WORLD CUP RESULTS SEASON 2008 - 09

IBU CUP RESULTS SEASON 2008 - 09

The races are over for the GBR World Cup Men & Women's Teams and both have marked the first year of the "Pichler Era" with an improvement in their Nations Cup final positions.

The two teams moved up 2 places in the final finishing order with the Women ending in 24th and the Men in 22nd. The Men's position is very significant as it will allow GBR to start each WC with 4 athletes next winter rather than 2. Many congratulations go to the athletes, but there will be no resting on their laurels as the nearest nations to GBR are so near that we still need to improve just to stay in these positions! Training starts in Ruhpolding for the new season on 04 May.

The Men's leading nation was NOR followed, surprisingly, by AUT and then GER. For the women the order was GER - SWE - FRA.

FINAL Nations Cup Points:   Men     Women

26 Mar 09 - GERMAN ROOKIES ROCK RUSSIA

A pair of German rookies,  Arnd Peiffer and Tina Bachmann won the last Sprints of the season at WC 9 in Khanty-Mansiysk. Peiffer and Bachmann - Who?

More

Trondheim hosted its first ever Biathlon World Cup last week, and although the weather was a little indifferent it did not matter for the GBR male pair of Marcel LAPONDER and Kevin KANE who secured enough Nations Cup points to confirm the final 22nd place of GBR in the Nations Cup. With neither GBR nor KAZ competing in WC 9 in Khanty-Mansiysk RUS this week GBR could not be caught, after their good showing the week before in Whistler CAN

Alanda SCOTT was the sole GBR female racer as all the other athletes had returned to military duties or courses.

Sprint:   Men     Women

The final relay of a very long season took place in the pre Vancouver Olympic WC at Whistler. Although GBR finished last from a relatively small but strong field our points were the best of the season. We congratulate SWE on their first ever relay victory which brought great joy to Coach Wolfgang PICHLER - cousin of our very own Walter.  The GBR athletes travelled direct to Vancouver airport after the race and then flew to Heathrow before an onward flight for the end of season training camp in Ruhpolding, although for Kevin KANE it was another two flights to Trondheim for WC 8. Hope he's clocking up the Air Miles.

Men's Relay   (Note: this official result incorrectly gives a 2 min penalty to Lee JACKSON rather than to Pete BEYER!)

Our friends in the GBR Cross Country squad have had some remarkable results this season, none less so than 18 year old Andrew MUSGRAVE who, in his first season on the World Cup circuit has surely cemented his Olympic start place with a fantastic result of only 61 FIS points in the Lahti WC earlier this month, and, he wasn't far off this in the World Champs in Liberec CZE.

The CJI for the 2009 Courses for the National Development Squad  has been published. It has been sent to Athletes / Units where there is a known Email address - please spread the word!

The first Course assembles at East Grange Biathlon Centre on Tue 14 Apr 09 and availability returns are required by Mon 06 Apr. So, get fit and get moving with that return!

NDS 2009 - Course Joining Instruction

The IBU Cup season ended today with the Pursuits. Marcel LAPONDER was the only GBR male athlete but all the women raced. Adele WALKER regained her shooting form and moved up 6 places.

Results:   Men     Women     FINAL IBU Cup Points Men     FINAL IBU Cup Points Women

14 Mar 09 - WHISTLER IN THE WIND

Not the greatest day in the Office for Lee JACKSON, who did ski extremely fast, and Kevin KANE in the WC 7 Sprint at Whistler, albeit they retained their WC qualification.  Result     Nations Cup

The World Cup circuit has resumed! Just a week after travelling through 9 time zones back from Korea the Men's team added a further 8 on their trip to Vancouver and then drove the exhilarating "Sea to Sky Highway" 3 hours north to Whistler home for the Biathlon events at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

So far the Whistler has been a good experience for GBR with Kevin KANE and Lee JACKSON continuing where they left off in the World Championships. KANE (1-1-0-0) finished 66th with JACKSON (1-1-0-1) just 3 places behind. Both comfortably retained their WC qualification for next season and both recorded Olympic Qualifiers. It was the 4th of the season for JACKSON and third on the trot for KANE.

These two have not been handed the best of draws for the Sprint (Live on Eurosport at 21:00 GMT tonight Fri 13 Mar). They will be joined by Simon ALLANSON and Pete BEYER for the final Relay of the season on Sunday, which is again Live on Eurosport at 17:00 GMT.

