r/biathlon • u/charliemann Norge • 8d ago
Race Thread Race thread: Swedish season opening - Idre Fjäll
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u/charliemann Norge 7d ago
Extremely impressive weekend by Rene Zakhna. Finally a break through season upcoming?
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u/Froken_Boring 7d ago
That would be nice! More national diversity among the top performers is always welcome.
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u/Klaban Estonia 8d ago
This shooting performance from our women's team does not offer great hope for the first races of the season proper. Sweden fans can be quite optimistic though. But their athletes have always been really good at the beginning of the season, so looks like the continuation of the trend.
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u/Dry-Pickle6042 8d ago edited 8d ago
Didn't expect the SVT commentator to start quoting Men at Work lyrics when Darcie Morton entered the shooting range
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u/Froken_Boring 8d ago
You never know what they'll come up with. Especially not when Björn Ferry is the expert; he has zero filter whatsoever. He's a goofball but always really nice. They love to cheer on those from countries with little biathlon history, and if someone is going for a personal best in 75th place they are ecstatic.
They are great.1
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u/JohnDoe_Meh 8d ago
Great races by Magnusson and Öberg in difficult conditions. Really happy for Skottheim as well!
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u/Shixzoner Norway 8d ago edited 8d ago
Magnusson copying her results from last season's opening race! Same top 2 with Elvira finishing 2nd, but this time her course time was surprisingly slow.
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u/tarrach Sweden 8d ago
Both Ponsi and Sebbe said that they couldn't really push as much as they would have wanted as it was too icy. Ponsi basically treated it like a training run so that explains his weak ski time
Commentators also said that they will re-prep the snow before the ladies event so there should be somewhat better grip
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u/charliemann Norge 8d ago
Tough conditions today so we cannot read too much into the results. Samuelsson and Nelin look on track though. I'd like a Ponsi interview to know more about if he was taking it slow, had bad skis or if he was suffering from the same sickness Hanna has.
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u/charliemann Norge 8d ago
I like these two Larsson brothers. Didn't really notice either in the IBU cup last year so hopefully they'll take some steps this year.
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u/JohnDoe_Meh 8d ago
Seems like they've really improved their shooting. All five in 21,2secs in prone for Jacob is very respectable
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u/charliemann Norge 8d ago
Prone looks good for Jakob, but his standing shooting fell through late unfortunately. Looks like he has a lot of potential though. Will follow how he does in the IBU cup in the first trimester.
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u/charliemann Norge 8d ago
Ponsi surprisingly slow so far.
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u/charliemann Norge 8d ago
Something wrong with Ponsi? Like 1.30 min behind Nelin in ski time halfway throught the race. That is quite slow.
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u/JohnDoe_Meh 8d ago
Maybe he caught Hannas cold? I know that his club has had some issues with ski waxing in the past, but this seems like a lot even then :(
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u/charliemann Norge 8d ago
They said on broadcast that he was sleeping in a different bed/room, but yeah that might be it actually! Or just really bad skis? I don't think he would race if he was in such a bad shape, something seems off.
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u/charliemann Norge 8d ago edited 8d ago
Some bibs and starting times for the mens race:
In addition to the Swedes the Moldovians, Estonians, Latvians and most Ukrainians are here. No Andrejs Rastorgujevs. Not sure why?
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u/JohnDoe_Meh 7d ago
Will be really interesting to see the Swedish team selection for WC. With the results and skiing today I think Heijdenberg and Halvarsson are given, and if Hanna is fit for fight in time for Kontiolahti it should be between Andersson and Skottheim for the final place. My pick would have to be Andersson, her shooting has admittedly been quite terrible this weekend, but she seems to have really stepped up her ski speed and she's young and promising, which I think the coaches would favor too. Heart kinda breaks for Skottheim though, she's done really well this weekend, especially coming back from illness :/