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Written by Brian Olsen
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Saturday, 12 November 2005 00:00 |
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Location: Beitostølen, NOR
Maybe race preparation is overrated. I arrived yesterday around noon here in Beitostølen and just finished my first race of the season about 24 hours later. The snow conditions here are not as good as in Geilo, but the loop is longer and offers terrain that is more challenging. Plus, training around Ole Einar Bjørndalen and Raphael Poirée is rather motivating. If the conditions are good enough for them, then surely they are good enough for me!
The mass start race went really well. Because of the narrow trails and limited number of shooting points with snow, I started in the B-group, which was a separate race altogether. In my race were Norwegian juniors and a few of the Swiss athletes.
We started at the bottom of a two-minute uphill. As usual, the inexperienced athletes skied as fast as they could from the start. I waited for their anaerobic energy sources to be depleted, and as expected, was able to pass them as if they were standing still. (Hint: never start a mass start at full speed.)
I arrived in the shooting range after a complicated series of four different loops in seventh place, shot clean, and left in maybe fifth place. After three more loops, I arrived in fifth place to the shooting range, missed one, and left in maybe third place. I came into the range and again missed one target in the standing position, but was able to leave in second place. Skiing was difficult since the trail was narrow, icy, and bumpy. It was difficult to really improve, except in the shooting range.
Into the last shooting stage, I arrived in second place, just as the leader was leaving. I knew that I had to shoot clean and fast to catch him. All of the targets went down, but not with extraordinary speed. I left the range maybe twenty seconds behind Stian Navik, who last season was Junior World Champion. He was wearing a pink suit, not sure why, so it was easy to spot him. However, there just was not enough space, or width in the trails to catch him. I finished fifteen seconds behind, but with ninety percent shooting!
I was ecstatic about the shooting and that I handled the difficult conditions and medium level of pressure that should have developed amidst the competition. The result could have been better – I was, after all, beaten by a junior. Most of all, the major change that I noticed from previous races is that I was enjoying the competition. When I arrived in the shooting range each time, I was thinking that it would be fun to hit the targets, whereas before I would be thinking, I hope I am lucky and do not miss too many!
I am really looking forward to the season!
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