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Old 09-01-2015, 12:17
Edward_Sloley
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Maria Orlova pips Yarnold for the win in Altenberg by four hundredths to claim her first victory in the Skeleton World Cup; Elena Nikitina had a medicore first run, but her second run was the day's fastest and enough to get her on the podium. First and third for Russia, and surprisingly, not a single German on the podium!

McGrandle and Deas finished in 8th and 10th place respectively.

Today was also the first time that Nikitina, Marina Gilardoni (SUI) and Deas competed in the same World Cup event - so the fact that Deas finished this meet as the fastest pusher (all three beat the preceding Start Record) is an achievement in itself. Whether she can produce consistently good runs to the end is another thing altogether.
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Old 09-01-2015, 15:50
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Forgot to add that Deas' second run was affected by a paper fan on the track (!) - she was given the opportunity to redo it, but decided not to.
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Old 09-01-2015, 16:04
grassmarket
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Forgot to add that Deas' second run was affected by a paper fan on the track (!) - she was given the opportunity to redo it, but decided not to.
Yes, she was on a stormer up to the that point, it looked to have cost her at least 0.5
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Old 10-01-2015, 10:57
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Men's biathlon sprint switched to 13:30 today, Eurosport 2
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Old 11-01-2015, 10:59
Baccattack
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Wow, don't recall ever seeing a world cup race take place in such poor conditions, womens Super G from Bad Kleinkirchheim. There is almost no snow on the race piste. Even as a recreational skier there is no way I'd be on that, would wreak your skies.

In better news looks like Dave Ryding could be on for more world cup points having made the second run of the mens slalom in Adelboden.
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Old 11-01-2015, 15:53
ATNotts
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Andrew Musgrave finished 20th in the final leg of the Tour de Ski today, a great result for him.

Will he get a mention on the BBC Sportsday round-up? I won't be holding my breath; the BBC seem interested solely in football, rugby, cricket plus any other sport they are covering; which is a disgrace for the national broadcaster.
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Old 11-01-2015, 17:21
grassmarket
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Andrew Musgrave finished 20th in the final leg of the Tour de Ski today, a great result for him.

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What is more he is now 31st on the overall World Cup leaders list - ahead of any German or French athlete, which is utterly amazing. Let's hope the preparations for the World Champs go well - he is surely on course for some great results there, given that the numbers of Norwegians, Russians etc will be restricted. The short team sprint relay with Andrew Young ought to be able to get into the finals, at least. I thought he had suffered from overtraining going into the Olympics.

Dave Ryding finished 24th in the Adelboden slalom today - he's now 24th in the Slalom World Cup as well, so will now be getting better first run starts, especially in the Worlds next month.

Not sure why the Brits did not put out a 4-man Bob team today - we have been having some excellent results recently.
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Old 11-01-2015, 18:31
grassmarket
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Great news from Ski Sunday - the BBC will be showing all the finals from the Freestyle World Champs on the Red Button, starts on Friday. I'll get a schedule posted before then.
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Old 12-01-2015, 09:26
ATNotts
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Reported on ARD and ZDF text this morning, the IBU is expected to announce more athletes have been found using banned, performance enhancing substances following the introduction of new tests.

It's not clear whether they are ex-athletes or from current competitors, but further information is expected later this week - probably at, or ahead, of Ruhpolding which starts on Wednesday.

If current athletes are involved, I fear it could be the Russians (again). The quite sudden improvement of Anton Shupilin in particular worries me. Given the incandescent rage that Uwe Mussegang was in after Sachenbacher-Stehle was found out, I doubt the German's a will be involved, nor the Norwegians. The pressure under which the Russians operate (from the "very top" downwards) makes taking the easy (illegal) route all to appealing I would have thought.
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Old 12-01-2015, 20:38
grassmarket
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Reported on ARD and ZDF text this morning, the IBU is expected to announce more athletes have been found using banned, performance enhancing substances following the introduction of new tests.
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Dunno if this is something different, but Alexander Loginov RUS and Sergei Sednev UKR are the athletes involved - it involves reanalysis of already suspicious samples.
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Old 13-01-2015, 08:56
ATNotts
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grassmarket

Dunno if this is something different, but Alexander Loginov RUS and Sergei Sednev UKR are the athletes involved - it involves reanalysis of already suspicious samples.
Just what i was going to post this a.m. Confirmed by ARD text this morning. Possibly more to follow, but I sincerely hope not. What I don't understand is why Russia (and the other ex USSR states) still see it as OK to cheat.

Also this morning noted that Miri Goessner will not be on the German women's team for Ruhpolding this week, even though she won an IBU Cup sprint last week. I wonder if perhaps her antics involving a photoshoot, and a lack of clothing earlier in the year may be working against her - though Germans are not half so prudish as we Brits.
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Old 13-01-2015, 09:27
grassmarket
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Also this morning noted that Miri Goessner will not be on the German women's team for Ruhpolding this week, even though she won an IBU Cup sprint last week. I wonder if perhaps her antics involving a photoshoot, and a lack of clothing earlier in the year may be working against her
Well, being photographed in the altogether worked for Soukalova! But you are right about the cheating - when the Finnish Cross Country men's team were caught cheating about 13 years back they lost fans, sponsorship, TV coverage, the lot. It took them a good decade in the wilderness before they regained national support. The Russians just seem to treat it as an episode in their career like an injury or a pregnancy.
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Old 13-01-2015, 11:10
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Story here about UK Luge seeking to emulate the success of the other slide sports.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-sports/30779827

I've noticed that there have some British results this season. Luge works differently than the other sports in that there is always a Nations' Cup qualifying race before a World Cup race but as far as I can see none of the Brits have got near to qualifying yet.
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Old 13-01-2015, 14:58
ATNotts
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I noticed in the linked webpage regarding Luge, there is table of funded sports for the upcoming Olympics.

