Snowy day in Sweden welcomes the Biathlon World Championships 2019

The 2019 Biathlon World Championships took place from March 6 to 17. This spectacular contest was held in Östersund, Sweden. In this year’s Championships, the events sported were men’s and women’s individuals, sprinting, pursuits, mass start, relays, and singles/team mixed relay. Many men and women biathletes won new titles and rewards.

All events within a biathlon are held on a snow track. In a biathlon, the competitor must be able to ski skillfully and shoot accurately, both in a prone, lying position, and while standing up. Biathlons require the athletes to race around a snow track and then shoot a target, prone or standing. The individual event is the standard event, where men ski 20 km (15 km for women) over the course of five laps and shoot four times in a shooting lane, prone, standing, prone, and standing, respectively. For each missed target a fixed penalty time, usually one minute, is added to the skiing time of the biathlete. Competitors’ starts are staggered, normally by 30 seconds.

The sprint event is similar to the individual event, but men ski for 10 km (7.5 km for women) over the course of three laps instead. The biathletes will only shoot twice in this event, once prone and once standing. For each miss, a penalty of 150 meters must be skied before the race can be continued.

The orders in which the biathletes start off in pursuits are nearly always based off their results from the sprint event. The skiing distance is 12.5 km for men and 10 km for women and there are four shooting bouts (two prone, two standing, in that order). Each miss results in a penalty of 150 meters. In order to prevent the participants from overcrowding, there is no designated area for shooters. Instead, the shooting lanes are first-come, first-serve.

In the mass start, all biathletes start racing at the same time and whoever is first to cross the finish line wins. Men have to ski for a distance of 15 km, while women have to ski a total of 12.5 km. In total, they would have to ski five laps. Afterwards, they compete in four bouts of shooting (two prone, two standing, in that order). In the first shooting bout, each biathlete must go to the lane corresponding to his/her number. But in the subsequent shooting bouts, every lane is first-come, first-serve. Each miss is a penalty of an additional 150 meters added to their skiing distance.

The last two events are the relays and the mixed relays. The relay teams consist of four biathletes, who each ski 7.5 km (men) or 6 km (women). Each leg is skied over three laps and there are two shooting rounds afterwards, one prone and one standing. The penalty for every missed shot is an additional 150 meters added to their skiing distance. In the first shooting stage, each athlete must shoot in the lane corresponding to his/her bib. The second stage, however, is first-come, first-serve.

The mixed relay follows the same format as the relay, but in the singles event there’s one man and a woman. In the teamed mixed relay there are two men and two women per team.

Here are this year’s results:
Men’s Individual:
– Arnd Peiffer (Germany) placed first
– Vladimir Iliev (Bulgaria) placed second
– Tarjei Bø (Norway) placed third
Women’s Individual:
– Hanna Öberg (Sweden) placed first
– Lisa Vittozzi (Italy) placed second
– Justine Braisaz (France) placed third
Men’s Sprint:
– Johannes Thingnes Bø (Norway) placed third
– Alexandr Loginov (Russia) placed second
– Quentin Fillon Maillet (France) placed third
Women’s Sprint:
– Anastasiya Kuzmina (Slovakia) placed first
– Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold (Norway) placed second
– Laura Dahlmeier (Germany)
Men’s pursuit:
– Dmytro Pidruchnyi (Ukraine) placed first
– Johannes Thinges Bø (Norway) placed second
– Quentin Fillon Maillet (France) placed third
Women’s pursuit:
– Denise Herrmann (Germany) placed first
– Tiril Eckhoff (Norway) placed second
– Laura Dahlmeier (Germany) placed third
Men’s Mass Start:
– Dominik Windisch (Italy) placed first
– Antonin Guigonnat (France) placed second
– Julian Eberhard (Austria) placed third
Women’s Mass Start:
– Dorothea Wierer (Italy) placed first
– Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht (Russia) placed second
– Denise Herrmann (Germany) placed third
Men’s Relay:
– Norwegian team placed first
– German team placed second
– Russian team placed third
Women’s Relay:
– Norwegian team placed first
– Swedish team placed second
– Ukrainian team placed third
Single’s Mixed Relay:
– Marte Olsbu Røiseland and Johannes Thingnes Bø (Norway) placed first
– Dorothea Wierer and Lukas Hofer (Italy) placed second
– Hanna Öberg and Sebastian Samuelsson (Sweden) placed third
Team’s Mixed Relay:
– Norwegian team placed first
– German team placed second
– Italian team placed third

The 2019 edition of the Biathlon World Championships were entertaining to watch. Let us hope that next year’s Championships will be just as enjoyable!

Featured Image – Biathletes racing down a track Photo Courtesy of cdn.adventuretravelnews.com

by Isaac Ma