Canmore, Canada IBU World Cup 4 x 7.5 k/ 4 x 6 k relay Friday in Canmore was team relay day. Norway’s Lars Helge Birkeland, Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, Erlend Øvereng Bjøntegaard and Johannes Thingnes Bø won the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in 1:16:36.6 hours while acquiring no penalties on the shooting range and using seven spares. In second place was France’s Antonin Guigonnat, Emilien Jacquelin, Simon Fourcade, and Quentin Fillon Maillet. The French...
“Polar Vortex” has become part of the oh-so-cold vernacular when describing seemingly locked in place artic air. Last week’s weather-related news cycle was dominated by all things “Polar Vortex”. In Canmore, Canada, the term is still being thrown around: the cold temperatures have not abated. On Thursday, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) is scheduled to begin its North American swing of races in Canmore with the men’s 20-kilometer and women’s 15 k individual races. Hold...
The fans in the well-filled stands of the 1-kilometer rollerski city course in Sandnes, Norway, had many reasons to cheer loudly on Saturday, as their local heroes claimed victories in all four sprint events that concluded the 2017 Blink Skifestivalen (Ski Festival). In the final race of the day, the men’s cross-country sprint was decided by the length of a rollerski, with Norway’s Sindre Bjørnestad Skar crossing first, just 0.1 seconds ahead of Sweden’s Teodor...
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Men’s 50 k freestyle mass start After a week of missing out on the medals at 2017 Nordic World Championships, Canada’s Alex Harvey, a four-time World Championships medalist from 2011, 2013 and 2015, achieved his first individual gold medal in the final race of this year’s World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Harvey, 28, won the men’s 50-kilometer freestyle mass start in a drag race to the finish. Entering the...
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.
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.
Martin Fourcade didn't feel very good this weekend -- he made that well known -- yet the Frenchman pushed on for his 41st World Cup victory in Sunday's 15 k mass start at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. American Lowell Bailey finished 16th and Canadian Nathan Smith took 25th in the selective race.
Germany's Simon Schempp won the second race of the week at the IBU World Cup in Pokljuka, Slovenia, with a 16-second pursuit victory over France's Martin Fourcade, while American Tim Burke raced up to ninth (after starting 14th) for his first top 10 of the season.
The Canadian men posted their second-best result in a World Cup relay in sixth on Sunday in Hochfilzen, Austria. They did so thanks to near-perfect shooting from the Gow brothers and fast ski times from all four team members.
“Today was definitely a solid team performance,” Tim Burke said after the season-opening race in Norway. “Our entire men's team is at a very high level and we are all very excited to see what we can do in the relay.”
After surgery on his hand and then a knee injury, U.S. Ski Team member Erik Bjornsen recently resumed full-on training, and did so with the help of French biathlete and multiple-time world champion Martin Fourcade in France. "It's crazy to see how famous he is," Bjornsen says. "He’s just a normal guy."
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.
Martin Fourcade shook off the ghost of Östersund blunders past, and sprinted his way to victory for France in the final meters of today's World Cup mixed relay. Norway was second, Germany third, and plenty of teams showed that they should be in contention all season long.
Christoph Sumann was having a bad run of things. Just two weeks ago, you could find the 37-year-old former Olympic medalist dabbling in ski races - classic ski races - at home in Austria. But in today's pursuit in Russia, the biathlete was back at the top of his game, shooting a perfect 20-for-20 while Martin Fourcade seemed a shell of his former self, accumulating five penalties.
RUHPOLDING, Germany – Going into today’s men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay, the field was wide open. France, with double gold medalist Martin Fourcade and silver medalist brother Simon Fourcade, was a prerace favorite. But last year’s top two teams, Norway and Russia, hadn’t dominated in the individual races, and neither had host country Germany. Meanwhile, Sweden’s Carl Johan Bergman had won two medals, and three Swedes had finished in the top ten. Slovenia and...
RUHPOLDING, Germany – After two straight races with Martin Fourcade emerging victorious and familiar, tradition-rich countries like Norway, Sweden, and Russia rounding out the podium, it could be easy to forget that the world of biathlon is a broad one. But in today’s World Championships 20 k individual race, Jakov Fak of Slovenia reminded the world that his tiny country, home to just two million people, has the talent to cut it on the world’s...
When Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen starts a pursuit race in bib 1, it’s a pretty good bet that he’ll stay there. Gamblers today, however, would have been sorry to put their money on the overall World Cup leader. As soon as the 12.5 k pursuit started in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, Svendsen began making errors. After being caught by Frenchmen Simon and Martin Fourcade, who had started second and third, the trio skied into the...
There were a lot of unusual things about the World Cup biathlon races in Hochfilzen, Austria on Saturday. First, there was the inch of snow that fell during the men’s 12.5 k pursuit. Then, there was the fact that the field was incredibly compressed thanks to some strange weather in the original sprint race. “The snow storm that stopped [mid-race on Thursday] had a bigger effect than I expected,” U.S. biathlete Jay Hakkinen told FasterSkier....
Cold snow, Spartan living, and one wicked long, wicked steep hill—welcome to Fort Kent. “Reminds me of Russia,” said Norwegian biathlete Tarjei Boe, the leader of the men’s overall World Cup standings. After a week in the relative metropolis of Presque Isle, the biathlon World Cup circuit has now moved to the small town of Fort Kent, in Maine’s northern-most reaches, for three more races. Both women and men will race a sprint, a pursuit,...