US Biathletes face challenging conditions in Oberhof
Biathlon
Sat, Jan 8, 2011 - By Max Cobb
OBERHOF, GER (January 7, 2011) - IBU World Cup racing resumed in Oberhof, GER with the men’s relay competition on Wednesday, and today’s men’s Sprint. Tim Burke (Paul Smith’s, NY - photo at right), Lowell Bailey(Lake Placid, NY), Leif Nordgren (Marine, MN) and Russell Currier (Stockholm, ME) are starting for Team USA in Oberhof.
Tonight’s World Cup sprint competition in Oberhof was hit by the worst weather conditions the sport of biathlon has experienced so far in the 2010/11 season. Wind, fog, hard rain – a mix that made the race extremely challenging.
Standing on the shooting range one could clearly see that there were times where the athletes could see the targets without problems. But as soon as the wind brought in a fog bank, the visibility was down to zero. Among the lucky ones at the shooting range was today’s winner Tarjei Boe (NOR), while many other athletes experienced problems at the range, several posting up to seven penalties.
“For our athletes that race was a nightmare”, stated U.S. Biathlon High Performance Director Bernd Eisenbichler. “The conditions were very uneven and the race should have been stopped right from the beginning. Of course it’s an outdoor sport, but still, the people in charge should make sure that every athlete has the basic conditions needed to perform and that was clearly not the case.”
Eisenbichler spent the race at the track trying to get his athletes motivated for the last meters while head coach Per Nilsson was at the shooting range following his athletes – and more importantly the fog. “It’s really uneven conditions, and somehow unrealistic, there was so much fog every time our guys had to shoot. For Tim’s (Burke) prone shooting I couldn’t even see where the misses were, that’s how bad it was,” said Nilsson.
Nordgren posted five misses, while Burke and Bailey had four misses each. The athletes had to rely on their skiing strength in the end. Burke finished 31st , Bailey (52nd) and Nordgren (66th) and were unable to collect any World Cup points.
Wednesday’s relay also featured challenging shooting conditions at the range, which caused the the 23 relay teams to post 100 penalty loops and 352 extra shots - a record. Nordgren was one of the two sole athletes that did not need any extra shots. "An amazing shooting performance for him. I'm really proud", said U.S. Biathlon Head Coach Per Nilsson. The U.S. relay team finished 16th, +4:48.4 behind the winning German team.
Folllowing Wednesday's relay, Currier traveled to Nove Mesto, CZE for the IBU World Cup and U.S. team trials.
IBU World Cup racing continues tomorrow with the women’s sprint competition. Sara Studebaker(Boise, ID) and Laura Spector (Lenox, MA) will start for Team USA.
Today's Results:
1 45 yr BOE Tarjei NOR 0+1 1 25:49.7 0.0 2 4 PEIFFER Arnd GER 0+1 1 26:06.4 +16.7 3 27 SLESINGR Michal CZE 0+0 0 26:10.4 +20.7 4 79 TCHEREZOV Ivan RUS 0+0 0 26:29.8 +40.1 5 55 MAKOVEEV Andrei RUS 1+0 1 26:50.2 +1:00.5 31 33 BURKE Tim USA 3+1 4 28:13.5 +2:23.8 52 49 BAILEY Lowell USA 2+2 4 28:53.0 +3:03.3 66 19 NORDGREN Leif USA 4+1 5 29:23.5 +3:33.8