news unrolled

Post: They forgot Russia at the Biathlon World Cup. But they race without lights

Categories

Foreigners compete in the World Cup, while Russian biathletes prepare for the Commonwealth Cup and compete in the local starts. It is especially hot in women’s races, where there is no clear favorite and scandals occur more often than pure shooting.

Wierer is angry with the federation because of his girlfriend

Especially hot in the Italian women’s team, and the beauty of Dorothea Wierer is not at all. The reason was the removal of Federica Sanfilippo from the national team. The 32-year-old Italian has competed in the Pokljuka and Ruhpolding stages this season and was subsequently removed from the main team. The most annoying thing is that it happened in Antholz before the scene. The athlete did not expect such an event at all and immediately ended his career.

“When I learned that there was no call for the home stage, I realized that I no longer wanted to compete and continue to do biathlon. The decision of the coaches and the federation shocked me. The first hours after the news, I cried. I had to make a difficult decision – to say goodbye to biathlon forever. The door of the national team is now mine. I clearly understood that it was closed for the public and the choice would be given to the young,” Sanfilippo snapped.

Wierer, who started biathlon with Sanfilippo, went against his defense. Dorothea said that Federica did not deserve such an attitude and the Italian Biathlon Federation, together with the coaches, never appreciated the biathlete. Sports officials themselves did not respond to this attack, but it is clear that relations with the main star of the national team are noticeably heating up.

Dorothea Wierer - RIA Novosti, 1920, 17.01.2023
dorothea wierer

Scandals can only be avoided with the consequences that the Italians go uphill. Wierer is fourth overall, ahead of Lisa Vittozzi, who overcame the problems and returned to the big list of Crystal Globe nominees.

The first was taken by the Frenchwoman Julie Simon, and the second by the Swedish Elvira Oeberg. There is not a single Norwegian in the top 4, which looks like a real failure on the ground of dominance in the men’s standings. But there is an explanation for this – last year’s leaders are experiencing health problems.

Tiril Eckhoff still hasn’t run a single race this year. It all goes to the fact that he may not be performing at all this season. The biathlete is still not able to train normally due to the consequences of a severely multiplying coronavirus, after which the girl’s body is not able to withstand high loads.

Martha Olsbu-Røiseland, who missed the first three stages of the World Cup due to herpes zoster, also has big problems. After the biathlete’s recovery, his wife criticized Norwegian sports officials. According to him, Roiseland left someone at a difficult moment:

“He didn’t get the help he needed from the Federation. He had to work alone throughout his recovery.”

Biathletes don’t just have problems with coaches and federations this season. They expressed their dissatisfaction with the weather! Roiseland and Ingrid Tandrevold have complained that they have not yet raced in natural snow this season. Due to the warm-up at all stages of the World Cup, it was necessary to make a snow track, which was prepared.

Norwegians shot in the dark

Snow quality has not become the main organizational issue this season. An incredible scandal ended the individual race in Ruhpolding, which faced the consequences of the energy crisis at the most inopportune moment. There were three power outages throughout the stadium during the race. And if the audience could still tolerate the absence of a short broadcast, biathletes had to adapt.

The first numbers of the race were visibly lucky because they started when it was still light. But some biathletes at the end of the starter list had to shoot in complete darkness after sunset. For example, Tarja Be had to randomly calculate the stands. But the most offensive has to be the Sturle Leggrade.

The Norwegian came to the final frontier with zero misses and the best time. He covered several goals, then darkness reigned in the stadium. Sturla missed the last shot in the dark and finished fourth, losing the win.

“There was a power outage during filming, the projectors went out. I had to turn my full attention from shooting to seeing the target. It was incredibly difficult. I was just unlucky because the other biathletes were able to shoot in the light.” said the athlete.

The incident caused a storm of anger among the Norwegian team, and Johannes Be described the situation as embarrassing. Despite the seemingly uneven conditions for biathletes, the IBU decided not to revise the outcome of the race and not give any priority to injured athletes. The patrons of world biathlon simply “forgot” what it was.

Biathlon.  World Cup III stage.  men.  Follow-up - RIA Novosti, 1920, 17.01.2023
Biathlon. World Cup III stage. men. Chase

But the problems with lighting still do not affect the overall advantage of the Norwegians. Think about it: The Scandinavians won 11 of the 12 individual races (the Norwegians failed to reach the podium at the start of the season). The Norwegians failed to win only 10 of the 36 medals. Needless to say, all three men’s relay races of the season were run by Norway?

At the same time, Leggrade did everything to interrupt the Norwegians’ streak by failing in the relay at Ruhpolding. Sturla ran for first place and went into the rim, staying on the shelf. After passing the baton, the Norwegians lost for a minute and did not expect much to get the gold medal. But how did the race end? Norway took the first place, beating the Germans by 20 seconds.

This season the Norwegians are only fighting themselves, despite being a clear leader in this match. Johannes won nine out of 12 individual races and almost earned himself a large Crystal Globe. Sebastian Samuelsson, still unsuccessful in the season, can only dream of such form.

The Swede is in 10th place “in total” (the all-male part of the team can only boast of a silver medal in the relay and a “bronze” in mixed doubles) and is often remembered with very sharp expressions from good performances. Of course, most of his comments are aimed at Russians. Sebastian has already managed to bind Timofey Lapshin, who joined the South Korean team, and condemned the Swedish skier Pernilla Wiberg, who did not support the decision of the FIS and IBU to remove the Russians.

Half of the season in biathlon has already managed to stay behind by hosting many events. With the exception of Samuelsson, recently our athletes have completely ceased to be remembered and saddened by the absence of Eduard Latypov and Alexander Loginov at the World Cup.

Who knew if Johannes would have been such a clear leader in the overall standings if the Russians had participated in the races? It seems our men may have received some medals from the Norwegians. But in the near future it will not be possible to see the conflict between the Russians and the tough Norwegians.

The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors.

Source: Ria

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *