The final day of August and the first day of September saw the highest concentration of major biathlon action that we’ll have all all summer long. Most of the attention was paid to the all star field seen in Annecy for the Martin Fourcade Nordic Festival. But there were also national championships taking place in Germany, Italy, Czechia, and Finland with many of our favorite athletes competing for their national titles!
We’re not going to go race by race but just a few news and notes from each of the big events.
1.Martin Foucade Nordic Festival
2. Italian National Championships
3. German National Championships
4. Czechia National Championships
5. Finland National Championships
1.Martin Fourcade Nordic Festival:
– The biathlon racing consisted of two small field, 9 person mass starts, with one each for the women and the men. With every shooting athletes were afforded 3 extra rounds and if still any targets remain they take a penalty loop for each remaining target.
This year the weather was quite hot. So much so that every time the athletes came off the range not only were they offered water bottles but the opportunity to get a water shower as well to cool off before the first loop. The course itself is pretty much just an out and back along the lake with fans lining most of the course either just off the course or, on the lake side, from boat! Truly a magnificent event and one I very much hope to get to soon
– It may be mid summer but Julia Simon was in mid season form. She attacked the field in Annecy and made them feel the summer heat. She was truly relentless, which is actually one of the top words I would use to describe Julia Simon at any time. It’s not an event where you will generally see major time gaps, part of which make it so exciting, and the leaders are almost always visible to the chasers. Simon though, just kept grinding away and squeezing out meters. By the mid way point she had the bit her in teeth and she built out about a 20 second lead. She was clearly the strongest woman on the day and she showed it.
If you just looked at the podium you might assume that it was a winter race in Annecy. Justine Braisaz-Bouchet looked solid all day long. I was actually a little more impressed with Ingrid Tandrevold. She has had a very adventurous summer, getting married in June and then breaking her hand shortly after that. Based on Instagram she’s been able to keep up her training pretty well and that was born out by her performance in Annecy. Not quite on the same level relative to Simon and JBB as she was this winter but plenty of time before Kontiolahti.
-On the men’s side, in a field including Quentin Fillon Maillet, Eric Perrot, and Emilien Jacquelin, Sebastian Stalder was a bit of a surprise winner. While Jacquelin did Jacquelin things, repeatedly pushing the pace in the very hot weather, Stalder was steady and deliberate in the front portion of the field. It really looked like the heat began to cook the field about halfway through the race. While Jacquelin sprinted away at the beginning he ended up with 9 extra rounds and 4 penalty loops. Fak and Perrot used early good shooting to build a lead, including lap 3 with Jakov Fak holding a solo lead. But they too succumbed to the heat with misses and penalties. Ultimately it was the steady Stalder who had just 6 spares during the race, who pulled away. By the last two laps he had established a bit of a lead, and while Jacquelin and Perrot could see Stalder, they could never quite close down the gap. I will never make too much of a summer performance but it really showed something about Stalder. The race also proved one other fun thing: Emilien Jacquelin knows no other way to race, and for biathlon that’s a good thing!
| Athlete | Time (Penalty+Extra) |
| Julia Simon | 23:34 (0+5) |
| Justine Braisaz-Bouchet | +14.3 (0+4) |
| Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold | +54.8 (0+3) |
| Lou Jeanmonnot | +58.7 (0+4) |
| Sophie Chauveau | +1:02 (0+5) |
| Tuuli Tomingas | +1:17 (1+7) |
| Anna Gandler | +1:44 (3+6) |
| Vanessa Voigt | +2:37 (0+4) |
| Lena Haecki-Gross | +3:34 (2+4) |
| Athlete | Time (Penalty+Extra) |
| Sebastian Stalder | 25:29 (0+6) |
| Emilien Jacquelin | +8.7 (4+9) |
| Eric Perrot | +17.6 (1+8) |
| Quentin Fillon Maillet | +33.6 (1+6) |
| Jakov Fak | +37.6 (2+4) |
| Fabien Claude | +1:25 (0+6) |
| Johannes Kuehn | +1:29 (4+9) |
| FF Andersen | +1:37 (4+8) |
| Michal Krcmar | +2:24 (4+11) |
2. Italian National Championships
– Competed in Forni Avoltri in the northeast of Italy most of the top Italians came together to race the national championships. The only major name missing was Dorothea Wierer. Not surprisingly she’s running on her own schedule this summer especially after being part of the broadcast team for Eurosport.
-The story of the Italian championships was the HUGE performance by Lisa Vittozzi. She was so clearly on a different level of form from her younger teammates that it almost didn’t seem fair. Vittozzi won the Sprint by 2:14 over Martina Trabucchi even with a penalty and Rebecca Passler finished up 3rd 2:35 back. Vittozzi followed that up with an even more overwhelming performance in the “Pursuit.” (In “” because absolutely nobody was pursuing Vittozzi!). She ran away from the field winning by 5:30 Passler and Comola
– The men, meanwhile had the same three men on the podium for both Sprint and Pursuit. Hofer won the Sprint and was 3rd in the Pursuit while Giacomel was 3rd in the Sprint and won the Pursuit. Nicola Romanin was 2nd in both races. The only men’s performance that was a little eyebrow raising was Didier Bionaz finishing 2:21 off the podium in the Sprint and 3:25 off in the Pursuit. He showed some solid progress last winter. Hopefully this is just a bump in the road and not a warning sign. Again I don’t get too excited/alarmed about summer biathlon but this was just worth noticing.
