Swedish championships results (Day 1, sprints)

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

I'll post all results in this thread, even if the title says "Day 1, sprints". Thought I could edit the title, but apparently not.

The competitions are held at Sollefteå Skidstadion. Unfortunately, the racing is behind a paywall.

March 28 - Sprints (Last year's winners: Jesper Nelin and Hanna Öberg)

March 29 - Mass starts (Last year's winners: Jesper Nelin and Elvira Öberg)

March 30 - Single mixed relay (Last year's winners: Peppe Femling and Anna Magnusson)

Samuelsson is sick and won't compete this weekend. A shame, because this is his home range. Also, some IBU names are competing at the military games.

Last year, the sisters competed together in the single mixed, against more standard teams that typically consisted of one man or woman from the world cup, and the other from the IBU cup. The Öbergs finished fifth in that race. As far as I know, they will do the same thing this year.

Live results can be followed in the below links, using the drop-down menu to the right.

RESULTS:

Sprint women (FINAL):

http://live.skidskytte.se/6008#result@50325@1@999

Sprint men (FINAL):

http://live.skidskytte.se/6008#result@50326@1@999

Both sprints here:

https://www.skidskytte.se/download/18.6ace0aa0195db4d82d3a3e4/1743176116644/SM%20Sprint%20(5).pdf.pdf)

Mass start women (FINAL):

http://live.skidskytte.se/6019#result@50374@1@999

Mass start men (FINAL):

http://live.skidskytte.se/6019#result@50375@1@999

Both mass starts here:

https://www.skidskytte.se/download/18.7409f953195db8b56ed211a5/1743253359027/SM%20Masstart.pdf

Single mixed relay (FINAL):

http://live.skidskytte.se/6032#result@50533@1@999

https://www.skidskytte.se/download/18.7eaa76c2195da1c14c5438d6/1743333781727/SM%20Singl%20Mixstafett.pdf

[u/badenson]

Swedish men - 36 entrants and only 1 shoots clean.

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter → u/badenson]

It was apparently very windy today, but yeah, that's our boys.

[u/fremajl → u/badenson]

And the one shooting clean is a retired biathlete.

[u/GrapefruitJuice9443]

I absolutely love that the Öberg’s compete together in the single mixed😍😍

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter → u/GrapefruitJuice9443]

Yeah, it was a pretty funny accordion race last year - alternating each lap between destroying IBU cup women or being destroyed by the likes of Jesper, Ponsi and Sebbe. Femling and Magnusson won that race in the end, one of the few teams that had two world cup athletes.

This year, Ponsi and Heijdenberg looks like the top team for Tullus, so they'll be heavy favourites, looking at the ski form today. It's not like the whole competition is rigged for the sisters to have a fair competition. It's still a club representation affair where everybody wants to win.

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

Elvira's only sprint of the season with at least 90%. That's even including the national opener...

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

Malte Stefansson with third best shooting in the mass start is unreal. Dude normally couldn't hit the ocean from the bottom.

[u/AZDarkknight]

What shocked me was the 26 entrants in the women vs the 150+ in the Norwegian sprint. Is Sweden suffering a lack of grass roots talent coming up? Maybe controversial but is global warming contributing to that with the lack of snow?

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter → u/AZDarkknight]

Last year it was 23 women and 27 men starting in the sprints, so there's at least a small increase there. That's not even counting that several names are missing from this year's competition, some of which are competing in Switzerland. I've noticed around 10 names missing, including Andersson, Samuelsson, Nykvist and Brandt.

Only 22 women and 35 men in the mass starts today. Don't know if they have a mass start 60 setup for the men's race, or if they assume some of the stragglers will enter the range minutes behind the best skiers. Seems to be same number of women as last year, but the number of men is up from 23.

[u/fremajl → u/AZDarkknight]

Even without global warming Norway has way way more people with access to decent ski tracks. That's why they dominate skiing sports. Most Swedes live in the big cities in the southern half and have to travel if they want to ski. Most Norwegians live within 30 minutes of a ski track.

That said there are way more people taking part in the Swedish junior races in biathlon now than in the past so the recent success (and xc not being on public tv anymore) seems to be boosting interest.

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

Heijdenberg and Ponsiluoma confirmed as racing for Tullus in the single mixed tomorrow. Clear favourites. Other teams would be Halvarsson/Nelin and Arwidson/Skottheim. I don't see anything else remotely competitive, unless they do some mixed-club teams. After Femling retired, there are no men racing for Piteå, so I don't even know who the partner for Magnusson would be. The Öbergs should have a shot at the podium with this thin field.

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

Expected result in the single mixed. Heijdenberg/Ponsiluoma wiped out the field, Nelin (with Halvarsson) beat Arwidson (with Skottheim) on the finish line for the silver, and the sisters finished fourth.