20 km Result    Nations Cup

Ridnaun ITA hosts the closing IBU Cup of the season where Marcel LAPONDER was the pick of the British men with a World Cup qualifier as he finished 39th with a 1-0-0-2 in the 20 km Individual. Steve HILL, who has come out of an early retirement, Rob CHUDLEY and Craig DRIFFILL were behind the qualification line. Ben WOOLLEY from 17 Port & Maritime Regt RLC will remember his International baptism for all the wrong reasons after a spectacular fall forced his retirement from both this race and the Sprint on Friday.

Windy conditions did nothing to help the athletes in the Sprint, where once again only Marcel LAPONDER achieved a WC qualifier.

Results:   Men Indiv      Men Sprint     IBU Nations Cup - Men (GBR finish in 20th place).

Adele WALKER finished 23rd and regained her WC qualification in the 15 km Individual but was unable to repeat this in the Sprint. Alanda SCOTT and Emma FOWLER both had one confirmatory qualifier but neither Amanda LIGHTFOOT nor Olwen THORN could find their early season form.

Results:   Women Indiv     Women Sprint     IBU Nations Cup - Women (GBR finish in 9th place).

Both Relay teams avoided the wooden spoon, which for GBR's first ever women's World Championship Relay team was no mean feat.

Relay Women     Relay Men

In contrast to the men (below), the GBR Women's team of Emma FOWLER, Adele WALKER, Alanda SCOTT and Amanda LIGHTFOOT had a less than satisfactory day in the office in their 15 km Individual today. Back to the drawing board for the first ever GBR World Champs women's relay team on Sunday. Kati Wilhelm GER took her second Gold of the Championships.

Results   Nations Cup Women

Kevin KANE shot 1-2-1-0 to finish a career best 60th in the World Championships 20 km Individual today. Moreover he achieved his second Olympic qualifier in as many races with an excellent 10.7%. In what was a really good day at the office, the three other GBR competitors (Simon ALLANSON (1-2-0-2), Pete BEYER (1-2-3-0) and Marcel LAPONDER (0-4-0-0)) all re-affirmed their WC qualification with under 20%, and all were in the top 100. Lee JACKSON missed out on this race due to illness but should be fit for the Relay on Sunday. Winner of his third race in a week was Ole Einar Bjoerndalen NOR.

Results   Nations Cup Men

15 Feb 09 - CHAOS IN KOREA

As if the snow and weather conditions were not enough to contend with, the lack of any crowd is giving the first World Champs to be held outside Europe less atmosphere than Dewsbury on a wet Saturday night (sorry if you live in Dewsbury, but if you do, you will know what we mean!). Allegedly there are 1000 spectators in the stadium which just half the number that fit into the VIP tent in Ruhpolding. Our man in Korea (Eddy Lowe) thinks there could be well less than that, not that they would fit into the very small VIP areas at the Alpensia Biathlon Center in Pyeongchang, where lunch is served on production of the hotel voucher! 

After the cancellation of the Opening Ceremony on Friday there was criticism of the courses for Saturday but this was nothing compared to the chaotic scenes during and after the Men's Pursuit today. The first two athletes, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Lars Berger took a very short incorrect route within 100 m of the start as a large snow canon had been left in the track! The next half dozen athletes went on the correct course, but then a further half dozen followed OEB's route. It took an hour for the Race Jury to come up with the strange decision of a one minute penalty for taking the wrong route. The IBU Appeals Panel then sat and over-ruled the Race Jury, and thus OEB took his second Gold of the Championships. Just as well GBR had no entrants.

That was not all ... German star Andrea Henkel was disqualified before the start of the Women's race for dry training inside the Stadium and unfortunately firing off a live round. Fortunately she did not hit anyone.

That was not all ... Russian druggie Dmitri Yaroshenko was confirmed of having failed a "A" test at WC 4 in Oberhof. He declined to test his own "B" sample.

All in all, a day to forget!

The Norwegian men may not have been on peak form this season but they certainly peaked today filling, for the first time ever, all top four places in the Men's Sprint.

1st - Ole Einar BJOERNDALEN (1-1),  2nd  Lars BERGER (1-1),  3rd  Halvard HANEVOLD (0-0), 4th  Alexander OS (1-0).

