BMW IBU World Cup Total Score leaders have similar goals but different plans to achieve them. Athletes from seven distinct nations finished in the Top 10 in the men’s sprint, and one of them was 20 years-old Eric Perrot, whose style resembles that of Martin Fourcade. Athletes and their fortunes got scrambled again in the IBU Cup, and Jonas Marecek of the Czech republic starred at the IBU Junior Cup in Pokljuka.

Taking different routes to the same destination

Marte Olsbu Roeiseland, with a second place in the sprint and a win in the pursuit, and Quentin Fillon Maillet with a sprint-pursuit double triumph are leaving Ruhpolding in yellow, looking very much in control of their biathlon’s destiny. But their routes will take different turns in the coming weeks as Fillon Maillet stays fully committed to the BMW IBU World Cup schedule and will face the returning Norwegian best team in Antholz. Olsbu Roeiseland will skip the seventh week of 2021/2022 to go through more specific high-altitude training before the Olympic Winter Games 2022. Olsbu Roeiseland’s decisions are founded on a good experience from the 2019/2020 season when she skipped Annecy Le Grand Bornand and won 7/7 medals at the IBU World Championships 20202. Fillon Maillet said he doesn’t see the point in how taking a competitive week off might help him in Beijing 2022, as managing competitive stress better resembles a unique pressure that Olympic Winter Games bring.

United Nations of Biathlon in men’s sprint

Athletes from seven different nations finished in the Top 10 in the sprint of Ruhpolding. In the absence of the six strongest Norwegians, who skipped the week to prepare for Antholz-Anterselva and Beijing 2022 at the higher altitude in Italy, France had three athletes in the best 10, Germany two, Belarus, Lithuania, Finland, Ukraine, and Switzerland one each. For the winner Quentin Fillon Maillet it was the fourth top spot on the podium this season, for fourth Vyautas Strolia and 10th Joscha Burkhalter it was personal-best, for second Benedikt Doll, sixth Erik Lesser and seventh Dmytro Pidruchnyi it was season’s best while third Anton Smolski and fifth Tero Seppala equaled career(and season)-best.

Eric Perrot hits Martin Fourcade’s strides

20-years old Eric Perrot of France banked his first Top 10 finish in his only fifth sprint in the BMW IBU World Cup. Bourg-Saint-Maurice native shot 10/10, clocked 14th fastest course time in the final lap and 26th overall. Perrot has joined the French world cup team in the second Oestersund week, after a strong performance at the IBU Cup’s season-opening competitions in Idre. He showed glimpses of great potential at the last season’s IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Obertilliach with a silver medal in the junior pursuit. A year younger, Campbell Wright of New Zealand also shot clean and finished 25th. 

A new mix of names in the IBU Cup

With Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 just a few weeks away, some of the strongest teams in the BMW IBU World Cup started to adjust their training to the specifics that await them in China and brought IBU Cup athletes to Ruhpolding. That resulted in some new podium names in Brezno-Osrblie, but the experience proved to be the trump card. Evgenia Burtasova of Russia was the only athlete who finished on the podium three times: she was second in the short individual and the sprint and won in the pursuit. Burtasova is the IBU Cup Total Score leader among women, and Erlend Bjoentegaard, who competed at the world cup in Ruhpolding, is among men.

Two podiums for Marecek, Scattolo’s dominance continues.

Jonas Marecek of the Czech republic won and was second in the two sprints in the third week of the IBU Junior Cup in Pokljuka and climbed to sixth place in Total Score. Alexandr Kornev of Russia is the new leader among junior men as Jan Gunka, who dominated at the beginning of the season, competed at the BMW IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding. Sara Scattolo of Italy added second place in the second sprint to her two wins from the Martell-Val Martello weeks and seats comfortably atop the Total Score standings. 

Photo: IBU; C. Manzoni, Jasmin Walter, Igor Stančik, OC Pokljuka