Hanna Sola and Dzinara Alimbekava were among the top performers in Trimester 1. Sola won in the sprint of Hochfilzen, has two more podiums to her name, and is fifth in the Total Score. Alimbekava finished in the flowers five times and is third in the Total Score. Less than two years ago, they were nowhere near the top of the field. What has changed?

When Reinhard Goesweiner joined the Belarus team in the summer of 2019, he found athletes with bountiful potentials. But a lot of fine-tuning needed to be done. Dzinara Alimbekava was a member of a gold-winning relay at the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang 2018. She was coming off a highly disappointing 2018/2019 season, plagued with health problems, and finished 76th in the Total Score. Although hardworking, Hanna Sola was skiing slow and shooting poorly. She finished 59th in the Total Score in 2018/2019, miles removed from the best athletes. There was good news to the seemingly hopeless situation. They were both only 23 and eager to work hard without asking too many questions.

Trusting the process

"I could see in the first training camp that they both wanted to improve. Oleg Ryzhenkov, a former world-class athlete and a Belarus coach, shared my view on the shooting technique and the approach needed for Dzinara and Hanna to progress fast. We conveyed the information swiftly and with great precision as we were not losing time with lengthy discussions. As a native Russian speaker, Oleg already had their trust, and the language barrier didn't disturb the flow of the process," recalled Goesweiner in Annecy Le Grand Bornand.

It usually takes six months for an athlete to absorb new patterns, and apply them in action. The training process in place was the right one for Dzinara and Hanna. It just needed to be stabilised. And the athletes had to spend more time working on the details. Their shooting technique was far from world-class two summers ago, and coaches worked on changing body and shaft positioning. But they didn't interfere with their personal approach to the shooting.

"Dzinara and Hanna are both great athletes and great competitors. I understood that as soon as I joined the team. The speed and the eagerness with which they processed the training from the start were astonishing. Their approach differs, though. Dzinara has conceivably a more studious approach to the shooting technique. That allows her to get up in the morning, go on the shooting range and get the right feel for it. She then decides how fast she will shoot in the competition. Hanna wastes little time with zeroing. She merely goes through the motions," said Goesweiner.

Numbers speak for themselves

Hard work paid off. Alimbekava's accuracy improved from 76% at the end of the 2018/2019 season to 84% last season. Her first BMW IBU World Cup win came in the sprint of Hochfilzen in 2020/2021. "I got rid of my leg problems before the summer. With the new coaching team, the methodology stabilised. That helped my biathlon. My mental approach is also much more positive," said Alimbekava last year in Hochfilzen. Her shooting accuracy is 89% after Trimester 1.

Dzinara Alimbekava: Stats Overview Trimester 1

Sola's accuracy was at a low 69% at the end of the 2018/2019 season. It improved to just 70% last season. "That prevented her from backing up her fast skiing with more podiums," said Goesweiner. She nonetheless won a bronze medal in the sprint at the IBU World Championships 2021 in Pokljuka, Slovenia. "I was relieved after the standing shooting. I shot clean in the sprint for only the second time," a joyful Sola said in Pokljuka. She changed shaft past summer, and one can see the results. Sola's accuracy is at 83% after Trimester 1.

Hanna Sola: Stats Overview Trimester 1

As far as skiing technique is concerned, Alimbekava had a sound base. She needed to get rid of the injuries and train harder. She averagely lost 10 meters per kilometre compared to the fastest skier Tiril Eckhoff two seasons ago. She is now winning 40 meters per kilometre compared to the field's average. Sola's skiing technique needed more changes, but her dedication paid off. She was just an average skier two years ago. She is now winning 50 meters per kilometre compared to the field's average and is in the company of the biathletes who can give the speedster Elvira Oeberg a run for her money. Sola's sprint win in Hochfilzen was one of the most impressive in the biathlon's history. She skied the fastest first lap, second-fastest second lap, and third fastest final lap while clocking the third-fastest shooting time, second-fastest range time, and won 46.8 seconds ahead of Justine Braisaz-Bouchet in the second place.

As Trimester 1 came to an end in Annecy Le Grand Bornand, the tiredness started to show. "We will aim to keep the base sound, rest, and sharpen some details during the Christmas break," said Goesweiner. "And continue to attack podium when Oberhof week comes around at the beginning of 2022."

Photo: IBU; C. Manzoni

Visualisation: biathlonanalytics.com; realbiathlon.com