During the weekend, a real winter fairy tale reigned in Madona, which made it possible to host the junior stage of the World Cup on the “Smeceres sila” biathlon track. The owner of the track, Gunārs Ikaunieks, told the LSM.lv platform that there might not have been any commendable results for the Latvian youth, because at the end of the year, due to the slow onset of winter, it was decided whether the competition would be able to take place in our country.
We already reported that the Latvian biathlete Esther Wolfa won two out of three competitions at this stage, and in addition to a perfect balance, she lacked one target shot in the first sprint. Rihard Lozber, on the other hand, was thoroughly overwhelmed by the precision in the firing lines, which the skier rehabilitated with fast skiing, twice finishing in the top ten.
However, until the end of last year, winter in Latvia had not really started yet, which made the organizers of the stage puzzle over whether we can accept the juniors at all with such a (lack of) amount of snow. “Yes, even on December 26, we sat in a meeting with IBU representatives to decide whether the stage will take place here or whether it will be moved to Imatra (Finland),” said Ikaunieks.
He revealed that at that moment approximately one third of the necessary snow had been produced so that the competition could take place in “Smeceres Sil”. “The forecast showed that it should be enough and “pull out”. A decision was made and a guarantee was given that the tracks would be there. The snowmaking men worked all New Year’s and many more holidays to have the track here. A huge thank you to them!”
The organizational tone of biathlon in the Baltic States is set by the Otepė track in the southern part of Estonia, where this year the World Cup stage will be held, and next year the World Championship will also be hosted. There are plans to follow our northern neighbors, but it will take a long time.
“At the moment, we are taking this path forward. The project of the big house, which will be located downstairs in the shooting area and is intended for judges and all service personnel, has been completed. This is a step so that we can arrange IBU licenses,” says the host, who did not give an exact forecast for the development of events, because there is still a long way to go before the adult competition.
We should start with the construction of the aforementioned building and continue with the organization of youth competitions. “There is definitely a long way to go, because there will be many steps to get there. It is also definitely not a matter of two or three years, it is a longer period.”
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