Thanks to roller skis and paved roads in and around arenas, biathlon is also a summer sport. The 2017 Summer Biathlon Championships of Slovakia on roller skis took place at National Biahlon Center in Osrblie on July 22nd and 23rd.
Photos and results from July 22nd: Men’s Sprint Champion: Tomas Hasilla, Women’s Sprint Champion: Paulina Fialkova, Men’s Junior Sprint Champion: Simon Bartko, Women’s Junior Sprint Champion: Veronika Machyniakova.
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.
