The staging of the relay races at the Biathlon World Championships in Oberhof is in danger due to the difficult weather situation with rain, strong winds and high temperatures.
As the organizers informed, it will only be decided on Saturday morning at a meeting starting at 7:30 a.m. whether the competitions for women (11:45 a.m.) and men (3:00 p.m.) on the Rennsteig can take place as planned.
The background is the current weather forecast with gusts of wind of up to 85 kilometers per hour, which could lead to dangers on the competition course. “The safety of all athletes and our fans is our top priority, both on arrival and at the competitions,” said OC boss Thomas Grellmann.
Track suffers from external influences
On Friday in Oberhof it rained long and hard with strong winds and temperatures of up to eight degrees. The conditions were already difficult during training the day before the team competitions and the track suffered from the external influences.
It wouldn’t be the first time that the weather had an impact on the World Cup programme. In 2004, the men’s singles had to be postponed due to fog at the last title fights in Oberhof. In 1999, the start of the World Championships in Kontiolahti was postponed by six days due to freezing temperatures of up to minus 35 degrees Celsius, and in the end World Championship decisions were only held on three days in Finland. The IBU then subsequently held the WCH individual and mass start competitions at the World Cup finals in Oslo.
At the World Championships a year later in Oslo, the final decision, the men’s relay, was canceled in the middle of the race due to the fog getting thicker and thicker. It was then made up for at the subsequent World Cup in Lahti, Finland.