GBR had a mixed day with Lee JACKSON making a spectacular fall as he broke his rifle - a shot that has been Facebooked across the world already! - he was a DNF. Pete BEYER (0-2) finished 115th, Simon ALLANSON (2-1) was 93rd with another WC qualifier but GBR Star of the day was Kevin KANE (1-1) who was 73rd, but more importantly achieved his first Olympic Qualifier with 13.5%

Results   Nations Cup Men

Emma FOWLER (0-1) was the best GBR athlete in the opening 7.5 km Sprint in Pyeongchang this morning. She finished in 79th within the WC 20% qualifier. next was Alanda SCOTT (1-1) in 97th, and in her first ever non relay Senior Race Amanda LIGHTFOOT (2-2) was 105th. One disappointing place behind was Adele WALKER (3-3); quite a contrast to her fantastic British Championships victory.

Germany again took the honours (as so often in a World Champs) with Kati WILHELM crowned World Champion and Simone HAUSWALD 2nd. Russians were 3rd and 4th - for the time being.

Results   Nations Cup Women

   "There is no, absolutely no excuse for what the three athletes and the people behind them have done..."

   "It's not enough to catch and punish those who are cheating. It's our responsibility to change the attitude of those athletes and their federations, too ..."

Click to read the full statement by IBU president Anders Besseberg on the Russian Doping Scandal.

Three Russian athletes have tested Positive "for prohibited substances" in both their "A" and "B" samples and have been expelled from the World Championships in Pyeongchang Korea.

Current World Champions Dmitri Yaroshenko and Albina Akhatova plus Olympic & World Champion Ekaterina Iourieva were all tested during WC 1 in Ostersund in December 2008, and their positive results were confirmed this week by the WADA testing laboratory in Lausanne. The IBU Doping Hearing Panel will convene in approximately 3 weeks time when the fate of the athletes will be confirmed.

Asked if this was "the blackest day for biathlon" IBU President Anders Besseberg admitted it was not a good one, and stated there were absolutely no excuses and that the affair proved that the IBU's stringent drug testing programme really did work.

IBU and Russian Biathlon Union Vice President Alexander Tikhonov was jostled by journalists when leaving the Press Conference, whilst 28 Senior Coaches held their own meeting and expressed "incredulity" that the Russian coaches claimed to know nothing!

In addition to the athletes in Korea with the World Cup Team (below), the IBU Cup athletes (LBdr Rob CHUDLEY, Gnr Craig DRIFFILL and Olwen THORN) will be joining the team in Ruhpolding GER on approx 01 May for Summer Training. LBdr Steve HILL 3 RHA re-joins the squad with immediate effect.

Also selected for their first taste of Nat Squad training are:

Cpl Paul BIRMINGHAM  1 RTR
Gnr Ryan SOLON  1 RHA (14 May 09: to attend NDS first)
LCpl Ben WOOLLEY  17 P&M Regt RLC

Congratulations!

(Detailed Admin Instr for the NDS at East Grange BC, Kinloss will be issued late Feb 09)

05 Feb 09 - FINAL ARMY COMBINATION RESULTS

Click for all the final Combination results.

In addition to those shown the Army won the Inter Service event and the Royal Artillery the Inter Corps Championship.

By under a minute the winners of the Men's Patrol Race were 1 LSR RLC with a very gallant 3 RHA in second and 8 Regt RLC third. This result meant that 1 LSR RLC were triple winners of the Marina, SAS & Kentish Cup Competitions for the third year in a row.  Men's Result.

Ladies winners for the second successive year were the RE Ladies, although the RLC took the overall team honours.  Ladies' Result

The course was set by the RTR veteran Patrol Race pair Graham WILDING and Ted MULLEN and was held in remarkably benign and sunny conditions on an excellent but hard 27 km course for the men and 21 km for the ladies. Lt Col Kevin Solly RAMC, in his final year as Secretary Army Nordic & Ex Rucksack was the Inspecting Officer in the absence of Chairman Army Nordic, Brig John McIntosh, was was snowbound in the UK. Photos were taken by Matthew Rees of SportsMark. As always they are published on the Brit Champs page, but we are again having some difficulty uploading - so please be patient if only the thumbnail is viewable today!

Congratulations to the BBU Club Champions for 2009. Based on the best 3 of 4 results from Divisional and Army Championships, the competition is open to all British athletes. However current or former athletes who raced for GBR in World Cup can not enter until 3 years after their last race, and for those in the IBU / European Cup 2 years. We are aware of a couple of small glitches, but the computation does not affect any prize winners, and as soon as possible we will include SAC Kelly RAF iun the Senior Championship!

This is the final year that the BBU Club Championship will be open to all athletes at the Div Meetings (Ex Spartan Hike and Pipedown) unless they are paid up members of the BBU!

