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Once again, sorry for the lack of updates! The year has had a bit of a shaky start for me, I came down with a nasty chest infection over new year and I also need to start considering how to continue funding my biathlon career. However, I am now on the road to recovery and tomorrow will have my first combi training session since before Christmas.
With no relay team for Oberhof, I was meant to be headed to Altenberg for the next IBU Cup race. Unfortunately, given how ill I have been, it seemed senseless to travel such a long way for a race that I would not have been in perfect health for. Now I am in Hochfilzen where the focus is on recovery and preparation for Ruhpolding in the hopes that we will be able to field a womens relay team. For that to happen, we need either Emma Fowler or Fay Potton (or both) to get their World Cup qualification.
I hope to be able to keep you all more regularly updated, but have no internet in my accommodation and am dependent on lifts down to the internet cafe in Fieberbrunn, so please bear with me!
Back home for a short Christmas break and I have returned to find perfect skiing conditions in the Clashindarroch Forest where I learnt to ski. I had a lovely classic session yesterday, the trails have only been pisted by the skidoo so far, but I had lovely classic tracks to ski in courtesy of Andrew Musgrave of the British Nordic Team, who was continuing his training over Christmas in preparation for the Winter Olympic Games.
What was meant to be a 1 hour 30 classic session turned into a mini epic as we helped some skiers to track down their husky who had taken off into the forest at 9am and decided she was having far too much fun to be caught until 4pm!
I head back to Ruhpolding, Germany on the 27th for a training camp before heading to either Altenburg for the next IBU Cup race or Oberhof for the World Cup relay.
As promised, here are a couple of photos from one of my IBU cup races. It can be difficult to find someone who has the time and is willing to act as photographer, especially when the temperature dips to -22 degrees!
One of the smaller hills in the 15km Individual at Ridnaun. Fay Potton was acting as team support on the course doing a drinks station for myself and Amanda Lightfoot and brushing up her photography skills
Today was possibly the coldest race I have ever taken part in, but it was also my most successful biathlon race to date. I shot 0,2 and I have finally got my first World Cup qualifier. It was touch and go whether the race would go ahead or not, the thermometer on the range was reading -16 – -17 degrees, but on parts of the course it alledgedly dropped as low as -22 degrees centigrade! All I know is that it was damn cold! I could barely feel my arms and legs and my face froze, but I took a little longer on the range and it paid off with a good shoot. Unfortunately I just missed out on making it into the pursuit, so tomorrow I pack up ready to head home for Christmas after cheering on my team mate, Amanda Lightfoot, who goes off number 42.
Hi everyone, once again apologies for the delay in updating my blog. Ridnaun was a bit of a disaster for me, although there were some positives to take from the weekend. I pulled out of the 15km after my third shoot as I was having problems with my asthma. The next day in the sprint everything was right physically and I had a good ski, unfortunately, I made my first big mistake in an international competition. I cross-lane fired (I was on lane 5 and fired on the targets on lane 4) which meant that I incurred 6min of time penalties. That put paid to any hope of World Cup qualification in that race, although minus the time penalties I was 20.6% behind the winner which is promising saying as I skied 5 penalty loops!!! Anyway…
…I’m in Obertillach now, new week, new race! Tomorrow is a 7.5km sprint race, with approximately 150 women starting the race. I go off number 102 at about 14.20 – both my team mates should be finished their race by the time I start! It is about -12 degrees centigrade, which makes the main challenge tomorrow staying warm enough before my start time. The mission for tomorrow: put last weekend behind me and qualify for the pursuit race on Saturday.
If you would like to follow the race, you can view live results at www.biathlonworld.com
Hi everyone! Sorry for the long delay, I have internet access again. I’m now in Ridnaun, Italy ready for IBU Cup 2. Racing starts tomorrow with a 20km individual for the guys and 15km for the girls. I’ll admit, I am a little nervous, purely because it is my first 15km race of the season and over a cheeky little course. There is one big hill, with a pretty exciting descent (imagine a slightly smaller version of the jumps you would see on an alpine downhill course!) and lots of sections where time can be made or lost during transitions. Anyway all preparations have been made and it should be a good race.
One of my team mates will be out on the course tomorrow, so hopefully I will have some photos to upload soon!
I’m now in Obertilliach, Austria, training for the next IBU cup race which will be held in Ridnaun, Italy. It is brilliant to finally be somewhere with plenty of snow, perfect conditions and they are pisting more trails every day. Updates may be few and far between for the next week as internet in our apartment is ridiculously expensive! I do have some new photos though and will upload them as soon as I can.
I have just finished the first weekend of IBU Cup racing in Idre, Sweden. There were two sprint races, one yesterday and one today. Unfortunately shooting 2,3 in yesterday’s race and 1,2 in today’s sprint I haven’t managed to secure my WC qualifier, but aim to do so in the next IBU cup race in Ridnaun, Italy. We have just arrived at our hotel in Oslo and fly back to Munich in the morning, then on to Obertilliach for a training camp. I hope to get hold of some photo’s from the races in Idre soon and will post them as soon as I can, but for now I’m off to bed for some much needed sleep. Full results can be found at www.biathlonworld.com
The World Cup and IBU Cup teams have been announced. I am leaving for the first IBU cup race at 7am tomorrow morning along with the rest of the IBU Cup team. Unfortunately the final selection race was cancelled due to snow conditions and so selection was made based on the results of the two selection races and performances throughout summer training. The full World Cup and IBU Cup teams should be listed soon at www.britishbiathlon.com
For myself, the goal is now to get my first WC qualification which means skiing within 20% of the winner in an IBU Cup race. I will have two sprint races at Idre to try and achieve this. As a team we need at least two girls to get their WC qualifications to enable us to race a relay team in Hochfilzen, so the sooner we can do it, the better!
