This weekend saw the fourth edition of the Belgium Summer Biathlon Championships to be held at the sparkling Herzebösch-Elsenborn Cross Country and Biathlon Center. Just looking at it the center still has that “new stadium” look at feel. Everything is so crisp and bright. However a few years into it now we do know that the way the stadium is built sometimes causes the wind to be a bit tricky. No less than Lotte Lie, annually one of the best shooters on the World Cup explained as much to us recently on the Penalty Loop podcast. So if you see wild shooting numbers don’t always read too much into them.
The Belgian Summer Biathlon Championships have become a staple of the IBU regional event calendar over the last several seasons. In addition to the Belgian athletes coming to compete for the title of National Champion, the races all attract a number of international athletes usually with a number of German and Dutch athletes as well as a smattering of others including Swiss and UK competitors. In the past the French B-team has come but this year they were at a training in Bessans which was been deemed critical to their success in the upcoming Olympic season.
The Belgium federation organized two days of racing. On Saturday there was prologue event which was largely just for show. However, it also determined who would race in the “A” and “B” Mass start finals on Sunday due to the limitations of the shooting.
Prologues
The prologues got under way on Saturday with the women leading off. The prologue course was a 5km race with one prone and one standing shooting. Each ski lap was made up of two smaller loops except for the 3rd lap which was just the longer “half” of the loop.
The women’s race was won by reigning Belgian champion Lotte Lie. The shooting range did trip up just about everybody as even Lotte Lie went 8/10. However she had the best ski time and shooting time on the day and was well on her way to a 14 second victory. German Mareike Braun followed her, just edging out Belgian Maya Cloetens for the 2nd place position. Both Braun and Cloetens matched Lotte Lie’s 8/10 shooting but were 15 seconds and 8 seconds slower respectively on the course. Braun outpaced Cloetens in range time, particularly making up 9 seconds on the standing shoot alone.
The rest of the top 6 was made up of visiting Germans. Charlotte Gallbronner took 4th just six second further back from Cloetens. Gallbronner skied very well and was 2nd in course time, just six seconds back of Lotte Lie, helping her make up for her 7/10 shooting to nearly climb the podium. Johanna Lehnung and Julia Vogler completed the top six hitting 8/10 and 6/10 respectively. A few other names worth noting, Eve Bouvard finished 9th with British athlete Chloe Dupont in 10th and Swiss biathlete Susana Meinen in 11th.
| Women’s Podium | Men’s Podium |
| Lotte Lie | Thierry Langer |
| Mareike Braun 🇩🇪 | Tim Nechwatal 🇩🇪 |
| Maya Cloetens | Jannis Dold 🇩🇪 |
The men’s prologue was similarly went 1-2 with a Belgian taking the top spot and German on the 2nd step. Thierry Langer was the winner of the day. While he was matched in hitting 9/10 targets by both Niechwatal and Dold, Langer was slightly quicker on the course and decisively faster in the prone shooting. As a result he finished 8 seconds ahead of Nechwatal and 29 seconds faster than Dold at the finish.
Florent Claude finished in 4th for the day. While the podium men finished 9/10, Florent Claude’s extra trip around the penalty loop set him just too far adrift to make up the ground as he finished 7 seconds behind Jannis Dold. Young German speedster Lukas Tannheimer, meanwhile, overcame a three miss day to finish in the top 5. The top 6 was completed by Nils Gutman. A few other competitors worth noting, Cesar Beauvais finished in 7th, Julien Petitjacques in 8th, Linus Kesper in 9th, while recently highlighted Luxembourg biathlete Thome Trabut finished in 23rd.
Mass Start
Mass Start Sunday got off to a flying start with a pitched battle between Maya Cloetens and Mareike Braun. While Cloetens was going a perfect 20/20 on the range, difficult in somewhat trying conditions, Mareike Braun has three misses. However Braun was quicker in loosing her shots and made up several seconds on each of the final laps to make it a battle in the end. Cloetens, much to the delight of the home fans, held off the German competitor in the end taking the gold medal by three seconds. The podium was completed by Julia Vogler who herself held off Lotte Lie for the bronze medal by three seconds. Defending champion Lotte Lie had five misses on the range which doomed her chances against her more accurate competitors. Still she made a real go for it in the end!
The final members of the top six included Charlotte Gallbronner and Johanna Lehnung. Susana Meinen fought hard and finished 1 second back of Belgian Marisa Emonts for the 7th and 8th positions. Chloe DuPont finished 13th in the women’s final.
| Women’s Podium | Men’s Podium |
| 🥇 Maya Cloetens | 🥇 Lukas Tannheimer 🇩🇪 |
| 🥈 Mareike Braun 🇩🇪 | 🥈Tim Nechwatal 🇩🇪 |
| 🥉 Julia Vogler 🇩🇪 | 🥉 Florent Claude |
The German men were not nearly so deferential to their Belgian hosts as they took both the top spots in the Mass Start Lukas Tannheimer’s five misses on the day were actually the fewest in the race (as I said it can get tricky on the range). That in addition to being one of the fastest men in the field brought him home the gold medal. His teammate Tim Nechwatal had six misses but was quick enough on the range to overcome that and still hold off Florent Claude and Thierry Langer.
Florent Claude brought home the bronze medal, and in the process was once again crowned Belgian National Champion, with a five miss day. He was +26 behind Lukas Tannheimer and +8 back of Nechwatal. However he had a sizeable advantage on Thierry Langer who came home 4th. Langer had a heck of a go on the range as he hit juts 50%. The top six spots were completed by Jannis Dold and Linus Maier. The Belgian bronze medal went to Sam Parmantier who finished in 8th but was the 3rd highest placed Belgian in the field just 2 seconds ahead of Maredk Mackels.
As we always mention at this part of the proceedings, but it is mid August and these are roller skiing competitions. Different athletes are at different phases of their training and so it’s not worth getting too high or too log about these results. In general my philosophy is be positive about positive things but don’t get too worried about negative things.
- Lukas Tannheimer looked very good. We know he’s got the ski speed. On the Juniors racing the last two seasons he’s shown that he can be one of the fastest men on any given day. It’s about consistency with shooting. This weekend was a great example. In the prolog he hit 7/10. As a result his speed wasn’t enough to get him higher than 5th. However in the Mass Start final on Sunday his 15/20 matched the best in the field and he ran away with the gold medal. Hopefully we continue to see the good shooting this winter!
- Mareike Braun was once considered amongst the highly talented pool of biathletes coming up for the German women’s team. Now 25 years old she’s a few years past showing that high talent. She still flashes it occasionally but not consistently. This weekend finishing 2nd in both races against two women who are top 30 World Cup athletes is not nothing. Hopefully she’s found something. It’s still a very tough hill to climb to find the World Cup but hopefully she finds a way to move up the IBU Cup standings this season.
- Maya Cloetens with a 20/20 in the Mass Start in tough shooting conditions to take the gold medal is quite good. We already know how good she can be. Just last season at only 23 years old she was 35th in the Overall with several top 20 finishes. The Lotte Lie – Maya Cloetens combo is really fun for a smaller nation like Belgium!
- Tim Nechwatal showed some promise in the 22-23 and 23-24 seasons. In that 23-24 season he had several top 10 finishes and consistently produced top 10 ski times. He had a rough Junior Worlds that season and if memory serves he was sick right before which likely affected performance. Since then he’s never been able to reach the same level of performance until now with two second place finishes. He’s still just 21 years old. Hopefully, like Mareike Braun, he’s got it going again.