THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL BIATHLON ...

IBU EVENTS IBU VERANSTALTUNGEN2009 i 2010 ibU CUp 2009 i 2010 ibU CUp 2009 i 2010 ibU CUp 2009this last series of competitions was moved back by one day.While the trophies for the IBU overall score did go to thefavorites, Daniel Graf made things exciting yet again. Sincehe had shown a weak performance, in contrast to his teamcolleague Toni Lang’s great shape, the decision was madeonly in the very last sprint of the season, where Graf provedbetter nerves and won, while Lang had to go through a totalof six penalty loops.“All in all, the IBU Cups level clearly was higher thanthat of the last years. During this season, many organizersstrove to organize their IBU Cups as close to the World Cupstandard as possible. They worked very hard to give theteams great conditions for their competitions and trainingon the track, at the shooting range and in the stadium,”says IBU Assistant Race Director Ventzeslav Iliev, who isresponsible for the IBU’s B series.He also considers the continually rising media interestand World Cup summaries broadcast on Eurosport as beingparticularly positive. From an athletic point of view, thequality of the competitions has clearly increased. Whereonly a little more than half of the athletes managed toachieve the 20 percent qualification hurdle for the WorldCup, about 60 percent of the athletes was no more than 20percent behind the average time of the three fastest athletes.This, says Iliev, continued the developments of thelast years and made him extremely optimistic for the series’future. •Natalia SOkOLOVA –RuSOlympic Winter Games. In spite of this, the men’s sprintheld a small surprise for us: Brendan Green from Canadawon before missing his chance to stand on the victory rostrumin the pursuit, where he came in fourth. The pursuitwas won by Austrian Sven Grossegger.In general, the unusual height of 1700 meters above sealevel was difficult for many athletes. Again and again, athleteseven had to stop to breathe.In Pokljuka, the season ended in bright sunshine. Thecompetition schedule had been changed in the last minuteto give the teams, and in particular the wax technicians andathletes, somewhat more time for arriving from the IBUOpen European Championships U26 in Otepää, Estonia. Insteadof the individual competition, a pursuit and a sprint,the competitions consisted of two sprints and a pursuit, andAls Olympiasaison war der letzteBiathlonwinter quasi in zwei Teilegeteilt und dies betraf natürlichauch die IBU-Cups. Während anden Veranstaltungen zu Beginn derSaison noch viele Weltcup-Athletenteilnahmen und die Zahl der Teilnehmerneue Rekorde erreichte, ging esin Haute Maurienne, Martell und Pokljukazwar ruhiger zu, doch die Wettkämpfefanden weiterhin auf sehr hohem Niveaustatt.Tatsächlich wurden die Zeiten derSieger im Durchschnitt sogar schnellerals bei den IBU-Cups vor denOlympischen Spielen und durch dieMöglichkeit, sich einen StartplatzThe official Magazine of The iBU 20 i 2010 biathlonworld 53