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Tag: Katja Yurlova

  • First Regular-Season Win For Yurlova, While Gasparin Gets Her Post-Baby Podium

    First Regular-Season Win For Yurlova, While Gasparin Gets Her Post-Baby Podium

    Katja Yurlova of Russia, a 2015 World Champion, got her first World Cup win on Saturday with clutch shooting in the Antholz 10 k pursuit. (Photo: IBU/Rene Miko)
    Katja Yurlova of Russia, a 2015 World Champion, got her first World Cup win on Saturday with clutch shooting in the Antholz 10 k pursuit. (Photo: IBU/Rene Miko)

    On Thursday, Russia’s Olga Podchufarova picked up her first World Cup win in the 7.5 k sprint in Antholz, Italy.

    On Saturday she led into the final stage of the 10 k pursuit, but fell apart on the range, missing three shots in the final bout.

    There to pick up the pieces was teammate Ekaterina Yurlova, who shot a near-perfect race. She started third after joining Podchufarova on the sprint podium, then missed one shot in the first stage. But after that she hit target after target, picking up places along the way until she left the range the last time in first place.

    “The last shooting was so unbelievable for me,” Yurlova told IBU news. “There was a strong wind, but my amunitions were just flying into the target! When I shot clean, I saw that Doro [Wierer] and Olga [Podchufarova] were in the penalty loop, I told myself that this was my chance…. so I just took all my power and did it.”

    Yurlova thrilled at the finish. (Photo: IBU/Rene Miko)
    Yurlova thrilled at the finish. (Photo: IBU/Rene Miko)

    There could be more surprising athletes to see atop the podium; Yurlova was the World Champion in the 15 k individual in 2015.

    But this was actually her first regular-season victory, something that had eluded her so far.

    “I didn’t think I would be again on the podium,” Yurlova said in the post-race press conference. “I didn’t prepare for the podium. I was thinking just that I need to do my job good, good skiing, good shooting, that’s enough.”

    Joining her was another woman who didn’t expect to be there – yet whose name didn’t cause surprise, either. Selina Gasparin of Switzerland is a World Cup winner who also won her country’s first Olympic biathlon medal, in Sochi in 2014.

    But while Yurlova was winning World Championships last season, Gasparin was sitting out. She took a year off to have her first child.

    After returning this season she had been yet to hit the podium, and after finishing 16th in the sprint it didn’t seem likely in the pursuit either. Yet Gasparin had only a single penalty, like Yurlova’s coming in the first stage, and skied the second-fastest course time of the day, moving up to second place by passing Wierer in the final few hundred meters.

    “This has been a mega-beautiful race,” Gasparin told Swiss broadcaster SRF. “In the beginning I shot a miss and thought ‘oh no, not again.’ In a pursuit I am usually behind. And I was pretty annoyed by the miss, because I lost contact [to the top]… And then in standing I though to myself ‘no matter how long I stand here, I just have to hit.’ And yeah, I didn’t really know where I was with regards to split times. Thank God I didn’t know during the last shooting that it could be enough for the podium when they shot misses.”

    Selina Gasparin of Switzerland was thrilled to be back on the podium. (Photo: IBU/Rene Miko)
    Selina Gasparin of Switzerland was thrilled to be back on the podium. (Photo: IBU/Rene Miko)

    She finished twelve seconds behind Yurlova and six ahead of Wierer, who had led early in the race before accumulating two penalties in the third stage and one in the fourth.

    “I started good but two mistakes was too much,” Wierer said in the press conference. “In the last standing, I tried to shot fast and zero and it did not work.”

    For Gasparin, shooting well under pressure and edging Wierer at the finish was a particularly meaningful way to get her first post-baby podium.

    “This second place is as valuable as my victories in sprint [in Annecy, France, and Hochfilzen, Austria, during the 2013-14 season],” Gasparin told Swiss media. “In the pursuit you have to get the result in a fight woman versus woman. There it’s important to keep your nerves in check.”

    Tiril Eckhoff of Norway placed fourth (+48.0) and Krystyna Guzik of Poland fifth (+51.9) after starting 20th and 26th, respectively. Skiing fast, they moved up despite three misses by Eckhoff and two by Guzik.

