For Germany and Norway, it was a two-way battle for first following the final exchange of the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay on Saturday at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Antholz, Italy. There, thanks to third-leg Johannes Thingnes Bø, Norway had taken the lead by 17.7 seconds over Germany and built a 38-second gap to Russia in third. Ukraine was another nine seconds back in fourth, skiing just ahead of France and...
U.S. SuperTour (Truckee, Calif.): Classic sprints [UPDATED] Less than a week after being men’s 30 k classic mass start champion at this year’s U.S. nationals — won Saturday’s SuperTour classic sprint as well. Lustgarten, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, raced to a 1.58-second victory in the men’s A-final at the Auburn Ski Club in Soda Springs, Calif., finishing in 3:03.4. Ben Saxton, of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team, placed second, and Reese...
U.S. Cross Country Championships (Soldier Hollow): Classic sprints Jennie Bender of Bridger Ski Foundation and Kevin Bolger of the University of Utah won national titles in the classic sprints at 2017 U.S. Cross Country Championships at Soldier Hollow earlier Sunday afternoon. They each took narrow – but, for sprinting, relatively uncontested – victories, as each was in the lead coming into the stadium and led through the final 180-degree turn into the finishing straight. In the women’s race, Bender took the...
With cold, fierce gusts of wind blowing over the biathlon range in Oberhof, Germany, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit on Saturday was decided in the first standing stage. Out of a top group of seven athletes, only France’s Martin Fourcade was able to shoot clean to create a 35-second gap. In the final shooting, he cleared his targets in a slow but controlled rhythm, avoiding the penalty lap once again, while his...
Even Martin Fourcade is a mere mortal who can’t win every race he competes in. After winning the first three sprints of the 2016/2017 season and five races in a row, for once the French biathlon star had to settle for an eighth place after uncharacteristically missing three targets in his standing shooting stage. That left an opening for other athletes to shine on Thursday afternoon in the men’s 10-kilometer sprint at the International Biathlon Union (IBU)...
A biathlon relay with athletes skiing around and through a huge soccer arena in a city with no snow seems like a crazy idea. But in the 1990s, the German cross-country skier and biathlete Herbert Fritzenwenger, who had retired from active sports after competing in the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games, believed there had to be some way to make biathlon even more attractive for viewers. He wanted to mix sports and entertainment bringing the sport...
Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers. *** Note: This recap has been updated to reflect the correct positions each of the four Canadian women exchanged in during Sunday’s 4 x...
By mid-afternoon in Östersund, Sweden, on Sunday, Norway had already claimed a win in the mixed relay. But there was another event still on the schedule: the single mixed relay, a relatively new format with just one man and one woman per team, skiing short loops of a kilometer and a half. Each athlete skis and shoots twice, then tags off, then repeats: two relay legs each for a total of eight shooting bouts. While Norway...
Germany's Simon Schempp felt the power in his legs to get the job done on the final loop of the men's 12.5 k pursuit on Saturday, while Tim Burke of the U.S. reached the flower ceremony for the second-straight day in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. "These are my two best results of the season so I can't be too disappointed," Burke explained.
In the final sprint of the season, Julian Eberhard won his first race, earned his first podium and became the first Austrian to win an IBU World Cup sprint in 15 years. Meanwhile, Tim Burke placed sixth for his best result of the 2015/2016 season, and the U.S. men notched a team-best sixth overall in the Nation Cup.
The third starter, Martin Fourcade overcame a 29-second deficit and two penalties on a tricky shooting day to win the IBU World Cup pursuit in Presque Isle for his 44th World Cup win. Tim Burke tied his season best in seventh, and Germany's Arnd Peiffer crashed into a tree on his final loop and suffered a severe concussion.
Three American men finished within 16.5 seconds of one another in the top 20 of Thursday's sprint at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine, setting themselves up well for Friday's pursuit. The youngest man in the field, Sean Doherty, 20 led them with a career-best 13th.
France stacked its single mixed relay on Sunday in Canmore, putting Marie Dorin Habert and Martin Fourcade in the team-sprint-like event, and the two got what they set out for: first by 45 seconds over Austria and 55 seconds over Norway in third.
A day after besting Germany's Simon Schempp on the last loop, Anton Shipulin of Russia did so again -- this time beating the German by a second for the men's relay victory. Schempp partially blamed a lapped skier. The U.S. men ended up sixth, tying their season best from a week earlier, while Canada placed 11th with strong shooting.
In "danger" of not qualifying for 2016 World Championships, Germany’s Erik Lesser stuck it to those who questioned his chances, winning Saturday's mass start at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding in front of a local crowd. "I don’t want to hear about that again after giving you what you wanted," he told reporters.
Imagine the most outrageous, over-the-top spectacle for a biathlon race -- complete with a world championships snowball fight -- and you'll have Biathlon auf Schalke, a.k.a. the annual World Team Challenge, which took place in a soccer stadium earlier this week in front of nearly 41,000 fans.
Simon Schempp and three teammates combined for Germany's second gold in the last two days of relays at 2015 IBU World Championships, topping Norway and France, respectively. The U.S. got off to a strong start with Lowell Bailey, but finished 14th with two penalties. The Canadians had two penalties as well and ended up 19th.
German biathlete Erik Lesser earned his first victory in Sunday's 12.5 k pursuit at the 2015 IBU World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. Canadian Nathan Smith was the top North American in 13th after placing second in Saturday's 10 k sprint.
Emil Hegle Svendsen and Lowell Bailey had a few things in common on Thursday. While Bailey started the four-leg race for the Americans and Svendsen anchored the Norwegians, both led to the finish and capitalized on one critical hill to do so.
Gelsenkirchen and the Veltins Arena pulled off arena biathlon as only the Germans can on Saturday: a field including 11 Olympic medalists from around the world flew around the trails and shot their way through fierce competition. But the day also featured fireworks, gluhwein, and the World Championships Snowball Fight.