Ski and Snowboard gets £ 4.89m. Does this include Nordic as well as Alpine, and if it does how much does our (excellent) Nordic team - Musgrave and Young - get of this cake? They ought to get a decent chunk as they are performing really well just now, and with the right support could have a real impact.
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Old 13-01-2015, 16:18
grassmarket
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I
Ski and Snowboard gets £ 4.89m. Does this include Nordic as well as Alpine, and if it does how much does our (excellent) Nordic team - Musgrave and Young - get of this cake? They ought to get a decent chunk as they are performing really well just now, and with the right support could have a real impact.
They are definitely getting more than last year because before they did not have professional coaches and ski preparation. Lottery funding - there are other kinds of funding for sport just below the top level - is tied to World and Olympic medal chances so if, or once, they started getting top 10 results they'll get even more.
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Old 14-01-2015, 11:14
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Here's the main events for the Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Champs starting today in Kreischberg, Austria and running until Sunday 25th. Coverage is not 100%, but most of the main finals are live on BBC Red Button and live or delayed on Eurosport 2. There are also lots of qualification runs scheduled, but none of them seem to be getting any TV coverage.

http://www.kreischberg2015.at/en/program/race-program/

The finals and medal runs are

15 Jan: Freestyle Aerials 17:00
16 Jan: Snowboard Cross 10:45
17 Jan: Snowboard halfpipe 17:00
18 Jan: Solo moguls 13:00
19 Jan: Dual moguls 11:00
21 Jan: Snowboard slopestyle 10:00
21 Jan: Ski slopestyle 13:00
22 Jan: Snowboard PS 12:00
22 Jan: Ski halfpipe 17:00
23 Jan: Snowboard PGS 12:30
24 Jan: Snowboard Big Air 15:00
25 Jan: Ski Cross 11:00
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Old 15-01-2015, 14:39
grassmarket
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Another packed weekend.

Bob and skeleton from Kongissee, Germany.

BBC and YouTube

Friday
13:00 Women skeleton 1
14:30 Women skeleton 2

16:15 Women's bob 1
17:45 Women's bob 2

Saturday
10:30 Men's skeleton 1
13:00 Men's skeleton 2

14:30 2-Man bob 1
16:00 2-Man bob 2

Sunday
14:40 4-man bob 1
16:00 4- man bob 2
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Old 15-01-2015, 15:30
grassmarket
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Eurosport World Cups - see earlier post for the Freestyle World Champs

Incidentally, there is a YouTube channel for the Freestyle Worlds - but it is Geoblocked on the UK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VWMbAaCxak

Alpine - Women from Cortina, Men from Wengen

Friday
08:15 Women's downhill
09:30 & 13:00 Men's combined
Saturday
09:15 & 12:30 Men's slalom
10:30 Women's downhill
Sunday
10:00 Women's Super-G

Nordic Combined from Seefeld
Friday
10:30 & 12:15 Gundersen
Sunday
09:15 15:30 Gundersen

Biathlon from Ruhpolding
Friday
13:45 Women's sprint
Saturday
13:30 Men's sprint
Sunday
11:30 Women's mass start
14:30 Men's mass start

More to come...
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Old 15-01-2015, 16:02
grassmarket
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Ski Jumping from Zakopane
Saturday
16:00 Team event
Sunday
12:45 Solo

Cross country from Otepaa, Estonia
Saturday
10:30 Classic solo sprint
Sunday
10:45 Team sprint

Luge from Oberhof
As ever, the red-headed stepchild of the Eurosport schedules, squeezed in at odd times when there is nothing else happening.
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Old 16-01-2015, 09:37
grassmarket
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With the Skeleton races now being live on BBC Online, YouTube are now geo-blocking them - Bob races are on as normal.
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Old 16-01-2015, 10:00
Edward_Sloley
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If you use the hola.org plugin, geo-blocking shouldn't be an issue.
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Old 16-01-2015, 15:45
Edward_Sloley
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Yarnold claimed her second WCu victory of the season in Königssee by seventy-one hundredths - she dominated the field. Anja Huber-Selbach (racing on her 'home' track for the last time) was the runner-up, and Orlova also made it to the podium. Deas and McGrandle finished 11th and 14th respectively (the latter cost herself the best part of 10 places after nearly crashing at the chicane).

The fastest pusher in this race was Gilardoni, who broke her own Start Record. She was third after the first run, but couldn't hold on to a podium spot.
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Old 16-01-2015, 16:05
grassmarket
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I think even new viewers can see that Yarnold is a class apart from the others at the moment, just so much less movement on the sledge than everyone else. It's really a year for the rookies, lots of people alternating one good and one poor run in the same race.
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Old 16-01-2015, 17:49
Edward_Sloley
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Hopefully she will maintain that form all the way to the World Championships.

If there's perhaps one thing she could improve on this season, it's her starts. She is generally a good pusher (second fastest quartile), but in the 2014 Olympics she was as quick as Gilardoni off the blocks, with only Nikitina above her.
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Old 17-01-2015, 10:48
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Some weather issues - too much snow at last. Women's downhill from Cortina cancelled today, will reschedule for tomorrow, Super-G on Monday.

Looks like Dave Ryding has qualified for the second slalom run in Wengen again, currently 26th, but the other riders now into the high 60s. Run 2 at 12:45.
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