2023 BMW IBU Biathlon World Championships kick off on Wednesday, February 8th in Oberhof, Germany. Let’s start with reasons why to watch: Why Watch? Watch because it’s free and easy. This winter, all biathlon World Championship, World Cup, Junior World Championship, and even IBU Cup (World Cup feeder circuit) races and are free to stream live with English commentary on Eurovision’s website. Watch because on the men’s side, Johannes Thignes Boe’s domination so far...
IBU Begins Athlete Ambassador Program The International Biathlon Union has begun an initiative in part to empower athletes and bring change to the sport. Over the past several years the IBU has been a leader amongst sport federations when it comes to reforming governance. The initiative, billed as the Athlete Ambassador program leverages the public voice of athletes to promote change. “Serving as Athlete Ambassadors, they will be able to use their voice to...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Leo Grandbois.) The 2018 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championships went out with a bang on Sunday, with four pursuit races in Otepää, Estonia. Several North Americans had banner days, with American Chloe Levins racing up one spot to sixth place in the junior women’s 10-kilometer pursuit and Canada’s Megan Bankes and Nadia Moser placing eighth and 11th, respectively, in that same race. In...
“There’s almost nothing I love more than being in the hunt during a pursuit,” American sixth in the junior women’s 12.5-kilometer individual on Thursday, Levins, 19, raced to seventh place in Saturday’s 7.5 k sprint, which will put her in seventh (and within 10 seconds of fourth place) for the start of Sunday’s 10 k pursuit at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia. Last year, Levins raced to Megan Bankes...
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Lahti, Finland): Men’s & women’s freestyle sprints Men’s report The defending world championships from the 2017 freestyle sprint prevailed again in Lahti on Saturday, with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla winning the women’s 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint final and Italy’s Federico Pellegrino coming out on top in the men’s 1.6 k final at last year’s World Championships venue. Falla’s rise to the final started with her qualifying in 12th, 7.96 seconds off the...
IBU Junior World Championships (Otepää, Estonia): Junior women’s and men’s individual Three North Americans in the top 10, top nine even. That’s what happened in a single race at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Junior World Championships on Thursday in Otepää, with American Nadia Moser and high of -10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) on Thursday morning, she almost preferred it. “There were also 20 second start intervals which are shorter than the usual 30, so...
IBU Youth World Championships (Otepää, Estonia): Relays Tuesday and Wednesday were relay days at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championships in Otepää, highlighted by two ninth-place results by the Canadian and American biathlon teams. On Tuesday, the Canadian junior women (Emily Dickson, Nadia Moser and Megan Bankes) placed ninth in the 3 x 6-kilometer relay, 3:31.6 minutes out of first, with two penalties and 14 spares. The U.S. youth men (Vasek Cervenka, Camren...
In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 19-year-old Adam Runnalls of Calgary, who is representing Canada at his first World Junior Championships after twice being part of the team for the Youth division. On Tuesday, Runnalls...
IBU Youth/Junior World Championships (Osrblie, Slovakia): Youth relays The Norwegian and Russian youth men’s and women’s youth relays teams took either first or second on Monday in their last race of International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth World Championships in Osrblie, Slovakia, with Russia winning the women’s 3 x 6-kilometer relay and Norway topping the men’s 3 x 7.5 k. While Norway’s men’s team of Jørgen Krogsæter, Vebjørn Sørum, and Sivert Guttorm Bakken skied away from...
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Classic team sprints Defending champions Norway repeated gold in the women’s team sprint, with Heidi Weng and Maiken Caspersen Falla crossing the finish line first in Lahti, Finland. On the second-to-last loop, it looked like Russia could have something to say about that. Yulia Belorukova put in a furious sprint up the course’s biggest climb, and then beat Weng to the exchange. But her teammate Natalia Matveeva could not match the pace when Falla...
Rounding the sprint course in Osrblie, Slovakia, on Friday, American Chloe Levins didn’t let her mind wander to what could be. She had cleaned her first prone stage, which put her in contention for a top 10 among the field of 92 in the youth women’s 6-kilometer sprint, and another shooting stage without a miss could mean the race of her life in her second race at the 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth World...
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Nordic Combined individual normal hill/10 k Germany, Germany, Germany, Germany. That’s how the results read after the first nordic combined competition of the 2017 Nordic World Championships on Friday in Lahti, Finland, with Germany not only sweeping the podium but the top four of the men’s individual normal hill/10-kilometer Gundersen start. Johannes Rydzek notched his second individual gold medal in the last two championships (after winning the normal hill/10...
IBU Youth/Junior World Championships (Osrblie, Slovakia): Youth individual races targeting the sprint. “I want to thank first my coaches at home, my parents who always supported me and all the team who did a great job for the race, the skis, thank you,” he told the IBU Junior Cup media. Also on Wednesday, American Vasek Cervenka, who trains with the Nove Mesto biathlon team, raced to 16th (+4:19.5) with five penalties (0+2+2+1). Also for the...
In another 20-something-question, fill-in-the-blanks series, we checked in with the world-class U.S. and Canadian biathletes that will be competing at 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships Feb. 22-28 in Osrblie (also known as Brezno-Osrblie), Slovakia. Here’s 18-year-old Adam Runnalls, of Calgary Biathlon Racers, who will be representing Canada at his second Youth Worlds. *** “My full name is Adam Runnalls, but you can call me Adam. I was born in Calgary, raised in Calgary, and one...
It was a stretch to reach the podium, but the Canadian team of Teo Sanchez, Adam Runnalls, and Zachari Bolduc were in contention until late in the youth men's 3 x 7.5 k relay at World Championships, ultimately finishing fifth. The American men placed 15th. The Canadian women were 10th in the 3 x 6 k relay and the American women 16th.
Sean Doherty's just like any 20 year old, except that he has 10 biathlon world junior titles to his name and won the last race of his junior career in Romania on Sunday. "I get nervous just like any other human,” he explained. “There’s a lot of pressure for these races I just did, and I’m really happy with how I performed with it all, but it’s something that’s not that easy to deal with.”
The Canadian biathletes are on a roll at IBU Youth World Championships with three athletes in the top 21 on Friday in the youth men's and women's sprints. Teo Sanchez led the team in 17th, Nadia Moser broke through in 19th, Adam Runnalls was 21st, and Megan Bankes 26th for Canada.
Two Canadian men, Teo Sanchez and Adam Runnalls, and one woman, Megan Bankes, notched career-best top 20's on the first day of IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania.