Mari Eder was able to start the Biathlon World Cup with two “home competitions”, because Eder, who lives in Austria, is very familiar with the tracks in Hochfilzen from the training season. A week ago, on the Kontiolahti fast track, Eder had some problems, but now on the Hochfilzen tracks, he knew how to be more careful. However, the result was the same as in the opening of the season, this time Eder was 20th.
However, in Eder’s opinion, the structure of the competition was different from Kontiolahti, and he was “calmly accepting” of his performance. He shot one miss from both prone and upright.
– Today we took out what could be taken. 80 percent is not enough for me to get a top result. It is being chased to get there to 90 or 100 percent, he said, referring to his shooting performance.
Eder’s skiing speed was also at the same level as at the opening of the season. Switched from skiing to biathlon Anamarija Lampic kept the best pace, Elvira Öberg was 27 seconds behind the Slovenian, but after that there were seven women on the list in an even group. Eder was part of this group.
According to Eder, in Kontiolahti he had much better than average skis under him, but the challenging conditions in Hochfilzen caused him and the maintenance a headache. There is little snow at the race site and the track was icy.
– We had to do a lot of work with maintenance. Just yesterday it seemed that there are so many skis that are the same. It is usually a sign that something is not very good, Eder said.
– I think we won the fight and the ski times show that we succeeded well.
Eder’s break with the winner of the day, Germany to Denise Herrmann-Wick was just over a minute. He was saddened by the fact that he didn’t manage to hit better this time, because there would have been a chance.
– Today’s race was not of a terribly high standard, there were very few zero shootings (12). My guess is that it has something to do with the fact that the ski platform was so unstable. It was especially visible in vertical shooting. At least the wind was not an explanatory factor, Eder stated.
The Hochfilzen track may have looked good on television, but Eder found it unstable and icy, requiring precision and more footwork from the athletes.
The women’s races continue on Saturday with the pursuit, which is not one of Eder’s current favorites. Last year, the pursuit was by far the most difficult form of competition for him, but despite this, he plans to approach the next competitions with a calm mind.
– I know my development targets and today I was able to take a few seconds off compared to Kontiolahti. I still have a few technical things in shooting that I would like to be able to do better in competition performance, Eder reflected.
– The most important thing is that I can get a better grip on what I’m doing. So that the package stays together better. Kontiolahti’s chase was already a step better, even though it wasn’t terribly good in terms of results (24th).
The biggest surprise of the Hochfilzen speed race was Anamarija Lampic, who started the first World Cup race of her career. Lampic was in the fight for victory all the way to the standing position, but three missed shots knocked him off the podium. Despite this, the Slovenian finished fifth in the race.
Eder was not surprised by Lampic’s performance, as he had already impressed in the early season in the IBU Cup by finishing sixth in the sprint race. The IBU Cup is the second highest competition level in biathlon.
For example, the sprint Olympic champion who switched skiing to biathlon two years ago Stina Nilsson lost to Lampic in the Hochfilzen speed race by almost one and a half minutes at ski pace. Nilsson, ranked 35th, fired two misses.
In Eder’s opinion, fluctuations can be expected in Lampic’s shooting performance, but with his skiing speed, this former sprinter easily misses his shots.
– It was a hard performance and it was already visible from the results of the IBU Cup that his pace is strong, Eder said.
He had researched skiing analyzes more widely and according to that Sweden’s Elvira Öberg was not in quite the same striking condition as Kontiolahti. He believes that the gap between the two is getting smaller.
– Probably, at that rate, Lampic will have more profit this winter, even more.