Although the dust has barely settled after the 2015 FIS Nordic World Championships in Falun (SWE), the biathletes are chumping at their bits to get off the line for their World Championships in Finland.
The IBU World Championships 2015 take place in Kontiolahti, open with mixed relays tonight at 6:15pm local time (which is one hours ahead of Central European Time). Then the championships continue sprint races for men and women on Saturday, March 7, and conclude with mass start competitions for men and women on Sunday, March 15. But in between, there is plenty of action to look forward to.
Legendary biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who was named the best male athlete at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia last year, is back at the start line.
The master of peaking at just the right time, the 41-year-old sat out several of the last World Cup races in order to nail his fitness for the season highlight.
Bjoerndalen will certainly get plenty of competition from all over the biathlon world – including fellow Madshus racers such as Anaïs Bescond of France, Timofey Lapshin and Maxim Tsvetkov of Russia, not to mention his Bjoerndalen’s own teammate Emil Hegle “Super-Svendsen.”
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Here is your cheat sheet to the action in Finland.
Program IBU World Championships 2015
March 7: Mixed relay (2x6km, 2×7.5km) at 6:15pm
March 7: 10km sprint men at 2:00pm, and sprint women 7.5km at 5:30pm
March 8: pursuit men 12.5km at 2:15pm, and pursuit women 10km at 5pm
March 11: normal competition 15km women at 6:15pm
March 12: normal competition 20km men at 6:15pm
March 13: relay 4x6km women at 6:15pm
March 14: relay men 4×7.5km men at 6:15pm
March 15: mass start 12.5km women at 2:30pm, and mass start 15km men at 5:15pm
(All times are local time in Kontiolahti, CET+1hr)