06/03/2005
Quickened by her first ever gold medal yesterday, German Uschi Disl confirmed that success by doubling her total today, winning the World Championship Pursuit in Hochfilzen/AUT. Disl profited from the shooting results by her rivals – the top six finishers matched Disl's four penalties. Chinese Xianying Liu earned her first medal, running strongly and completing her 10 km run 17.9 seconds behind Disl. Russian Olga Zaitseva finished third and won her second medal in Hochfilzen.
Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (NOR) dominated the Pursuit to take his second World Championship gold in as many races. He easily compensated for three errors at the shooting range, gaining between ten and fifteen seconds on each of the five laps in the Hochfilzen valley. Bjoerndalen: "It was fantastic, I had good material. It's good to know that I can win despite the penalties. I hope I can win some more medals." (biathlonworld.com)
05/03/2005
"Let's turn this week into a
wonderful celebration!" – These are the words which IBU President
Anders Besseberg used on Friday night, opening the 2005 Biathlon
World Championships in Hochfilzen/AUT. From today until the 13th
of March, about 260 athletes from 39 nations will fight for the
ten World Championship titles. Many of them were present last
night for the wonderful opening ceremonies, which were
supplemented by the 100 anniversary celebrations of the Austrian
Skiing Federation. The show featured performances by local costume
groups and several bands.
In a tightly packed stadium, the spectators were able to see a
great show, which included Tyrolian traditions as well as a James
Bond like Biathlon demonstration – all under the motto "emotions".
Biathletes, clad totally in black, circled the stadium in a flurry
of snow that was produced by a low-flying helicopter and set fire
to an oversized biathlon target. The snow covered hills around the
stadium were immersed into mystical lights time and again. The
roughly 90-minute Show ended with an immense display of fireworks
(www.biathlonworld.com)
03/03/2005
Kati Wilhelm, one of the hot medal prospects in Hochfilzen WCh. Wilhelm holds the yellow bib as leader of the World Cup standings, but is aware of the threat coming from Sandrine Bailly and Olga Pyleva. Wilhelm has been in consistent form this year and tops the table on 657 points, just five ahead of Russia's Pyleva and 17 clear of France's Bailly. But it is Bailly who will pose the real threat over the next week in Austria. The Frenchwoman is in resurgent form, winning the mass start, the 10km pursuit and the 7.5km sprint last week at Pokljuka. Eurosport.de took some time out to chat to Wilhelm about her prospects, her aims, her principal rivals, and the venue itself... Read.
03/01/2005
Russian championship took part in Krasnoyarsk. The strongest athletes couldn't compete in it, because of the World championship praparetion. Without main stars athlets from Udmurtia Alexei Tchurin and Oxana Neupokoeva took the first places in individuals. Tchurin also became second in mass-start behind Oleg Milovanov from Krasnoyarsk. Experienced biathlete Irina Malgina won women race.
02/25/2005
Lars Berger won Cross country relay with Norwegian squad incudes: Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset, Frode Estil and Tore Ruud Hofstad. The Biathlete run at the third leg. At the start he shared the lead with Russian Nikolai Pankratov. Berger made a great effort for overall victory, having stable leg, defeated Russian at the finish and saved a minute gap to other rivals.
Norway defined the rosters on sprint and individual race/ In sprint and pursuit will start: men - Frode Andresen, Lars Berger, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Egil Gjelland; women - Tora Berger, Ann Kristin Flatland, Gro Istad-Kristiansen, Liv Grete Poiree and Linda Tjorhom. In individual race will take part: men - Bjoerndalen, Gjelland, Halvard hanevold and Stian Eckhoff.
11 biathletes have been nominated for the German WCH team. The men are: Andreas Birnbacher, Sven Fischer, Daniel Graf, Michael Greis, Ricco Gross and Alexander Wolf, the women: Katrin Apel, Simone Denkinger, Uschi Disl, Martina Glagow and Kati Wilhelm. Andrea Henkel is only substitute this year.
02/20/2005
The second Mass Start of the season once again saw an unbeatable Ole Einar Bjoerndalen who took the 51st World Cup victory of his career. Today, the Norwegian returned to the Biathlon Circuit as if he had never been away to compete at the Nordic Ski World Championships, continuing to demonstrate biathlon on the highest level. He ran and shot incredibly fast, yet downed all of his 20 targets at the shooting range. As a consequence, he won with a substantial lead of 1:05.4 minutes, ahead of his archrival Raphael Poiree of France (one error). In the battle for third place, Norwegian Stian Eckhoff managed to outrun his rivals on the last lap and took the remaining podium spot (+1:15.7/2).
The second Mass Start of the season saw once again an unbeatable Ole Einar Bjoerndalen who took the 51. World Cup victory of his career. Today, the Norwegian returned to the Biathlon Circuit as if he had never been away to compete at the Nordic Ski World Championships, continuing to demonstrate biathlon on the highest level. He run and shot incredibly fast, yet downed all of his 20 targets at the shooting range and subsequently won with a substantial lead of 1:05.4 minutes, ahead of his arch rival Raphael Poiree of France (one error). In the battle for third place, Norwegian Stian Eckhoff managed to outski his rivals on the last lap and took the remaining podium spot (+1:15.7/2). (biathlonworld.com)
European championship in Novosibirsk came to the end with individual
races. First win scored German team in men individual. Carsten Pump
defeated Pavol Hurajt from Slovakia (silver medal) and Russian Pavel
Rostovtsev (bronze).
Svetlana Ishmouratova won women race, despite 3 misses. She managed
to defeat German Sabrina Buchholz and her team-mate Anna Bogali
because of her perfomance in race. Russian Igor Minchenkov and
Paulina Bobak from Poland were the best in junior competitions.
