The last time Kaisa Mäkäräinen opened the season with a win in Sweden, she also won the overall World Cup title. Is she going to do it again? Canada's Rosanna Crawford finished 14th, and is also excited to see what comes next: "I know there is so much potential."
The United States biathlon team went into today’s World Cup pursuits looking for improvement, and two athletes nailed it: Lowell Bailey finished 17th and Susan Dunklee 19th. Both used deliberate shooting strategy on Ostersund's gusty range to make their moves.
When Tiril Eckhoff missed a shot in standing, she assumed she'd have maybe a top ten in today's World Cup sprint. Instead, she charged to the top of the results sheet, and stayed there despite several clean-shooting challengers. She joined her brother (and coach) Stian on the list of Norwegians who have won in Ostersund, and called out Norwegian journalists for doubting her.
In the first individual women's IBU World Cup race of the season, Darya Domracheva showed she's still the same ol' fast-and-cheery competitor, beating Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen by 28 seconds and Ukraine's Valj Semerenko, one of three to shoot clean, by 38 seconds.
The IBU doing away with the double-pole zone and trying something new for relays and mass starts: only three lanes, and skating right off the bat. Will it work? Three of the women who started Sunday's relay - including two-time World Cup Champion Kaisa Makarainen - are unconvinced, saying that in a small, competitive field, it's potentially unfair for some teams to start 20 meters behind the front compared to just one row back in the old format.
Retirements were expected after an Olympic season - but the women's biathlon field will be shaken up even more, as several top competitors are taking the season off for babies or injuries. Plus, Darya Domracheva has switched her coach and Ukraine stars face a funding crisis. All the updates inside - the World Cup is on in less than two months!
With another World Cup crystal globe in hand, Finnish biathlete Kaisa Mäkäräinen, 31, is gearing up for another season and World Championships at home in Kontiolahti. It hasn't been easy: she was sick for two months from May through June.
In the final two days of the 2014 Blink Festival Americans Lowell Bailey and Tim Burke jumped onto the podium in the biathlon mass start and sprint races.
The U.S. Biathlon Women's A-team has been spending the last two weeks soaking up Finnish life and studying the 2015 IBU World Championships course in Kontiolahti with reigning World Cup champion (and local hero) Kaisa Mäkäräinen.
Anastasiya Kuzmina couldn't have been more surprised to find herself in the lead at the end of the 12.5 k mass start, but she made the most of it and finished the season happy. Meanwhile, Kaisa Makarainen took home the World Cup trophy after both she and rival Tora Berger had subpar races - but a slightly less subpar one for Makarainen than for the retiring Norwegian superstar.
Anastasiya Kuzmina shot better than any of the other favorites and skated off to a win while they were stuck in the penalty loop. But the biggest drama might have been that when Tora Berger finished second and Kaisa Makarainen fourth, Makarainen's lead in the World Cup overall shrank to ten points. The title will be decided in a mass start tomorrow.
In incredibly gusty conditions, Kaisa Mäkäräinen won the 10 k biathlon pursuit by a minute over Darya Domracheva of Belarus. Susan Dunklee of the U.S. moved from eighth up to seventh despite a whopping seven penalties, thanks in part to the second-fastest ski time of the day - and other racers' struggles on the shooting range.
Kaisa Mäkäräinen made winning at home a habit in the second-straight IBU World Cup sprint in Kontiolahti, Finland, edging Tora Berger and Gabriela Soukalova, who both cleaned. Susan Dunklee rose to eighth for her second-best sprint result of the season and her career. Two other Americans and three Canadian women made Sunday's pursuit.
Local girl Kaisa Makarainen took the top spot in today's World Cup sprints in Finland, while two Canadians, Rosanna Crawford and Megan Heinicke, got into the top 15.
After a 14th-place showing at FIS World Championships last year, Finnish biathlete Kaisa Makarainen is contemplating skiing in the Olympics. Her recent race splits suggest she's definitely fast enough. But biathlon remains the priority for the 2011 World Cup Champion, for now: "I hope that Sochi is my highest point," she said.
Gabriela Soukalova is getting used to wearing the overall World Cup leader's bib, and she acted like a pro in the pursuit today: feeling tired, she took her time on the range, losing up to ten seconds in each stage but shooting clean and avoiding the penalty loop. That gave her a second win for the weekend.
Both Emil Hegle Svendsen (NOR) and Darya Domracheva (BLR) hung on to their sprint wins from Friday and turned them into pursuit victories on Saturday, but not without a little bit of trouble from Ole Einar Bjørndalen (NOR) and Kaisa Makarainen (FIN).
Both Darya Domracheva of Belarus and Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway - last year's runners-up in the World Cup overalls standings - finally picked up their first wins of the new biathlon season, suggesting that maybe the favorites will be in shape in time for the Olympics after all. Susan Dunklee (USA) placed 32nd and Macx Davies (CAN) 42nd to lead the North Americans.
Coming off her first World Cup win a week ago, Switzerland's Selina Gasparin captured another sprint win in Annency, France, this time with clean shooting. Canada's four women also harnessed positive feelings from their historic relay on Thursday to qualify for Sunday's pursuit.
Biathletes and cross-country skiers alike from Europe and beyond descended on Sandnes, Norway, for the annual three-day Blink Ski Festival from Aug. 1-3. The rollerski mass starts, hill climbs and sprints saw some close finishes, new winners and record crowds.