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IBU Open European Championships Biathlon Brezno-Osrblie 2024

IBU Open European Championships Biathlon Brezno-Osrblie took place between January 21st and 28th. My photogallery from (mostly) sunlit Men’s pursuit and Women’s pursuit with quite a lot of snowing from Saturday 27th January. Results:

Men’s 12.5km Pursuit: 1. Isak Frey (NOR), 2. Dmitrii Shamaev (ROU), 3. Antonin Guigonnat (FRA), 4. Vebjoern Soerum (NOR), 5. Mats Oeverby (NOR), 6. Martin Nevland (NOR)
Women’s 10 km Pursuit: 1. Maren Kirkeeide (NOR), 2. Emilie Aagheim Kalkenberg (NOR), 3. Oceane Michelon (FRA), 4. Ida Lien (NOR), 5. Marlene Fichtner (GER), 6. Johanna Skottheim

Empire Tennis Academy Open 2023

Photogallery from an 8-day shoot covering Empire Tennis Academy Open 2023 – the largest women’s tennis tournament held in Slovakia (ITF World Tennis Tour – 100 000 USD + H). The 12th edition had a number of firsts – first all-Belgian final and first time the final was played “in the bubble” due to persistent rain and unfavorable weather forecast. Nevertheless, it was a good week – being back as the official photographer of the event, getting the basic things done a bit easier thanks to the mirrorless system. The urge to capture new and exciting stuff was great, if only the matches were as good as I remember from the past…

Singles winner: Yanina Wickmayer defeated Greet Minnen. Doubles winners: Amina Anshba, Anastasia Detiuc.

 

IBU Cup Biathlon Osrblie 2023

Photogallery from January 7th, 2023 races of IBU Cup 2023 held in Osrblie, Slovakia. This will probably go down in history as “Muddy Cup” and I’m not sure if it wasn’t even worse than last year’s extremely slippery ice around the track. Winner of Women’s 7.5km Sprint: Eleonora Fauner, Italy. Winner of Men’s 10km Sprint: Eric Perrot, France. Special moment: The joy of finishing the race by Raul Antonio Figueroa of Mexico – the instant favorite of the crowds.

IBU Cup Biathlon Osrblie 2022

Photogallery from the last day of second IBU Cup in the 2021/2022 season held in Osrblie, Slovakia. Two races, two entirely different lighting conditions (sunny morning and afternoon in deep shadows) and extremely slippery conditions (even though there wasn’t any snow left beside the track) were additional hinderances to very strict anti-pandemic precautions that made photographying much more difficult. Winners of the day were Emiliene Claude of France (Men’s Sprint – rescheduled from Friday) and Evgeniia Burtasova of Russia (Women’s Pursuit).

Inca Gold Exhibition Opening Bratislava Slovakia

When Francisco Pizarro coquered Inca Empire in 1532 with only 168 men and 27 horses he came into posession of a tremendeous amount of gold, silver and artifacts. It is believed that over 180 tons of gold and more than 16 800 tons of silver was melted and transported back to Europe. Only a fraction of breathtaking artifacts remained in the existence. Museo Oro del Perรบ has loaned them to “Inca Gold” Exhibition and they have been touring Europe for the first time in history. On June 24th, the exhibition opened in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Fed Cup 2020 World Group Play Offs Slovakia: Great Britain

Fed Cup entered into a new era during the first week of February 2020. Sixteen World Group teams competed to secure the spot in the newly established Fed Cup Finals, held in Budapest, Hungary. Slovakia hosted Great Britain and managed to win the tie 3:1. Tie details and results here.

Note: Unfortunately they haven’t invented a way, so one person can be two places at the same time. Due to other comittment, I was unable to capture the deciding match between Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and Hariett Dart. I’m hoping to catch more Fed Cup action in Budapest in April…

IBU Cup Biathlon 2019/2020 – Osrblie, Slovakia

The 4th round of 2019/2020 IBU Cup biathlon season takes place in Osrblie, Slovakia. Due to instatisfactory show conditions, the individual races held on Friday 10th January were shortened for both Women (12,5 kilometers) and Men (15 kilometers). In Women’s short individual race, Ekaterina Glazyrina claimed the first place. Endre Stroemsheim claimed the victory in Men’s short individual race. Slovak biathlete Matej Kazar (bib 66) chose the event in Osrblie as a farewell event from his long biathlon career.

X-Bionic Summer Tour 2019 Samorin Slovakia

The multi-week X-Bionic Summer Tour, held in beautiful X-Bionic Equestor Sphere in Samorin always offers great equestrian events. This year for the first time in Slovakia, the CAI2*-H4 Combined Marthon took place over several days. A grand finale with 6 carriages took place on July 28th. My photos are from July 21st and July 28th. If only the weather was as great as is the norm in Samorin…

Fed Cup 2019 World Group 2 Play Offs – Slovakia : Brazil

On April 20 – 21st, Team Slovakia played against Team Brazil during the 2019 Fed Cup Play Offs. The winning team would secure the position among top 16 Tennis teams of the World. It was also the last Fed Cup tie for Dominika Cibulkova. She decided to retire from Fed Cup and other team competitions in front of the home fans after playing in Fed Cup for 14 years.

Results: Dominika Cibulkova : Carolina Alves – 6:1, 6:1. Viktoria Kuzmova : Beatriz Haddad Maia – 6:3, 6:3. Dominika Cibulkova : Beatriz Haddad Maia – 7:6, 6:0, Viktoria Kuzmova, Rebecca Sramkova : Carolina Alves, Luisa Stefani – 1:6, 3:6.

Davis Cup 2019 Qualifiers – Slovakia : Canada

On February 1st and 2nd, the new format of Davis Cup was played for the first time with 24 teams competing for a spot in newly established Davis Cup Finals held in Madrid. The Canadian team led by rising star Denis Shapovalov and playing captain Frank Dancevic faced Slovak team for the first time in almost 22 years. Bratislava saw 5 high quality rubbers played on clay over the two days with Felix Auger Aliassime securing the win for Canadians in the deciding 5th rubber against Norbert Gombos.

Results: Filip Horansky : Denis Shapovalov – 4:6, 5:7, Martin Klizan : Felix Auger-Aliassime – 7:5, 6:3, Martin Klizan, Filip Polasek : Felix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov – 3:6, 7:5, 6:3, Martin Klizan : Denis Shapovalov – 6:7, 4:6, Norbert Gombos : Felix Auger-Aliassime – 3:6, 4:6