The relocated 2017 Youth/Junior World Championships in Biathlon began today in Osrblie, Slovakia with invididual races for Youth racers. Leo Grandbois of Canada claimed the gold medal in very difficult rainy conditions, besting Said Karimulla Khalili of Russia and Danilo Riethmueller of Germany. Miroslav Pavlak (bib no. 79) the member of Slovak Biathlon Team and Stars For Stars unfortunately didn’t have the best day, finishing 79th with 10 penalty minutes. This will most likely be my only attendance of this event so this gallery is considered to be final.
Czech tennis player Lucie Safarova is the newest member of Empire Tennis Academy Trnava. Lucie is the 2015 Roland Garros Ladies Singles finalist, four times Grand Slam Doubles Winner with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, current no. 2 in WTA Doubles ranking (as of February 13th) and multiple Fed Cup winner. A small introductory press conference to the media was held on February 13th at Hotel Empire in Trnava.
The 6th edition of IBU Cup 2016/2017 biathlon season took place in Osrblie, Slovakia. I had a chance to attend the Saturday’s pursuit competitions. In women’s pursuit, the respectable home crowd cheered for Terezia Poliakova (the only Slovak biathlete in the line up) as well as the strong German and Russian squads. Daria Virolaynen of Russia won the race with two penalty loops. Czech biathlete Lea Johanidesova finished second with clean shooting. Denise Herrmann of Germany secured the third place despite five penalty loops. In men’s competiton, all eyes were on Norwegian biathlete Tarjei Boe, who chose Osrblie as his first venue of 2016/2017 season, as well as Matej Kazar, the only Slovak in the line up. Boe’s teammate Kristoffer Skjelvik won the race with clean shooting. Boe finished second, edged out Timur Makhambetov of Russia on the finish line. Kazar improved his starting position by four ranks and finished on 6th place.