Biatlon #14 Met een nieuw seizoen *O*

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Op dinsdag 13 december 2016 13:36 schreef znaimer het volgende:
zaterdag naar nove mesto, staanplaats maar heb er zin in. cesky do to ho

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Some very interesting noises coming out of Russia of late, as the fans are becoming increasingly displeased with the pedestrian performances of the women's team in particular, and the self-serving and biased selection policies that Ustyugov's #1 Fan has elaborated on in the forum before are coming in for some serious stick.

This has come to a head following an interview with Kasperovich, where he's seemingly basically said that since Ridnaun and Obertilliach are at comparable altitude, it makes more sense to take those performing well in the IBU Cup and continue them there, rather than risk them at lower altitude (?!) in the World Cup. Just for the record, Ridnaun is at a very similar altitude to Pokljuka. His argument then is therefore that there are several athletes in contention for the World Cup in Oberhof and Ruhpolding, with the same team to continue in NMNM and then the Izhevskaya Vintovka events over Christmas to help decide between those on the fringes.

The cat has been put among the pigeons over the weekend for several reasons.

Firstly, the World Cup team has been very disappointing; the relay was a nondescript 6th and never looked like reaching the podium, and they've managed one top 10 all season, from Glazyrina. The rest of the team are far from young apart from Podchufarova, and people like Akimova are making it to the World Cup for the first time at 26. Meanwhile, on the IBU Cup, there are young prospects (Slivko and Kaisheva are both 22) and established World Cup names (Virolaynen); saying they are not ready seems a bit silly when Slivko was selected for Östersund, but was withdrawn due to illness - now that she's healthy again they plug her back into the IBU Cup, but it can't be because the performances of her replacement kept her out as the Russian women have been mostly nondescript!

Secondly, Kasperovich's slow reaction doesn't fill the fans with confidence, that somebody going well in the IBU Cup now might have good form now, so this would be the time to capitalise, rather than having them jet back to Russia after a competition block, compete against fresh athletes from the national calendar for a place, and then jet back to Germany for the World Cup, because that's almost setting them up to fail. It had been said that Glazyrina was sick and if she wasn't able to make it the strongest competitor from the IBU Cup would come to the Czech Republic, now we're told this won't happen regardless. Fans who are waiting for a desperately-needed upheaval are growing tired of the waiting game.

Thirdly, it seems the fans have picked up on - and got fed up of - the favouritism for competitors from Tyumen' and XMAO. I'm seeing comments to the effect of that they'd said they would promote the best performing IBU Cup athlete, banking on it being Slivko rather than Kaisheva (Slivko represents Tyumen' Oblast' while Kaisheva has remained loyal to her Udmurt home region) as the former had made good progress over the summer, but instead Kaisheva was on the podium twice over the weekend, second only to Merkushyna in the sprint then dominating the pursuit when Merkushyna went to Pokljuka, hitting 20/20. And this is considered not enough to justify even a promised future World Cup entry, instead she will be "in consideration" for starts after Christmas.

It seems that the fans have grown tired of this, accusing the coaches of playing a favourites game based on who is in their own cadres (thus protecting their own position) and who are from the 'in' regions. Svetlana Sleptsova's popularity has kept her on for a long time, but now the tide appears to be turning (I'm seeing a lot of comments to the effect of "why doesn't she retire and keep a bit of dignity rather than race the World Cup as such a weak version of the athlete she used to be?") on her. Also there's a lot of consternation following Merkushyna's superb World Cup relay that it seems yet another athlete who Kaisheva used to hammer in the junior categories is progressing to a good World Cup position while the coaches still insist it's too soon for her in the World Cup. Kasperovich feels she lacks in speed, confidence and courage - to which fans are pointing out that in that case it makes MORE sense to bring her back at NMNM, which is fairly flat, than Oberhof or Ruhpolding with their tough trails, and it's difficult to display confidence and courage when the coaches cut you off at the knees all the time!

To this end though, a petition is gaining steam for an overhaul of the women's team to promote athletes based on merit rather than regionalism, along with team officials being confronted by frustrated fans. Others are preaching caution though; it seems that Kaisheva has been turned into something of a rallying call for those disgruntled by the management and development of the team. With people she used to compete on a level footing with or defeat at the junior level regularly now fixtures of the World Cup and some of her contemporaries - Vishnevskaya, Hauser, Preuß - all prominent in the World Cup at present, it is key to note that little blame for slow development is being placed at the door of the actual athletes (in fact some are even exhorting Uliana to pick another country to compete for so that she gets an opportunity!) and instead she has become something of an avatar for the mismanagement of the Russian team, what with her development having stalled and the management seemingly trying to avoid promoting her, instead favouring other talents from more fashionable regional teams. As a result, some are becoming wary of the effect of putting unreasonable expectations on her or thinking that persuading the team to select her is a magic door to Russia rejoining the women's biathlon top table. That said, much of the thinking is pretty straightforward; most of their team is in its late 20s and with little room for improvement. In some cases well beyond their best, too. Given their fringe points positions, could not some young talents like Kaisheva and Slivko have these opportunities because while they may not be much better now, they could be much better in the long run, as we're seeing now from the French persistence with Justine Braisaz.

Oh, and also, having seen that Aleksandr Loginov is being brought back in to the IBU Cup fold, some are worried that if they don't get the younger athletes in now, they'll have an additional roadblock in the name of Irina Starykh, whose suspension ends soon.

It's nice to know we're not alone in our impatience and frustration in the handling of one of Russia's best natural talents in years, anyway.

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World Cup Nove Mesto

Anna Magnusson (bilden ovan)

Hanna Öberg

Linn Persson

Emma Nilsson

Chardine Sloof

Fredrik Lindström

Jesper Nelin

Sebastian Samuelsson (bilden nedan)

Peppe Femling