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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: Rupholding

  • How Many Norwegians? With Perfect Shooting, Berger Makes It Four

    So far this season, three Norwegian men have dominated the World Cup biathlon circuit, taking wins when it suits them and not always playing nicely together. 22-year-old Tarjei Boe currently sits atop the overall World Cup rankings, followed closely by teammate Emil Hegle Svendsen. Veteran Ole Einar Bjorndalen, who has won 92 World Cups in his career but only one this year, is third, giving the Norwegians a clean sweep of the standings halfway through the season.

    But it was none of those men who stood atop the podium in Rupholding, Germany on Friday. Instead, their teammate Lars Berger – who is almost always overshadowed by not only his male teammates but also his more successful sister, Tora – who won the 10 k sprint.

    Berger’s skiing has never held him back. In fact, he is currently the only athlete who has won relay gold in both biathlon and nordic skiing World Championships, and won the 15 k at 2007 Nordic World Championships in Sapporo as well.

    For Berger, shooting is what makes or breaks a day, and on Friday he shot clean for just the third time in his career. The last two instances were in Vancouver in 2009 and in Hochfilzen, Austria in 2008. And in both cases, he won.

    “It is too bad that it does not happen so often,” he told IBU News. “You know I am not that good! It takes some luck. But when it happens it is quite a dream day for me.”

    Berger skied to a 21-second victory over Martin Fourcade of France, who also shot clean, as did third-place finisher Ivan Tcherezov of Russia, just two more seconds behind. The soft snow made tough going for weaker skiers, but Berger was able to shine, owning the fastest course time of the day.

    “We train a lot in tough conditions back home,” he told IBU News. “Today was difficult but not impossible [conditions]. The most important thing today was not to stress too much on the skis, but to flow over the snow and do good skiing so you can go fast.”

    While Berger had a “dream day”, the North Americans did not. They were led by Marc-Andre Bedard of Canada, who finished 44th with clean shooting. A recent addition to the World Cup squad, Bedard was a surprise leader of the Canadian team, which had three men score World Cup points and two men qualify for the mass start last weekend.

    Bedard didn’t have as easy of a time on the snow as Berger did, but was positive about his shooting.

    “It feels awesome to finally get a good shooting race,” he told FasterSkier. “But starting in the last seed is is not so cool, especially in warm weather- the trails get softer and deeper every time someone passes! The skiing was really tough today but I managed to get my shooting on.

    “I’m happy to race the third pursuit of my career,” he continued. “I want to break my bad luck in pursuits and get a big one! I’ll get the day off to prepare for Sunday and I want it!”

    For a time on Friday it looked like he might be lonely in the pursuit. After two shooting stages, Bedard and Brendan Green were the only Canadians in the top 60, and Lowell Bailey was the only American.

    But in the 3.3 k before the finish, U.S. biathletes Tim Burke and Jeremy Teela made up time and finished 56th and 58th – just inside the cutoff for Sunday’s pursuit race. Green finished 48th and Bailey 50th.

    While packing the 40s and 50s isn’t the position the men were hoping to be in, they have the opportunity to move up quite a few places in the pursuit, since all are capable of much stronger results.

    Full results

  • Only The Strong Survive In Rainy Rupholding Shooter’s Duel – Updated

    Only The Strong Survive In Rainy Rupholding Shooter’s Duel – Updated

    Sara Studebaker led the U.S. women with a 55th-place finish in Rupholding on Thursday.

    To say that it was raining in Rupholding, Germany, on Thursday would be an understatement.

    “It was pouring rain, perhaps the worst rain I’ve ever skied in, winter or summer,” said U.S. biathlete Sara Studebaker. “It was tough out there… today was all about fighting through the conditions.”

    For most of the women’s World Cup field, it was a tough fight as the tracks slowed to a cement-like consistency and the downhills became rutted and treacherous.

    But three women set themselves above the fray in the 15 k individual race. In fact, even if fourth-place Valj Semerenko of Ukraine had shot clean and avoided a one-minute penalty, she still wouldn’t have been able to move up a single spot on the results sheet.

    Veterans Olga Zaitseva of Russia and Helena Ekholm of Sweden were the fifth and sixth starters, and they set a high standard for the rest of the field. In fact, they had already passed a few of the skiers ahead of them by the time they entered the first shooting stage.

    But the ante was upped again when Andrea Henkel of Germany set off wearing bib 30. She immediately moved into the lead with clean shooting and even faster skiiing than Zaitseva or Ekholm were able to muster.

    After three shooting stages, Henkel was still atop the leaderboard, followed by Zaitseva and Semerenko. But as the race wore on, the women tired, and skied each loop slower than the one before. In addition, Semerenko missed a shot in the final shooting, removing herself from contention.

    Only Zaitseva had the legs to push on, and her last loop was actually faster than her three middle loops. Her perseverance earned her a 14-second victory over Henkel – who had led for most of the race – with Ekholm rounding out the podium.

    When asked in a press conference whether she had been aware of Henkel’s position just ahead of her throughout the race, Zaitseva simply answered, “nyet.”

    She also said that nothing about her training had changed over the holiday break, and that the Russians were focused on skiing their fastest at World Championships.

    “I felt very good today had a good performance today both on the shooting range and skiing,” she told IBU News. “Starting early was a big help. It maybe was a little bit easier for me than some of the athletes who started later. I also had good skis for this kind of weather.”