– Worth noting that on the Juniors side Nicolo’ Betmps and Christoph Pircher took turns going 1-2 in the Sprint and flipping spots in the Pursuit. Meanwhile Brigit Schoelzhorn and Sara Scattolo went 1-2 in both the Sprint and the Pursuit.
| 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | |
| Women’s Sprint | Lisa Vittozzi | Martina Trabucchi | Rebecca Passler |
| Men’s Sprint | Lukas Hofer | Nicola Romanin | Tommaso Giacomel |
| Women’s Pursuit | Lisa Vittozzi | Rebecca Passler | Samuela Comola |
| Men’s Pursuit | Tommaso Giacomel | Nicola Romanin | Lukas Hofer |
3. German National Championships
– The German national championships were held in a VERY HOT Altenberg. They ran three races on three consecutive days with a Short Individual, Sprint, and Pursuit. Vanessa Voigt and Johannes Kuehn were both not present as they were competing at the Martin Fourcade Nordic Festival.
– Philipp Horn was probably the man of the championship with a podium finish in each race. He won the Individual, finished 2nd in the Sprint and 3rd in the Pursuit. Justus Strelow was also quite strong winning the Pursuit after finished 2nd in the Individual and 4th in the Sprint. Meanwhile Fratzscher won the Sprint and finished 2nd in the Pursuit. Not surprisingly Roman Rees and Philipp Nawrath stayed around the top as well. I was happy to see the strong racing by Horn and Strelow and I’ll be optimistic about them, especially Strelow, come this winter. But one of these years I really want to see one of the younger guys take a really solid step forward.
– The German women’s championship was a total free for all. The optimistic way to look at it is that it showed off of the depth of talent in the women’s field. And truthfully we saw some really nice races from some of the young German women.
It initially looked like Franziska Preuss was going to dominate again. She won the Individual by nearly 30 seconds over Johanna Puff even with 2 penalties. She had 4 misses in the Sprint through and finished just 16th before recovering to 8th in the Pursuit. She also mentioned that she wasn’t training to peak for these races and they served as a good checkpoint as she aims to be ready to compete for podiums come November.
As for the young women who showed off some of their talent:
– Johanna Puff, at 21 years old, finished 2nd in the Individual, 4th in the Sprint and 7th in the Pursuit.
– 19 year old Julia Tannheimer won the Sprint and was 3rd in the Pursuit. She was 17th in the Individual
– Marlene Fichtner won the Pursuit after a 5th in the Sprint and 10th in the Individual.
If you want to say there was a “disappointment” it would be Selina Grotian “only” finishing 5th, 12th, and 13th. But remember our rule for summer biathlon…be excited with good performances but don’t over react to poor ones.
| 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | |
| Women’s IND | Franziska Preuß | Johanna Puff | Marion Wiesensarter |
| Men’s IND | Philipp Horn | Justus Strelow | Philipp Nawrath |
| Women’s Sprint | Julia Tannheimer | Juliane Früwirt | Sophia Schneider |
| Men’s Sprint | Lucas Fratzscher | Philipp Horn | Roman Rees |
| Women’s Pursuit | Marlene Fichtner | Marion Wiesensarter | Julia Tannheimer |
| Men’s Pursuit | Justus Strelow | Lucas Fratzscher | Philipp Horn |
4. Czechia National Championships
These races included a Sprint and a Pursuit on Saturday and Sunday. But Saturday night they had the most exciting race of the weekend with a mixed relay Super Sprint. They started out with normal qualifying races for the men and the women. Then the women got to choose their counterparts for the racing. It ended up being an absolutely WILD scene and one I hope we see more of in biathlon. There was raucous singing with flares all in an amazing night race under the lights. Definitely one to go find the videos of!
As for the “real races” Jonas Marecek and Tomas Mikyska went 1-2 in the Sprint race while Vitezslav Hornig won the Pursuit race. Meanwhile on the women’s side Marketa Davidova and recent summer World Champion Tereza Vobornikova went 1-2 in both Sprint and Pursuit while Kristina Otcovská and Jessica Jislova traded off being 3rd.
David Elias, who looked so good in the Summer Worlds won the Junior Men’s Sprint.
| 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | |
| Women’s Sprint | Markéta Davidova | Tereza Voborniková | Kristyna Otcovska |
| Men’s Sprint | Jonáš Marecek | Tomas Mikyska | Vitezslav Hornig |
| Women’s Pursuit | Markéta Davidova | Tereza Voborniková | Jessica Jislova |
| Men’s Pursuit | Vitezslav Hornig | Adam Vaclavik | Jonáš Marecek |
5. Finland National Championships
Competed in Eastern Finland, nearly all of the top Finnish athletes came together for their national championships. The only major athlete missing was Suvi Minkkinen who deserved some rest after a solid week at the Summer Worlds in Otepaa. The championships consisted of a Sprint on Saturday and a Mass Start on Sunday.
I was most interested in seeing Otto Invenius who looked like he was a touch off at Summer Worlds. He finished the Sprint in 7th at +32 but then absolutely dominated the mass start winning by a tremendous 3:29 gap on Joni Mukkala. The Sprint, meanwhile, was won by Olli Hiidensalo by a crazy 0.2 second margin on Heikki Laitinen.
On the women’s side Sonja Leinamo had a very solid weekend, winning the silver medal for Sprint and taking gold in the Mass Start. The Sprint meanwhile was won by Venla Lehtonen. Noora Kaisa Keranen was 3rd in the Sprint and 4th in the Mass Start.
Also just to note, the 18 year old Inka Hamalainen who had such a good showing at Summer Worlds ran in the Juniors category and won the u22 Sprint and did not race the mass start.
| 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | |
| Women’s Sprint | Venla Lehtonen | Sonja Leinamo | Noora Kaisa Keränen |
| Men’s Sprint | Olli Hiidensalo | Hikki Laintenen | Tuomas Harjula |
| Women’s Mass Start | Sonja Leinamo | Erika Jänkä | Sofia Joronen |
| Men’s Mass Start | Otto Invenius | Joni Mukkala | Santtu Panttila |
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