As Lowell Bailey rounded the course on Saturday in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, a total of five times in the men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit, he couldn’t hear a thing his coaches were shouting at him. The 35,000 spectators in the stadium and lining the track were overpowering them, but their movements gave the US Biathlon veteran all the information he needed to know. “It was, by far, the loudest spectator crowd I’ve ever experienced,” Bailey recalled on...
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. *** IBU World Cup in Nove Mesto: 10/12.5 k pursuits [UPDATE] Third one day, fourth the next. That’s the streak Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon)...
For the third time in the last week, Scott Gow hit 100 percent of his targets: 10 in the sprint and 10 in the relay at the last International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Pokljuka, Slovenia, and another 10 in the 10-kilometer sprint on Thursday in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. And for the second time in his career, Gow, the oldest of two brothers on Biathlon Canada’s World Cup team, finished in the top...
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...
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. *** Canadian NorAm/U.S. SuperTour at Sovereign Lake: Classic sprint [UPDATE] U.S. skiers filled the open category podiums on the first fully North American...
At the top of the starting field in the International Biathlon Union (IBU) men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit in Pokljuka, Slovenia, a large part of the race on Saturday was determined by two pairs skiing and shooting in almost perfect synchrony together: France’s Martin Fourcade with Russia’s Anton Shipulin, and the two Norwegians Emil Hegle Svendsen and Johannes Thingnes Bø. For the first three shooting stages, all four athletes shot clean and fast, with Shipulin able to close the...
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Canada’s Scott Gow.) The exact details of Martin Fourcade’s record book depend a bit on who you ask. The official statistics of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) say the French biathlete got his 50th IBU World Cup victory on Friday in the men’s 10-kilometer sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia. By his own count, he claims he already hit that milestone last week and this was his 52nd...
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 Rundown has been updated to include comments from U.S. Nordic Combined’s Bryan Fletcher, who placed ninth on Sunday at the World...
Starting with just under a minute separating him from first place, Lowell Bailey made sure he didn’t get too caught up on what could be. A veteran member of US Biathlon’s national team, Bailey started the men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit on Sunday in 13th, exactly 59 seconds behind the first man out of the gate, Martin Fourcade of France. Fourcade had according to a press release. “We were going very close. Before going to Östersund, I...
Just like in the 50 wins in the individual race on Wednesday. Despite starting early in bib 11, Fourcade knew no other athlete was likely to beat him in his current race shape when he manages to shoot no penalties, celebrating with both arms raised high as he crossed the line. And he immediately set his sight on another goal: winning three races in a row, four if you count his win in the single...
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. *** U.S. SuperTour opener in West Yellowstone: Freestyle sprints [UPDATE] The U.S. domestic season opened in West Yellowstone, Mont., with 1.3-kilometer freestyles on...
Lowell Bailey is the two-year anniversary earlier this fall. Both are US Biathlon team veterans, and at 35 and 34 years old, respectively, they’re still lighting up the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup. The teammates and training partners, based out of Lake Placid, N.Y., finished one place and 2.1 seconds apart on Thursday, with Bailey ending up 15th and Burke 16th in the first men’s individual World Cup race of the season: the 20-kilometer individual in Östersund,...
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...
On Sjusjøen's unique 40-point shooting range, competition heated up as some of the world's best biathletes went head to head in mass start racing on Sunday. France's Simon Fourcade matched his brother Martin's win from the previous day, while Ukraine's Yuliya Dzhima took the women's title.
France's Martin Fourcade and Justine Braisaz stole the show in Sjusjøen, locking the Norwegians out of victories on home turf in biathlon's season-opening sprints.
After addressing various back issues and logging a solid summer of training, Biathlon Canada's Brendan Green, who turned 30 last week, feels ready to go for the 2016/2017 IBU World Cup season.
Note: This Olympic roundup has been updated to include Czech skier Eva Vrabcová-Nývltová, who placed 26th in the women's marathon at the Rio Olympics on Sunday.
Martin Fourcade, the most successful biathlete of the last several years, resorted to Twitter to ask his international federation about the ten positive tests by Russian athletes allegedly hidden by the Russian Ministry of Sport. He didn't get a response. Meanwhile, the IOC moved forward with re-testing anti-doping samples from all Russian athletes at the 2014 Olympics, and also called for any major events scheduled to be held in Russia to be moved.
The biathlon World Cup season was over before the final races on Sunday began. Strong winds and an overturned light post led organizers to cancel the season-ending mass starts in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Awards and Crystal Globes will be handed out Sunday night.
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.