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Point of view of the
analyst
Article 5. Nine days that are worth a year, or
play-off a la biathlon.
In the
faraway maple-leaf country sounds of the funeral march for the main
winter sport for millions of Canadians havent silenced yet. The NHL
Commissioner Gary Battman announced that the season is cancelled,
cause in about 45 days the play-off is to begin when the teams
havent played a single regular championship game. A compromise
between the league and the players trade union was never found. We
have nothing to do but to sympathize with the overseas sport fans,
who had been deprived of such a succulent dessert as a play-off. The
play-off matches are incomparable in the
fervour
of struggle, popularity among spectators and in the value of each
throw-in. The best hockey masters have been making happy the
European fans for a long time already by playing in the best teams
of Russia, Sweden and other countries. The main event of this year
is the World Championship, this time taking place also in Europe .
Still hockey is not the most popular among winter sports in Europe.
It yields to ski jumping, cross-country skiing and biathlon. Both
jumpers and x-country skiers as well as Nordic combiners have
already determined the best of them in Oberstdorf, while biathletes
are still in for the World championship. Therefore its high time we
meditated about the results of the regular championship and the
questions to solve during the main starts of the season.
Oh, those
Russians.
If we sum up
the points of men and women in the Nations Cup, Russia well be the
best. The leadership is based on the recent success in Cesana and
Pokljuka, where the Russians showed good results with 4 victories.
Traditionally Russian women presided by Olga Pyleva are the main
medal getters for Russia and can look forward to winning the gold in
the relay and one of the other races. But, we could see that men can
also bring a surprise even when the known leader is absent. Still,
the regular season leaders cant be called the Championship
favourites. Russian coaches didnt hide that the most emphasis this
season was made on the pre-olympic WC stage in Cesana. The question
is if they are able to bring the athletes to Hochfilzen in the top
form. But who knows what are they capable of?..
Well-balanced Germans
The Germans
are mostly high-class masters, able to do well off at the necessary
moment. If we go back to our NHL metaphor, well see that the
players famous as play off specialists are priceless there. This is
more characteristic of Ricco Gross, who each year manages to
surprise us with his preparation at the WCH. No matter how
disappointing this season has been for him, we dont doubt that in
Hochfilzen Ricco will show that hes a fighter. To over come a
functional fall and to regain previous conditions is also a task for
both Sven Fischer and Uschi Disl. The latter, who missed the last
year Championship because of an illness, will surely try to use this
chance. The Germans have also a forthcoming young generation as, for
instance, Andi Birnbacher, having two podiums in Pokljuka, Daniel
Graf and Simone Denkinger. But the main hope for the German fans
this year is Kati Wilhelm, having her best career season ever. The
race for the Globe wont prevent the German girl from winning some
medals of a colour as bright as her hair. So, the Germans are
balanced between the experience, sport maturity and young passion to
compete for the victory in both relays and in all-nations score.
King Ole
and his court.
The x-country
championship in Oberstdorf makes us think in neighboring Austria
Norwegians may repeat the triumph of their skiing compatriots. One
of the heroes Lars Berger, will join the team in Hochfilzen as
well. But the main bombardier of the biathlon team is another
universal soldier, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. He is known to be
capable of
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determining the end of a
biathlon battle on his own and make up for the weak form of his
teammates and the lack of support from the Norwegian ladies. The
success for the last year queen, Liv Grete Poiree seems to be rather
illusory, as her crisis has been too deep and long. Still, her
teammates have made a notable progress this year and it is possible
that one of them rises up to the podium. The men relay team also
seams quite powerful, having shown that they may win even in the
absence of their leader, Bjoerndalen.
Two
players team.
At the first
sight the French biathlon yields to that of the 'G3' countries, but
it doesnt mean anyway that they have less chances for medals. No
success for the relay teams this season will probably inspire no
optimistic thoughts to their fans. They have only to rely on two
superstars, who really can gain even the half of all medal crop, but
to guard the rear the have only Vincent Defrasne.
A tiny
USSR team.
The
generation, brought up in the soviet epoch is likely to support the
Belorusian team, which includes natives from Russia, Ukraine,
Belarus, Tatarstan. Thats a real friendship among nations. But
the perspective of the aging international team seems to be unclear.
Local success of Alexandre Syman and Olena Zubrilova cant
compensate the general fall of results. The Belorusian team havent
even succeeded in the relay, although they were always considered as
favourites due to their particular team spirit. But to evaluate the
work of the coach Alexander Popov we should first look at the
results of the main starts. A Hochfilzen gold will be comparable
with the heroism of Belorusian hockey players who defeated the
strong Swedish team at the Olympic tournament. Do they have such a
hero in the biathlon team?
Invasion from the China
Among the
main challengers for medals the Chinese team, that has never been in
the club of the strongest, stands apart. But if earlier the
Chinese occasionally surprised us with places in the top 6 by Yu
Shumei and later Liu Xianying, this year the athletes from Daliang
(this city that earlier belonged to Russia is the main forge of the
biathletes) managed to deliver a real breakthrough to the elite.
Besides Liu
they have two or three more women biathletes and the talented Zhang
Chengye. While the Chinese still have victories in races in their
future plans, the perspective to get at least one medal in Austria
seems to be quite real.
Beside
already mentioned 6 teams there are some more countries able to win
medals. And the first among them are the hosts. The advantage for
the Austrians is the support of the spectators and the great
experience. But we cant but remember that the men team is rather
aging than young and besides they have no women team at all but for
the former Russian Anna Sprung. The next team is the Swedish one,
which is advancing year after year. And a group of countries of
Eastern Europe, including Slovenia, Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech
Republic. The biathlon geography is expanding every year and will
probably gift us with new sensations.
We have only
to wait for the opening of the championship and get pleasure from
the biathlon play off battles. The first throw-in is on March, 5th
at 10.00 CET. Stay with us!
Translated by Wilhelmina
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