Champions 2009:

The 12th AGM of the BBU was held in Obertilliach on Mon 26 Jan. The main topics of interest were the announcement that President, Colin Jackson CBE had stood down w.e.f 31 Dec 08 and that Director for Combined Services, Maj Gen Chris Brown CBE and Team Captain / Athletes' Rep Adele Walker were both relinquishing their posts at the end of the AGM. Jeremy Hopwood was re-elected as a Director. An important milestone in Development courses was announced; Commercial Director André Oszmann of Skandia International re-affirmed Skandia's commitment to GBR Biathlon and the 2006-07 and 2008-09 Accounts were approved by the Members.

After a poor first leg 28 Engr Regt recovered well and won the 4 x 7.5 km Biathlon Relay this morning in Obertilliach. 3 RHA were second in the Army race but behind an Hors Concors team "The Europeans" which included former Italian and Belgian World Cup start Nathalie Santer-Bjørndalen. For an hour we saw one of the most keenly fought relays of recent years with less than half a minute separating the first five teams. The race was started by Burgermeister Matthias Scherer and was run in excellent snow and weather conditions.

In the Women's Race, which, for the first time was held independently of the men, the RLC Ladies won  although with two GBR World Cup athletes in the team perhaps not by as much as they should have! This race was started by Helga Heine of BFG Media Ops who has supported the Championships for many years, although some were disappointed that it was not the other "Einar" (Ole-Einar) who has been training here this week!

Results

The RLC Ladies will loose their two stars for the Cross Country so the team positions may well change next week. In the men's team competition it is touch and go between 28 Engr Regt, 3 RHA with 1 LSR RLC and 8 Regt RLC lurking just behind them.

After failing to finish in the Team Super G in the Alpine races at Serre Chevalier 28 Engr Regt have all but handed the Marina to 1 LSR RLC.

Marina Latest Results

For the first time ever GBR will have more than two female athletes competing when the 43rd World Championships open in Pyeong Chang Korea on 13th February. This will also be the first World Championships to be held outside Europe.

The Women's team is Capt Alanda SCOTT 28 Engr Regt, Sgt Emma FOWLER 29 Regt RLC, Sgt Adele WALKER 29 Regt RLC and LCpl Amanda LIGHTFOOT AGC Ladies.

The men's team is Bdr Simon ALLANSON & Bdr Kevin KANE 40 Regt RA, LCpl Pete BEYER 28 Engr Regt, LCpl Lee JACKSON 2 Yorks (Green Howards) and LCpl Marcel LAPONDER 35 Engr Regt

Team Manager is Sgt Jason SKLENAR 28 Engr Regt; Head Coach is Walter PICHLER GER and Wax Technician Martin GLAGOW GER.

Congratulations and good luck to all the athletes and especially to Amanda and Pete in their first year as Senior athletes. The Race programme and TV schedules will follow.

A unique RLC family double was achieved today by the WALKER family when Marc won the morning's Men's 20 km Individual Biathlon and after lunch Adele took the GBR honours in the Women's 12.5 km. Both missed 5, although had Adele not hit all 5 in her 3rd shoot, but alas on the wrong lane, she would have scored the perfect 0-0-0-0 and beaten Russian Olympic Champion Olga Medvetseva into overall first place. All the GBR podium places were taken by members of the GBR World Cup Team. Heavy snowfalls meant that the Men's race was run over a reduced distance of 17 km.

New Champions in the other categories were Spr Ben COTTOM, 131 Indep Cdo Sqn RE (Junior); Cfn Josh POTTER, SEME (Youth & Senior Novice); Cfm Carl GIBSON, 4 CS Bn REME (Junior Novice).

Results

A number of the GBR Athletes missed the Mass Starts today which resulted in victories for SSgt Marc WALKER, 1 LSR RLC (Senior Men); Capt Tania NOAKES, Oxford UOTC (Women), Gnr Craig DRIFFILL, 3 RHA (Junior Men), Cfn Josh POTTER, SEME (Youth Men) and LCpl Robert COWAN, 131 Indep Cdo Sqn RE (Novice Men) becoming the British Champions. As Tania and Robert are in the TA, the Army Champions in their categories were Cpl Nerys JONES, AGC Ladies and Cfn Ollie Parker-Grater 4 CS Bn REME respectively.

Results.

The British Championships opened today in Obertilliach AUT. This event incorporates the Inter Service & Army Nordic Championships.

