Despite the fact that in the last biathlon World Cup competition in France of the calendar year, no representative of Latvia qualified for the first mass start competition of this season, neither women’s nor men’s, team coach Kārlis Vanags welcomes this stage. In an interview with Latvijas Televīzisia, he told that parallel to the start of the season, the composition of the team for the Olympic Games is also going on.
“Rating [Francijas posmam] is very good – Baiba was in the TOP30, Renars started very well and Andrejs too, considering that he has just returned from illness. One part of the athletes has already gone to the highlands, while the rest have gone home for the holidays, and then return to training,” commented Vanags.
The internal selection for the Olympic Games has already ended, says the coach. “Now it’s just a matter of tallying the points. Along with [Latvijas] The final version will be approved by biathlon federations and commissions.”
On the spot in Annecy, the atmosphere was very good, while in the pursuit competition it was very challenging for the Latvian team to prepare their skis, for which Bendika paid the most. “The atmosphere in France is very good – there are a lot of spectators. On Saturday, the conditions were a little more challenging to prepare the skis, which prevented Baiba from doing it properly. That’s why the result [Bendikai] is as you saw, but everything was in order for the men’s start, and we worked 100%. Unfortunately, the shooting was a bit disappointing.”
The fourth round of the World Cup season is scheduled to take place in the German city of Oberhof on the second weekend of January, and currently Vanags has not yet named the full composition of the Latvian national team, as the health status of our athletes will have to be monitored.
As before the season, the inclusion of 16-year-old Rihard Lozber in the team, who is showing commendable results in the IBU Cup, is being discussed now. “Rihards will participate in the junior competition in Madona in early January, where we hope to show good results and make the home team happy. After that, there will be the European Junior Championship, and then we will look further.”
He did not rule out the possibility that Lozber will have to switch from the junior competition to the Olympics immediately, but the final decision will be made in the coming weeks.
The next stage of the Biathlon World Cup will take place from January 8 to 11 in Oberhof, but three days later, in Germany, in Rupholding, the fifth stage will already be held, which means that the athletes will not have to travel long distances.
On the other hand, the biggest start of this season will be at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games, where the biathlon competition will take place from February 8 to 21.
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