    Susan Dunklee, the lone American in the pursuit, finished 17th, also moving up considerably after earning bib 37 in the sprint. She had the fourth-fastest ski time in the field.

    “The race felt great!” Dunklee wrote in an email. “I had little expectation or pressure going into it. I wasn’t starting very high up and didn’t expect my skiing to bounce back so quickly. It felt so flat in the sprint and I’m not entirely sure why. Today felt more like the Antholz form I remember from the past. Having this strong performance will definitely boost my confidence going into the break.”

    Dunklee missed two shots in the first stage, as well as one in the third. After the first stage she had dropped even lower than her bib number despite initially making up ground on skis.

    “There were some big gusts on the range including one during my first prone that sent my first two shots wide,” she wrote. “The wind also dumped big clumps of snow on course from the trees. Today it was important to keep your sight covers closed between shootings.”

    After cleaning her last stage, Dunklee left the range in 25th. But she wasn’t done yet. She skied the third-fastest closing loop – less than two seconds slower than Gasparin. She used her spot next to 2015 World Cup Total Score winner Kaisa Makarainen of Finland to her advantage.

    “The highlight of the race was my last loop,” Dunklee wrote. “I left the range right behind a giant pack and patiently picked them off one by one following behind Kaisa. Then I remembered Kaisa’s been sick and not at the top of her form, so I passed her too. I really like the way the 2 km flows towards the end with its hard climbing attacks and recovery; it suits my strengths well.”

    The second period of World Cup racing will conclude on Sunday with relays for both men and women.

    Stay tuned for a report on the Canadian results.

    Results

  • Casting a Wider Net: ‘International Biathlon Team’ Shares Shooting Tactics in Sirdal

    Casting a Wider Net: ‘International Biathlon Team’ Shares Shooting Tactics in Sirdal

    The "International Biathlon Team" camp in Sirdal, Norway, with (front left to right) Fanny Well Strand Horn, Tiril Eckhoff, Elise Ringen, and Rosanna Crawford, and (back left to right) Brendan Green, Megan Heinicke, Sinnoeve Solemdal, Ekatarina Yurlova, Kaisa Mäkäräinen, Susan Dunklee, Marte Olsbu, and Nathan Smith. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)
    The “International Biathlon Team” camp in front of the 30-point range at the sports school in Sirdal, Norway, with (front left to right) Norway’s Fanny Welle-Strand Horn, Tiril Eckhoff, and Elise Ringen, and Canada’s Rosanna Crawford, and (back left to right) Canada’s Brendan Green and Megan Heinicke, Norway’s Sinnøve Solemdal, Russia’s Ekatarina Yurlova, Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen, American Susan Dunklee, Norway’s Marte Olsbu, and Canada’s Nathan Smith. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)

    It all started two years ago when Biathlon Canada’s head coach Matthias Ahrens struck up a conversation with highland-cow farmer Frode Oftedal at the World Cup in Oslo, Norway. There, Oftedal, also a biathlon enthusiast, invited the Canadians to come to Sirdal, Norway, for a training camp with the French team. The French biathletes had been returning to the sports school there to train since 2002 — because of Oftedal.

    For Canada, the possibility became reality this spring when Ahrens asked Norwegian biathlon coach Arne Idland whether his A-team athletes (Rosanna Crawford, Megan Heinicke, Brendan Green, and Nathan Smith) could participate in the Blink rollerski festival in August. They could, and would, but before that, why not arrange a shooting camp with Norwegian personal shooting coach Joar Himle? Last year, the Canadians held a camp with Himle’s expertise at home in Canmore, Alberta. This time, they’d continue learning from him in Norway.

    Three non-Canadians — Russia’s 2015 world champion Ekaterina “Katja” Yurlova, Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen and American Susan Dunklee — caught wind of the camp and asked Himle if they could join, Ahrens explained in an email.

    Of course they could, and the self-proclaimed International Biathlon Team was born. In the last few months before the nine-day camp in late July, Ahrens contacted the participants from various nations — including Norway and France — to coordinate workouts.

    “At the end of the year World Cup party in Khanty-Mansiysk, I met Joar Himle,” Dunklee explained in an email. “He mentioned that he might put together an international women’s shooting training camp this summer around the Blink Festival. I was immediately interested.”

