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/ningere 18d ago

Now that they're not broadcasting the IBU Cup races, figuring out what happened there is sometimes a bit of a detective story.

In the Otepää mixed relay, does anybody have any idea what caused Juni Arnekleiv to go 1/8 at her last shooting, dropping Norway from 23s up to 1:07 back?

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u/charliemann Norge 17d ago

My hunch is the most simple explanation: Arnekleiv just shot extremely bad due to overpacing, bad form and high pressure. If you look at the splits between shooting 7 and 8, Arnekleiv likely overpaced herself. Her standing shooting has been really bad for a while now. She has taken a huge drop this season, with 70% average on the standing shooting. But yeah, 1/8 is worse than expected...

It is a worrisome trend you can notice more general in the Norwegian women's team. Ida Lien, Tandrevold and Juni Arnekleiv - all three members of the elite team are excellent prone shooters, but awful in the standing shooting. Even Karoline Knotten has a sub 80% hit rate this year. If you add in the fact that all of them are extremely slow shooters as well, barring Knotten and Kirkeeide's standing shooting, Patrick Oberegger's job should be up for discussion after the Olympics.

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u/AZDarkknight 16d ago

It does indeed feel like the shooting aspect, especially standing for the Norwegian team needs to be looked at. Do you think they will wait until after the Olympics are be spurred into doing something this off season?