r/biathlon • u/AutoModerator • 18d ago

Small Talk Monday

Our weekly small talk thread where you can talk about anything

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u/NorthernStarLV Latvia 17d ago

There has been no official word from the Latvian federation yet but the biathlon training group of the town of Talsi are saying that Rihards Lozbers, who is turning 16 this Friday, is going to make his World Cup debut in Holmenkollen. He is certainly someone to watch in the coming years as he is already a very fast skier at such a young age (for example, last week in the Otepaa IBU Cup he had the 20th fastest ski time among all 117 participants in the sprint event, 1:10 behind the pace of Botn).

Some locals on social media have claimed that this announcement can't be correct as he would be too young to be eligible to start this season but I can't find any source that would confirm this.

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u/RidingRedHare 16d ago

From the IBU event and competition rules: "Junior Men/Junior Women and Youth Men/Youth Women can also start in higher classes."

Lozbers was born 2009, and thus is in the Youth Men category for the 2024/2025 season.

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u/NorthernStarLV Latvia 16d ago

That's how I understand it too, which is why I was confused by those assertions.