The number one member of the men’s national team, who finished 12th in the Biathlon World Cup overall competition last season and reached the top ten in four mc races Tero Seppälä had to miss the normal trip at the opening of the World Cup last season.
He is not yet aiming for giant achievements in the 20-kilometer normal distance race that opens the season on Tuesday. Kontiolahti’s domestic landscaping is at least not a problem for Seppälä. There are hard climbs, like for example in Oberhoff.
– Coming to the bench is also very different here than in many other places, or at least I feel that way. At least I’ve done this a lot, when I’ve also taken the same route on asphalt, Seppälä grinned.
– I’ve been training really hard here for a very long time. Now we’ll see how I’ve had time to recover and how it goes. I haven’t raced an awful lot of those (normal distances), but at least the track and shooting range are familiar.
Shooting in a stick box
Shooting vertically has been challenging for Seppälä. It has been practiced diligently for a reason, and small changes have also been made to the weapon for it.
– We have continued the same work that we started Anatoly Hovantsev with last year. The focus on the shooting side has been quite strong. From there, those jostlings have been caught from last season as well.
– Even in Anterselva, if the last two boards had fallen, it would have been on the podium, Seppälä referred to the joint start race held in Italy in January, where he finished sixth.
The easier it is to get into shooting, the easier it is to handle the shooting itself. There are certain fitness frames here, when it is more likely to succeed and when it is not.
In mass skiing, for TV pictures to fight for good positions
Seppälä reminds that the skiing side also needs to be improved if the rankings are to improve even further.
– The physical training has at least been commendable. There has been room for improvement in the uphill stuff and acceleration from the top of the hill to high cruising speed. Above all, you should start moving a little more lightly, so that you don’t spend all your strength on it.
Seppälä greatly improved the quality of his work last season. He no longer dares to promise similar steps of development.
– Last year was a really big step up for me. Now you can’t do that much or it would be terribly overwhelming – just like (Johannes Hösflot) Kläbo on the cross-country side, Seppälä laughed.
– The goal is, of course, to take part in those mass skiing again and to fight for good positions in those TV pictures in every race.
Mari Eder is not included for fun
Mari Eder begins her 16th season in her long competitive career at the Biathlon Women’s World Cup. The women’s normal distance competition takes place on Wednesday.
– At this point, everyone (athletes) say and hope that it will be the best season of their career, or at least a good season. It’s always the same kind of painting. In this situation, who would say that nothing will come of this. However, I approach the competition season with good feelings. The feeling is expectant and bubbly, describes Eder.
Eder hasn’t competed in the Kontiolahti gp races yet, but he has been trying to get a feel for the competition in the German biathlon camp competition and in cross-country skiing in Taivalkoski in the Finnish Cup.
Eder, who finished 27th in the overall World Cup competition last year, has always enjoyed the encouragement of the public in Kontiolahti, no matter how he went in the competitions. Eder will have a different training season below, but everything should be fine.
– I’m not here for fun. There are goals. I still know that I have the potential to make individual, hard results. I feel like I’m approaching the season in good shape.
Still shooting like a rollercoaster
Although the starting positions are good for Konkar, he does not dare to promise too much.
– I cannot promise myself or others that the last step has now been taken. There have been days when it has felt like I’m almost like a biathlete, and on the other hand, days when I realize that this (shooting) has not progressed at all despite the work.
Eder, who just turned 35 years old, debuted in the World Cup for the first time in 2007. An experienced competitor and expert in 325 World Cup races, he enjoyed an exceptionally long career. He announced his decision to continue at the top level only on October 25, a month before the opening of the World Cup.
– I had to know if I have trained in such a way that I should go to the World Cup season. I have to be honest with myself here. Top sport is above all a passion for me, I love competing and training. Regarding that, nothing has changed in my world of thought.
Eder says that he has had to think about the end point of his career before, when the set goals have not been met.
– I’m not actually painting anything now (about quitting). In a certain way, I even wished that feeling would have come to me one summer morning and I would have stated that I was no longer interested in this.
Quitting can happen in a short period of time
Eder has prepared for the season in Vuokatti and in his native Austria. He says that he observes his inner self one day at a time and that he is ready to make quick decisions about ending his racing career if necessary.
– If the point comes during the winter that this is now here, then I have the freedom to make that decision in a short period of time, warns the Finnish women’s biathlon team.
Eder, who lives in Austria, has become an entrepreneur and founded a sports equipment store with her husband Benjamin last spring, which is focused on “excellence in cross-country skiing”.
– We have both had our hands in the clay. We operate like any other small business, that is, we do everything ourselves as much as possible. It means that in the spring we built an online store or company website together. It involves the accounting of everything in the world and the construction of a cash and warehouse system.
Eder recalled that he himself was on an internship as a teenager at Intersport as a salesperson in a sports store.
– Kind of funny how this life has gone. At that time, I didn’t know that I would do biathlon as a profession for 20 years and then end up as a sports retailer, Eder laughed.
The scoring will change
Changes have been made to the Biathlon World Cup.
The weight of the top places in the scoring increases, when the six top places bring points as follows: 90-75-60-50-45-40. Even last season, the winner got 60 points. Points are still awarded to the top 40.
The importance of victory and second place in relation to other top places will increase considerably in the coming season.
In this season’s World Cup, all competitions are included in the overall World Cup competition. Before, the two weakest races were removed from the bills. In addition, World Cup points are no longer awarded for Biathlon World Cup competitions.