    The drop to the rest of the field was severe. This was partly because only one other biathlete shot clean, and each miss is assigned a one-minute penalty. However, tenth-place Iana Romanova of Russia was almost three and a half minutes behind her winning teammate despite having only one penalty, and fifteenth-place Katja Haller of Italy, who also missed only a single shot, was more than four minutes back.

    It wasn’t the best day for the North Americans, but Megan Imrie of Canada had what could be considered a breakout race, finishing 35th with one penalty. She has only had two better results in four years of World Cup racing.

    “The race yesterday went well on the shooting range,” Imrie told FasterSkier in an e-mail. “With torrents of rain coming down, extreme conditions and a white-knuckle course, the range was my only place of calm. I have been playing around with my standing shooting tactics for a long time now. I seem to finally come across something that works. And with the way the day was going, I knew shooting was the ‘IT’ thing. My skiing was not quite as stellar, but World Champ’s is still a while from now, so I think it will pick up for March.”

    The other Canucks struggled, with Melanie Schulz and Zina Kocher finishing 70th and 82nd.

    The Americans also had a rough day: Studebaker led the team by tying for 55th place.

    “I was not feeling great skiing today,” she told FasterSkier. “It was a tough one mentally in the rain. Missing three shots also was not great – in my first standing I nearly fell on the downhill into the range and as a result my legs were super shaky. I just wasn’t able to recover and feel good in time for shooting.”

    Haley Johnson finished 62nd in her first World Cup start of the season, accumulating four penalties over the course of the day, while Laura Spector, fresh off of a career-best weekend in Oberhof, was 67th with five penalties.

    “We are all looking forward to the sprint race,” Studebaker said. “Saturday’s forecast looks much better, so hopefully we can improve on today’s results.”

    Competition continues in Rupholding on Friday with a men’s sprint.

    Full results

  • Bailey Season-Best 16th Place in Rupholding 20k; With Win, Svendsen Snags Red Bib

    Bailey Season-Best 16th Place in Rupholding 20k; With Win, Svendsen Snags Red Bib

    Lowell Bailey (USA) racing in Rupholding today. Photo: nordicfocus.com courtesy of U.S.B.A.

    Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway hasn’t always been the most gracious competitor.

    After Sunday’s mass start race in Oberhof, Germany, he told the media that he was “shocked” about how fast his teammate Tarjei Boe had become.

    And after the season-opening World Cups in Ostersund, Sweden, he bragged that he was “in an attacking position all of the time. I feel unstoppable, really.”

    Since that claim, Svendsen has indeed been stoppable, but things changed today when he took a seven-second win over Martin Fourcade of France in the 20 k individual race in Rupholding, Germany on Wednesday

    Ever cocky, Svendsen said that despite having the second-fastest ski time (behind only Boe, who finished fifth), he wasn’t in top form.

    “My plan was to race faster as the competition went on, but also save some energy for the final loop,” he told IBU News. “I was not actually feeling that good on the skis today… I still have some work to do with my skiing. It is still not my best shape. It is good that I still have something to look forward to.”

    With his win, Svendsen stole the red bib for leading the standings in the individual format from Daniel Mesotitsch of Austria.

    The other story of the day was the success of the Fourcade brothers. 22-year-old Martin finished second, and 26-year-old Simon fourth as France had their best day yet this year.

    Dominik Landertinger of Austria was the men separating the two, as he stood on the World Cup podium for the first time.

    Lowell Bailey (USA) led the North American contingent with an impressive 16th-place finish. While Bailey has two better World Cup results on his resume, it was by far his best race so far this season.

    “It was a solid race for me and I felt like I executed my gameplan from start to finish,” he told FasterSkier in an e-mail. “I missed two targets, but I my skiing was a notch higher than it was last week in Oberhof. The conditions were definitely challenging, with deep, wet snow throughout. However, I had great skis and felt good on the track. I’m happy that I came away with a decent day on the range, although I hope to improve my standing shooting as we move toward World Championships and the American World Cups next month.”

    In December, Bailey had said that he wasn’t skiing as well as usual, but that it was all part of a plan to be fast later in the season and that his skiing would come around.

    It certainly looked like the plan paid off on Wednesday, as he had the 22nd-fastest ski time on the day.

    “So far, I am happy with the way my training has played out over the season,” Bailey said. “We changed a few fundamental aspects of my training this year, namely pushing back the higher intensity sessions until later in the year, and I feel like those changes have made a big difference.”

    The U.S. Biathlon Association hoped that Bailey’s heroics would spur the rest of the team to new highs.

    “That was really an amazing performance,” High Performance Director Bernd Eisenbichler said in a press release. “Lowell’s shooting was solid and he was really strong on the tracks. A result like that will motivate the whole men’s team.”

    Brendan Green of Canada finished 25th, tied with Lois Habert of France. Green is having a phenomenal campaign this year, and is currently ranked 35th on the World Cup.

    Three other Americans competed: Tim Burke finished 42nd with three penalties, while Leif Nordgren and Jeremy Teela were a bit further down the results sheet in 64nd and 75th places.

    Jean-Phillipe Leguellec was the second Canadian in 49th place, followed by Marc-Andre Bedard in 76th and Scott Perras in 84th.

    Competition continues on Thursday with a women’s 15 k individual.

    Full results