Biathlon rules

Individual race

 

Individual 20km race (15km - for women) is the oldest race in biathlon. Competitors, starting with intervals from 30 seconds to a minute overcome 20km race with altitude overfall 600-750m. Each athlete carries small-calibre rifle about 3,5kg weight with 20 cartridge. Smortsmen should overcome 4 shooting lines (first and third - in pron position, others - in standing). Each line has 5 targets. Competitor can hit target in order he want. The distance of shooting is 50m.
When hitting the target electronic system close it by white disc. For each miss biathlete punished by 1 minute penalty. Diameter of target is 45 mm in prone posision and 115 mm in standing position.

 

Sprint

 

Sprinters overcome 10km distance with altitude overfall 600-750m. They start with interval from 30 seconds to a minute. Competitors come to the first shooting line at the 4-th km and shooting in prone position. Second shooting line is at the 7-th km with standing shooting. They shoot in both lines from 50m meters by the same rules as in individual race.  For each miss biathlete punished by 150 meters penalty lap. They need about 23 seconds to overcame it. Best athletes go through a distance after 24 minutes without penalty laps. Woman sprinters run 7,5km distance. Shooting lines are situated at the distance of 2,5km and 5km. At the rest women sprint rules are the same as men. Best women biathlets overcome race after 22-23 minutes.

 

Relay

 

Relay - is one of the most spectacular races in biathlon. There are teams of 4 sportsmen take part. Race begins with mass-start. Each biathlete overcome distance of 7,5km with 2 shooting lines. They shooting in prone position on the first line and in standing position on the second one. Competitors take targets according to they start numbers. In contrast to individual races, biathlete can spend 8 cartridges for each shooting line. Five of them are in magazine, 3 rest necessarily can be loded manually. For each miss biathlete punished by 150 meters penalty lap.
After running all distance, competitor passes relay to the next team member. The best teams overcome 30km race after 1 hour and 20 minutes. Women relay has the same rules, but they run only 6km.

 

Persuit

 

Persuit was included to the programm of World cups and championships since 1996. Race takes about 30 minutes with 60 competitors on start, so it very favourable for TV translations. Competitors starts in the same order with the same intervals as they finished in sprint race. Leader of race are changed often and spectators can visually see current positions of sportsmen. Men run 12,5km, women - 10 km. 4 shooting lines are situated with the intervals of 2,5km in men race and 2km in women.
The order of shoting is prone, prone, standing and standing positions.
It gives opportunity for good prone shooters to increase their advantage in the beginning of the race. On the other hand, biathletes with stable standing position shooting have good chances at the finish. While good speed in sprint can compensate inaccurate shooting, in persuit accuracy is necessary for victory. Misses are punished by 150-meter penalty laps.
IOC included persuit in programm f winter Olimpic games since 2002.

 

Mass-start

 

Mass-start is the most exiting competition in biathlon.
30 best athletes acoording to the World cup rating take part in it.
Number of athletes is  limited by the number of targets, because during the mass-start sportsmen come to the shooting line practically at the same time. Format of mass-start is similar with persuit, with one exception, distance is longer (15km for men and 12,5km for women).

 

Calculation of points on the World cup races

 

1 place – 50 points

2 – 46

3 – 44

4 – 40

5 – 37

6 – 34

7 – 32

8 – 30

9 – 28

10 – 26

11 – 24

12 – 22

13 – 20

14 – 18

15 – 16

16 – 15

17 – 14

18 – 13

19 – 12

20 – 11

21 – 10

22 – 9

23 – 8

24 – 7

25 – 6

26 – 5

27 – 4

28 – 3

29 – 2

30 – 1