Conditions were almost perfect which a tremendous tribute to the staff of the Ost Tirol Biathlon Zentrum and the race staff following the very heavy snowfalls in mid week. New Army & British Champions were crowned in the Biathlon Sprints - Men: Bdr Simon Allanson 40 Regt RA; Women: Capt Alanda Scott 28 Engr Regt; Junior Men: Gnr Craig Driffill 3 RHA; Junior Women: Pte Roxy Masters RLC Ladies; Youth Men: Cfn Josh Potter SEME.

Team winners were 3 RHA & RLC Ladies

Results

30 Dec 08 - WADA 2009

Former British Olympic Association chief executive and chef de mission Simon Clegg has left the organisation with immediate effect after 20 years.

Clegg joined the BOA in January 1989 as its assistant general secretary after a successful career in the Army, which included a period as manager of the British Biathlon team.

BBC Story

The Youth Olympic Games are the flagship of the IOC's determination to reach out to young people. These Games are expected to serve as the platform through which youngsters will learn about the Olympic values and the benefits of sport, and share their experiences with other communities around the globe.

21 Dec 08 - HISTORY IN HOCHFILZEN FOR GBR WOMEN

Men Indiv      Men Sprint      Men Relay     Men Nations Cup 

Sadly no big deal, and no new qualifications for Rob CHUDLEY, Craig DRIFFILL or Olwen THORN

Men Sprint     Women Sprint    IBU Nations Cup Men   IBU Nations Cup Women

The Media Spotlight has been turned on GBR's famous and fabulous Wax Technician Martin GLAGOW. Father of course of double Pursuit winner this season Martina BECK, he has been the GBR wax man, for most of the last 8 years. A great report from IBU's USA Media Rep Jerry KOKESH appears this week on the IBU News Page. Thank you Jerry, and even more thank YOU, Martin.

With World Cup racing in Hochfilzen before a weekend crowd of some 10,000 and 5 feet of snow in 48 hours in Oberetilliach, just before the IBU Cup, Austria was a pretty crazy place last weekend. However the GBR athletes, for once, were not fazed and recorded some of their best results for a long time - especially in the IBU Cup.

Marcel LAPONDER, Simon ALLANSON and first year senior Pete BEYER all qualified for the second (post Christmas) Trimester of World Cup racing. For BEYER, his achievements in the his inaugural 20 km Individual (IBU Cup Obertilliach) meant that less than 24 hours later he was joined by Marcel LAPONDER, Lee JACKSON and Kevin KANE for the first WC Relay of the season where GBR finished 22 - an improvement on most of last season. This meant that we also moved up 3 places in the Nations Cup Rankings.

On the female side, the honours went to Amanda LIGHTFOOT who, like BEYER, is a first year senior, and who with a 0-0 shoot in the IBU Cup Sprint immediately qualified herself for World Cups. With Alanda SCOTT and Adele WALKER, who recovered from a poor WC Sprint on the Friday to record the 13th fastest ski time in the IBU Cup on Sunday, she joins Emma FOWLER in possibly the first ever GBR Women's WC Relay team next Sunday (21 Dec).

Kevin KANE had the 9th fastest time in the Range during the WC Relay, although once again Lee JACKSON had the best percentage.

Results - World Cup 2 Hochfilzen

Men Sprint     Men Relay     Men Nations Cup    Women Sprint   Women Nations Cup

Results - IBU Cup 2 Obertilliach

Men Indiv    Men Sprint    Men IBU Nations Cup    Women Indiv   Women Sprint    Women IBU Nations Cup

Lee JACKSON continued his good run with a second Olympic qualifier (after one on Wednesday) in the WC 1 Sprint at Östersund today. In spite of missing 3 in his prone he recorded a 12.98% after a clear standing shoot. His effort was matched by Emma FOWLER (1-0) and her 14.8% also gave her an Olympic qualifier. Kevin KANE (1-1) qualified to join Lee & Emma in the World Cup trimester after Christmas with a 19.15%. Adele WALKER (2-2) edged closer to racing in the top flight after Christmas with her 21.79%.

Highlight of the day was a first ever World Cup victory for China when Chunli WANG won the Women's race. The Pursuits are tomorrow, but alas there is is no GBR representation.

Results:    Men     Women       Nations Cup (Men)     Nations Cup (Women)

04 Dec 08 - SWEDISH SUCCESS AT HOME

Helena JONSSON scored success at home in her native Sweden with a 0-0-0-0 and first place in the Women's World Cup Individual race in Östersund. Alas the GBR athletes could not respond to the Swedish challenge, with Emma FOWLER finishing 93rd and Adele WALKER 94th.

Results     Nations Cup (Women)