PROFILE
Hochfilzen is a tiny Austrian village hidden behind gingerbread houses in the Alps between Kitzbühel and Salzburg. A year and a half ago, the World Championship was held here, to which the organizers specially modified the track. Previously, it was laid along the plain and had only one decent climb, now it is intricately blended between the mountain slopes and boasts a very difficult approach to the shooting range.
POSTER
The Return of Anna Bogaliy-Titovets . The Olympic champion of Turin in the relay planned to miss the current season "for family reasons." But at the last moment, she suddenly changed her mind and decided to start at the December stages of the World Cup. Coaches of the team did not interfere with Anna’s desire and gave her a full carte blanche in training. All fall, the new leader of the Russian team was engaged in a special individual program. It's time to prove yourself. Anna's debut will take place on December 8 in an unpredictable sprint.
DUEL
Ole Einar Bjoerndalen against all-all-all. This is not even a duel, but a confrontation in the best traditions of multi-part American action movies like Rambo and Die Hard. Equal to the Norwegian on the track since the turn of the zero. Recently, almost perfect, high-speed shooting has been added to the whirlwind. Today, the Great and the Terrible can be surpassed only if a) he got up from his left foot, b) thought about the firing line and c) went in cycles in the victory in the world skiing championship. The real competition to Bjoerndalen in Austria can only be made by the Frenchman Rafael Poiret, who is gradually gaining the best shape, the perfect German shooting machines Sven Fischer, Rico Gross and Michael Grice and the Russian Dmitry Yaroshenko who caught luck by the tail.
INTRIGUE
Who will run the relay? For the first time in the new season, medals will be played in the most spectacular form of biathlon - the relay race. The main mystery is the composition of the Russian women's quartet. The winner of the first stage of the World Cup in Ostersund, Irina Malgina, young and talented Ekaterina Yuryeva, Anna Bulygina, Anastasia Shipulina and Tatyana Moiseeva claim to get into it. Do not forget about Anna Bogaliy-Titovets. Her participation in the Sunday relay race is directly dependent on the result in the sprint race and the pursuit.
In men, the situation is much clearer. Almost certainly Sergey Rozhkov, Dmitry Yaroshenko, Nikolay Kruglov and Ivan Cherezov will run for the national team. In the immediate supply, the chronically unstable shooter Maxim Chudov and veteran Sergey Chepikov smoothly rolling into the season. The task for the mind, in fact, is one: who and at what stage will take the start?
NUMERAL
Hochfilzen will take two stages of the World Cup in a row. Warm weather established in Eastern Europe has made changes to the competition calendar. The third stage of the World Cup, which was originally supposed to be held in Slovak Osrbli, was transferred to Hochfilzen. Thus, the strongest biathletes on the planet will settle in the Alps for two weeks and enjoy the charm of a measured rural life.
QUOTE
“We (with a personal trainer, husband Victor Malgin) have done a large amount of high-speed work, maybe even more than in previous years. But the main attention was paid to accuracy. This is my sore spot ... At nine in the morning I came to training and left after two and a half hours. The total score is eighteen hours a week. Very tedious, but necessary work, ” Irina Malgina explained in an interview to“ Gazeta ”, thanks to which she won the individual race in Ostersund.