    The International Biathlon Team enjoys some leisure time during a volleyball match at the sports school in Sirdal, Norway. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)
    The “International Biathlon Team” enjoys some leisure time during a volleyball match at the sports school in Sirdal, Norway. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)

    Tonstad, the site of the Sirdal sports school where the athletes would stay and train, was just a short drive from Sandnes, where Blink is held annually. For Dunklee and other Blink participants, such as Crawford, Heinicke, Green, and Smith, that made it an easy choice for a training venue before Blink.

    “Shooting has traditionally been my weaker link as a biathlete and my major focus for this training season,” Dunklee explained. “I spent the spring brainstorming how to speed up my shooting times with the US coaches and sports psychologist and we have taken satisfying steps already.  We decided it might also be beneficial for me to cast the net a little wider too. Joar’s camp worked very well with the timing of the Blink Festival, which I was already planning to race, and our team’s Europe camp. I heard that some top World Cup athletes were planning to attend.  It sounded like an opportunity worth trying out.”

    Meanwhile in late July, the rest of the US Biathlon A-team, except Lowell Bailey, who got married July 11, attended a training camp in Östersund, Sweden.

    “This part of the camp we are focusing on specific biathlon training,” U.S. women’s coach Jonne Kähkönen explained in an email. “There’s a really good roller loop at the stadium and a full range that typically has varying winds — no change this time, so good wind practice. We have already had a couple of sessions with some Swedish athletes joining in to mix it up and provide additional challenge on the head to head stuff at the range.”

    They planned to stay there until Aug. 3, when Dunklee, Bailey and Leif Nordgren would rejoin the team after Blink for a week at the ski tunnel in Torsby, Sweden.

    “Next week in Torsby the biggest focus is on the skiing and technique work,” Kähkönen said of the second part of their European camp.

    The Sirdal training camp crew (from left to right): Biathlon Canada Head Coach Matthias Ahrens, Brendan Green, Nathan Smith, Katja Yurlova, Kaisa Makarainen, Susan Dunklee, Rosanna Crawford, and Norwegian personal shooting coach Joar Himle. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)
    The Sirdal training camp crew (from left to right): Biathlon Canada Head Coach Matthias Ahrens, Brendan Green, Nathan Smith, Katja Yurlova, Kaisa Makarainen, Susan Dunklee, Rosanna Crawford, and Norwegian personal shooting coach Joar Himle. (Photo: Matthias Ahrens)

    In Sirdal, Canada brought its A-team, including Crawford and Heinicke, to work out with Yurlova, Mäkäräinen and Dunklee. Smith and Green coordinated sessions with some of the French men.

    “We’ve been having discussions together as a group about different aspects of the shooting process,” Dunklee wrote. “Joar believes in the value of athletes taking ownership of their own training and in the value of learning from other people’s approaches.  We have also benefited from sharing the range here with the French and Norwegian women’s teams and collaborating on a few workouts.”

    “It’s been great getting to chat with other athletes at meals and see what they’ve been up to during the summer,” Crawford wrote in an email.

    She explained that all of the morning workouts included everyone —“Kaisa, Katja, Susan, Megan and the boys,” while afternoon training was a bit more individualized. They worked on shooting twice a day with Himle, including some shooting drills with the French team one day and the Norwegian women another afternoon.

    “We also got to go for a great classic ski with some of the Norwegian women,” Crawford wrote. “It’s a pretty impressive group of people with 3 of them having WCH medals!”

    On Wednesday, the group parted ways, with several athletes heading to Sandnes for the Blink races from Thursday to Saturday. Afterward, the Canadian A-team will venture to Oslo for three days to train on the 2016 IBU World Championships course. Then Ahrens and Smith will return to Canmore, and Crawford and Green will venture to Östersund for a few more days of training.

    “Our B-team is in Canmore and will go up to the Haig glacier next week before they leave for [the North American Summer Championships in] Jericho [Vermont] and the races there,” Ahrens explained. “Otherwise we are mainly training in Canmore until we go for a 2 week camp in Park City in the last week of September, first week of October.”