Oberhof, the venue of the 2004 World Championships, hosts team relays events on Thursday and Friday, while the weekend action focuses on individual races.
On Saturday the women race in the 7.5km sprint, then over 12.5km the following day, with Germany’s Martina Glagow defending her lead at the top of the World Cup rankings on home soil. Glagow leads the field by 17 points after seven events, and should be fancied for the Sprint event having taken the Bronze medal in the 2004 World Championships held at the German venue.
However, the current form Biathlete is surely France’s Sandrine Bailey, currently in second overall, with three victories from the last four World Cup events, and who took the bronze in the 12.5km Mass Start at the same 2004 World Championships, in Oberhof.
The men’s schedule follows a similar format racing over 10km on Saturday then over 15km on Sunday. Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen – four times a World Cup winner - leads the World Cup standings with two wins from his last three starts, looking to add to his record 77 World Cup victories. He finished second overall last season having missed eight events, due to his participation in Nordic Ski events.
The very consistent Russian, Dmitri Iaroshenko , is 18 points adrift in second. Iaroshenko has been out of the podium positions in just two of the seven races prior to Oberhof. Elsewhere, Ski-Jumping’s Four Hill Tour concludes on Sunday at Bischofshofen in Austria, where we will see who emerges victorious through the controversial knock-out system. While the Tour De Ski continues over Saturday and Sunday with the sixth and seventh stages at the Door to the Dolomites in Val Di Fiemme.
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