Changes to the Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof. The ski hunters’ sprint race was brought forward from Friday to Thursday. The Swedish team welcomes the adjustment of the program.
“I’m very happy considering what the weather forecast looks like for Friday,” said biathlon world champion Elvira Öberg to “SVT Sport”.
What the 26-year-old means: Gusts of over 80 km/h are forecast for Friday on the Rennsteig. The World Biathlon Association IBU announced on Wednesday that the best ski hunters would compete against each other in a sprint on Thursday (2:15 p.m.). The race was originally scheduled for Friday afternoon.
“Not a normal start to the competition”
Sweden’s biathlon national coach Johannes Lukas also spoke to “SVT Sport” about a “very good decision, because the weather forecast for Friday looks very bad.”
However, Elvira and Hanna Öberg “completed hard interval training on Tuesday. If we had known that the competition would be postponed, we might have organized it differently. It won’t be a normal start to the competition for the women, they were already in training when the news came,” Lukas described at the same time.
Further biathlon races are not affected for the time being
The other biathlon races in Oberhof, Thuringia, on Saturday and Sunday are not affected by weather-related changes for the time being: the men’s pursuit takes place on Saturday afternoon (12:00 p.m.), and the women compete in the relay a little later (2:25 p.m.). The men’s relay race (11:00 a.m.) and the women’s pursuit race (2:30 p.m.) follow on Sunday.
After the long weekend in Oberhof, the Biathlon World Cup travels to Bavaria. This will be about points for the overall ranking next week in Ruhpolding (January 14th to 18th).