Coach Uros Velepec sees the key to more German success in biathlon in increasing the shooting speed and denounces failures in previous training.
“We don’t have the youngest team. If you’ve been a biathlete for 10 or 15 years and have learned precision shooting in the typical German ski schools, it’s not easy,” said the Slovenian, who is primarily responsible for the men’s team, in a media round on Wednesday: “But This is not modern biathlon.”
You can only approach it like this “if you’re happy with 10th or 15th place. That’s a great result among the competition. But if you want to get on the podium, you have to shoot faster and take risks,” says Velepec, who already had acted as assistant coach to Mark Kirchner in the previous season. He tries to break the patterns of his athletes little by little.
“We tried a lot in the first year, it wasn’t always good,” said the 56-year-old: “We’ve been training since May. It’s better, but we’re not yet where we want to be. Until then It has to be suitable for the Olympic Games.”
From his point of view, an athlete in modern biathlon “always does better with fast shooting, full risk and full attack”.