Olwen Thorn, British Biathlon Team Member

It was a beautiful day for racing today, cold snow, sunshine, very little wind – I had great skis and it showed in my ski time.  Unfortunately, I just didn’t hold it together in the range today and put myself onto the penalty loop 5 times!  Very disappointing saying as I felt great skiing today.  I think I maybe just put too much pressure on myself after my result in the sprint, resulting in silly mistakes on the range that cost me a lot of time.

Tomorrow is a new day and a new race.  Nerys and I start in the 5 minute mini mass start for the pursuit tomorrow and hopefully some good work at the range will see us chase down and catch some of the girls ahead of us!

All set for the 7.5km sprint tomorrow, the wind has dropped and it has stopped snowing for now, so fingers crossed conditions will be great tomorrow!  I go off number 39 and Nerys is off number 56. 

They were setting the TV cameras up today, so if you are at a loose end you can play spot the British biathlete – assuming they are showing the biathlon on British Eurosport!

I had the best race of my career yesterday, shooting 1-1-0-0 and finishing 21st, just over 11% behind the winner.  When I crossed the line I was in 14th postion and had a nail biting wait to see if I stayed in the top 20.  Unfortunately I was just squeezed out of the top 20 unlike my team mate Amanda Lightfoot, who skied 14 seconds faster than me to finish 19th.  It is really encouraging to see what is possible when all the elements of biathlon come together in one race!  Nerys Jones, competing in her first ever 15km individual race, put in a great ski to finish 47th overall. 

Us girls have a couple of days to gather ourselves ready for the 7.5km sprint race on Saturday, but we will be out on the course tomorrow afternoon supporting our boys who race in the 4×7.5km mens relay.

First race of the European Champs is today!  The guys have gone to the stadium already for their race which starts at 10.30.  I have a little longer to relax, race starts at 14.30 and I start 15min after that as bib number 29.  Just been up for mobility and breakfast, got time to relax for an hour now before final preparations begin!  It is still snowing but it looks like the wind has dropped a little so an improvement on yesterday’s conditions.

I’m still not sure if they are showing the weekday races on Eurosport, but if you want to follow the race live, go to www.biathlonworld.com and click on live results, we are 2 hours ahead here, so 12.30 GMT for the women’s race.

Anyone in the biathlon world who is under 26 years old is now here in Otepaa in Estonia where they are hosting this years European U26 Championships.

I arrived late on Saturday with my team mates and our 4 support staff.  Sunday was spent getting our bearings, checking out the course and the range.

The women’s races are in the afternoon, which makes for quite chilled out mornings, getting up for breakfast and mobility then leaving for official training after lunch.  So far it has been snowing quite a lot and pretty windy, so conditions could be quite tough tomorrow, but the course is fun to ski and the downhill approach into the range should suit us after training in Ruhpolding all year.

It is the 15km individual in the morning and I’m hoping it goes better than my other individual races this year! (I didn’t finish in Ridnaun)  Ski’s have been tested, prone shooting is going well, I just need to relax for my stand shooting and make sure I pace well for 15km.

I think Eurosport may be showing some of the European Champs, not sure about tomorrow’s race, but the sprint on Saturday should be shown live if anyone wants to watch and play ’spot the Brit’!!!

I’ve picked up where I left off before Christmas and made my second World Cup Qualification in Martell today.  I shot 0,2 finishing 48th overall.  That puts me into tomorrow’s pursuit race along with 3 of my team mates, Adele Walker, Emma Fowler and Nerys Jones.  I start 10 seconds behind Emma, so it could be an interesting race!

Tomorrow is IBU Cup 7 in Martell, Italy, and will be my first international race since Obertilliach in December.  I have spent the past few weeks trying to strengthen up again after being ill with a chest infection, so tomorrow should give me an idea of how far I have got!  We are at about 1400m altitude here, so the race will have to be paced carefully, saving something for the last loop.  Fingers crossed on the range that I shoot well, training went well today so there is no reason for it not to go well tomorrow.  If all goes well, then hopefully Í will make it into the pursuit race on Saturday.

I was very happy to collect 1st place after narrowly beating Posy Musgrave, I haven’t forgotten my tactics for cross-country sprinting!!!

So, between chest infections, no internet access and the whirlwind of the British Championships, I haven’t done very well at keeping my blog up-dated.  I hope to redeem myself over the next few weeks.  First things first – I shall get some of my most recent photos up!