02/19/2005
Sandrine Bailly (FRA) scored an impressive start-to-finish victory in the 10 km Pursuit today. While she had four errors at the shooting range, her incredible running shape provided her with plenty of time to spend on the penalty loop. Chinese youngster Yingchao Kong confirmed her strong result from Thursday with another runner up finish (two errors, 35.9 seconds behind). Olga Zaitseva (RUS) ranked third, improving one position from the start. She had four errors and crossed the finishing line 56.4 seconds behind Bailly. (biathlonworld.com)
Today the relays for the men
and the junior men brought the first 2 victories for the russian
relays.
Long time the senior men relay from Ukraine took the lead and in the
beginning followed by the one from Slovakia but then Russia came
closer and closer.
Finally Dmitri Iaroshenko could take over the lead as the last of
the russian relay and finally crossed the finish line 5,5 seconds in
front of Olexander Bilanenko. Then, over 2,5 minutes after the
first, the third relay of Germany came into the finish but still
ahead of the relay of Slovakia and the one of Belarus who ended up
to be the last of the 5 relays at the start.
Also from the 6 junior men relays Russia finished first and had this
position during the complete competition and had a better total time
than the last relay of the senior men.
A very good day had the slovenian team finished second but over 3
minutes behind the russians.
Third became the Relay from Ukraine in front of the one of Czech
Republic.
At least 5.000 spectators could then see a thrilling competition
also at the women and junior women relays.
The same as at the men, the women relays of Russia and Ukraine had a
tight fight troughout the whole competition with the russians being
in front nearly always a tiny bit of time.
But at each round the differences became bigger and at the end the
relay with Malgina, Khrustaleva, Ishmuratova and Bogali crossed the
finish line 1:52.8 minutes in front of Ukraine and 4:50 minutes in
front of the third Czech Republic.
Also the 3 x 6 km Relay of junior women with just 3 relays at the
start saw a russian victory 1:12 minutes in front of the relay from
Poland and the one of Ukraine on third and last position.
02/18/2005
Andriy DERYZEMLYA-UKR had the best performance and finally won
clearly 32,8 seconds in front of the fourth of the Sprint, Carsten
PUMP-GER although he missed 5 targets.
Alexei BOLTENKO-RUS could repeat his 3rd position from the Wednesday
also today.
The first of the Sprint competitions Alexei AIDAROV-BLR had a black
day at the shooting range as he missed 8 targets and so finally
ended up at the 11th position.
Oksana Khvostenko from Ukraine won women race with only one error
and defeated Russian quartet of Malgina, Bogali, Ishmuratova and
Chernousova ranked from 2nd to 5th places.
Russian Anastasiya Shipulina and Czech Ondrej Moravec took gold in junior races.
02/17/2005
Sandrine Bailly (FRA) finally got her act together at the shooting
range to win the Sprint in Pokljuka today. After several top course
time in the past that were obliterated by poor shooting, usually in
the final session, she managed to get through the competition with
just one error today.
China's Yingchao Kong provided the surprise of the day with second
rank, her first podium finish ever. Although she hit all of her
targets, a feat that was only accomplished by three other athletes,
she was 14.1 seconds behind Bailly at the end. Norwegian Gro Marit
Istad-Kristiansen (NOR) astonished her competitors with third rank,
her best result of the season. She had one error and finished 28.8
seconds behind Bailly. (biathlonworld.com)
Norwegian biathlete Lars Berger stayed in one step from the podium in 15km race in the World Skiing championship in German Oberdorf. He ranked 4-th 17 seconds behind the winner Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer. His compatriot and collegue Ole Einar Bjoerndalen was only 11-th losing 41 seconds to the champion.
Today pursuit races of European championship in Novosibirsk were postponed due to the frost.
02/16/2005
Belarusian Alexandre Syman surprisingly won the 10 km Sprint in Pokljuka today, scoring the first victory in his career. His 24:55.6 minutes were 5.6 seconds better than the total time of Sergei Rozhkov (RUS), the first runner-up. German Andreas Birnbacher delivered a courageous standing shooting to finish third, 16.7 seconds behind the winner. All podium finishers shot clean while almost all other athletes struggled at the shooting range. (biathlonworld.com)
European championship started
today in Novosibirsk with sprint races. Belorusian Alexei Aidarov
won men 10km race, shooting clear. Andrei Deryzemlya (UKR) managed
to compensate 2 misses in standing shooting by great cross country
perfomance and ranked second. Russian Alexei Boltenko took bronze
medal.
Russian women dominated at 7,5km race. Svetlana Chernousova took the
gold with enourmos advantage more than 40 seconds. Her team-mates
Svetlana Ishmouratova and Anna Bogali ranked second and third
accordingly. They were devided by only 2 seconds. Irina Malgina
closed the quartet of the best.
Ukrainian Oleg Berezhnoy and Russian Anna Boulygina became the
champions among juniors.
02/15/2005
IOC President Mr. Jacques Rogge visited the Olympic biathlon venue
in Cesana- San Sicario, where the Sprint competition for women took
place on Saturday.
Mr. Rogge thoroughly inspected the biathlon facility from the Press
Centre to the shooting range. He was accompanied by the IBU
Executive Board members, including the IBU Secretary General.
The IOC President took the opportunity to discuss all details about
the biathlon facility with the responsible persons from TOROC and at
the end he met with the IBU Executive Board members in an informal
meeting. Some of the athletes, among them Liv Grete Poiree, had an
opportunity to meet the President immediately after she completed
the tough competition.
“This biathlon facility is not still finished, but it is a very
promising venue. It is very compact and I think the athletes will be
happy to carry out their Olympic competitions at this biathlon
venue,” Rogge said. (biathlonworld.com)
