THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL BIATHLON ...

IBU EVENTS IBU VERANSTALTUNGENinto their hotel rooms far earlierthan ever before.Many of them could not believetheir eyes when they came to thestadium the next morning. Theyhad heard about the work that wasbeing done, but what they saw byfar exceeded most of their expectations.A detailed report on theconstruction measures and otherplans can be found on page 106 ofthis edition and on our website atwww.biathlonworld.com; we willtherefore only provide a brief summaryhere.Altogether, we found a radicallystraightened out and more organizedstadium complex waiting forus. The new competition building iscentrally located behind the stadiumand excellently integrated intothe complex, with the necessary offices, including thosefor analysis and timekeeping, meeting rooms, changingrooms and IBU working areas. A lot had also been doneat the service huts, with excellent working conditions formany teams.From the media perspective, there were two areas thatattracted a lot of attention: the TV compound and the mediacenter. At the moment there is not the usual and practicalone TV compound, but at least two that are also quite faraway from each other. One of these is currently the buildingthat was originally planned as the media center andmost of it is currently occupied with offices for the OC. Thespace currently available for the print and photo press willby no means satisfy the requirements of the WCH 2011.However, solutions were already discussed at the WorldCup and could result in an almost optimal situation… afterall, as the construction measures to date, which were completedbetween the end of November 2009 and 21 March2010 at an average temperature of -35°C, have shown, wecan expect great things from the OC in this area.Thus 175 athletes from 23 teams were greeted with excellent,but cold conditions at the season-ending WorldCup event.Suspense was virtually guaranteed in almost every competition,with the crystal globes still up for grabs in mostdisciplines and the Mixed Relay world champions still to becrowned in Khanty-Mansiysk.The Sprint competition already presented the home fanswith the desired victory with Russian Iana Romanova winningahead of Marie Laure Brunet from France and a delightedHelena Jonsson from Sweden, who finally foundher way back onto the podium after a long unsuccessfulrun that had seen her miss out on Olympic honors. Butthis time even the usually disappointing fourth place wasnot an ungrateful one as it brought the German SimoneHauswald the crystal globe for the Sprint World Cup aheadof Magdalena Neuner and Helena Jonsson.In the Men’s Sprint, Ivan Tcherezov added another victoryfor the Russian team with his clean shooting allowinghim to finish ahead of Italian Christian De Lorenzi and AndriyDeryzemlya from the Ukraine. Christoph Sumann, whowas still challenging Emil Hegle Svendsen for the OverallWorld Cup, finished fourth, while Svendsen came in eighth.However, the finish was enough to help the Norwegian securethe crystal globe for Sprint World Cup 10 points aheadof the Russian Tcherezov.In the Women’s Mass Start, Magdalena Neuner left thecompetition no chance despite her three misses and comfortablysecured the crystal globe for the Mass Start WorldCup. Sandrine Bailly crowned an almost perfect performancewith the final podium finish of her career before goingon to end her career with the mixed relay on the Sunday.In fact, the dominant theme of the day seemed to be farmore the farewell from many great names such as KatiWilhelm, Martina Beck and Sylvie Becaert rather than theactual outcome of the competition. There were many stickersto be seen around the stadium with a photo of Wilhelm,Hauswald and Beck, and the word “Goodbye”, even amongDaniel LANDERTINGER– AUT on the way to hisfirst WC-victoryDaniel LANDERTINGER– AUT auf dem Wegzum ersten WC-SiegThe official Magazine of the IBU 20 I 2010 biathlonworld 43