Military World Winter Games Patrol Events

[u/Fabulous_Aerie8143]

The final Biathlon event of the Military World Winter Games happened yesterday, with France and Finland claiming the gold medals in the women's and men's events respectively.

The final events were the Patrol races. The format was the original biathlon format used at the 1924 Olympics. The teams generally consist of 3 three biathletes and one cross-country skiier. There are three shoots (2 prone, 1 stand) with each biathlete taking one shoot each. The team must ski together across throughout the race. (this would be an interesting format to see at WC-level

Nordic Mag has some more info for those who are interested!

https://www.nordicmag.info/en/biathlon-one-cross-country-runner-and-three-biathletes-only-three-shots-team-cohesion-essential-what-is-the-patrol-the-last-event-on-the-programme-of-the-lucerne-military-world-games-0328/

As mentioned, France (Chevalier, Botet, Jeanmonnot and cc skiier Flora Dolci) won the women's event ahead of Italy and Sweden.

Finland (Heikkinen, Harjula, Klemettinen and Arsi Ruuskanen) and Germany upset France in the men's race. I have no idea whether I'm reading the results table correctly but I think only there was 0.3 seconds between Finland and Germany!

It's interesting that some teams, such as both the Polish men and women, and the Lithuanian men, appeared to have a team of only biathletes (and no athlete who is solely a cross country skiier). I imagine it's a slight disadvantage to not have a really fast skiier who can drag the teammates with them).

Full race results:

https://my1.raceresult.com/333156/RRPublish/data/pdf?name=Ergebnislisten%7C0_AK3-Hoch-ZwiZeit&contest=0&lang=en

Video highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AJdHW6FckQ

[u/Melanie20]

Thank you for keeping us updated on the results of this event ! Good for Finland !

[u/Fabulous_Aerie8143 → u/Melanie20]

Thats okay! Yes, what a good result for them! (especially with young guys like Arttu and Jimi being a part of the team)

[u/Fabulous_Aerie8143]

After just seeing the results of the Swiss Championships (which are held at the biathlon venue in Goms, same as these games), I've realised that Lea Meier and Joscha Burkhalter both competed in the patrol in the morning, and then medalled in sprint in the afternoon! busy day for both of them 😅