Hugh Pritchard
Biathlete.co.uk

• German Autumn Performance Tests (roller-ski biathlons): Individual (Ruhpolding), Pursuit (Ruhpolding), Individual (Oberhof), Sprint (Oberhof), Pursuit (Oberhof).
• Selection Races at Kontiolahti: Selection Race 1 (Individual); International Sprint; International Pursuit.
• Team Selection
• World Cup 1 - Hochfilzen, Austria: Sprint, Relay
• World Cup 2 - Pokljuka, Slovenia: Relay
• World Cup 3 - Osrblie, Slovakia: Individual, Sprint
• World Cup 4 - Oberhof, Germany: Sprint
• World Cup 5 - Ruhpolding, Germany: Relay
• Olympics - Soldier Hollow, Utah: Relay
• World Cup 7 - Östersund, Sweden: Sprint
• World Cup 8 - Lahti, Finlande: Sprint

Shooting Statistics for the season

* Delighted with my best shooting yet in a 4-shoot race. Skiing well.

* Bewildering standing shooting. Skiing too fast perhaps (desperate effort to overtake Birnbacher on the 3rd loop)? Not quite as strong as yesterday. Still some residual soreness in the gluteals from Monday's plyometrics.

* Odd race. Mouldy shooting, I thought I was skiing OK, gaining a little on Jason, but finished 90" down on him - all lost on the last loop.

* Good race: focused, skiing well on a hard course, shooting well. Skis running well. Dratschev took about 1'10" off me on the first loop, and only another 20"-odd in the remaining 2 loops. Weird, but I did do a much better last loop than on Thursday.

* Disappointing, given the requirement for a good Brit ranking, and the opportunity for a pursuit medal: two shooting accidents, and a generally mediocre shooting performance. But skiing OK.

* A close call, but the job done. Time to get cracking: 2 results within 10% of the medals to get in the first 4 meetings (a maximum of 8 races). A hard but attainable target.

* A catalogue of unhappy circumstances: conditions slowing radically during the race to my disadvantage; the snow and rain such that I could hardly see, important on these very soft tracks; a flurry of such heavy snowfall during my stand shoot that I could not see the targets. Such is biathlon. I had the 22nd fastest shoot time, a surprise as I think of myself as a cautious shot.

* Going well until Tom's zero proved to be 4cm high. I was pleased with my run, the splits showed that I was skiing a little faster than the others - apart from Tom, who was taking a risk to try to catch Slovakia.

* Good runs from Fred and Mike, the 16th and 14th fastest on their respective laps. Not so good from me and Jason: my slow skiing and Jason's poor shooting put us off target.

* Not feeling strong enough for the repeated steep little hills. No idea what is happening with the standing shooting; the prone misses were a wind issue.

* Felt much better, skiing hard and obviously shooting well. Chose the wrong skis, but can that account for all the lack of ski speed? My speed was my slowest of the season, despite feeling far better than in the Individual race. Weird.

* Skiing well on a tough course, conditions good for shooting and skiing. All I did wrong was misjudge the wind correction for my prone shoot.

* Mysterious: we all shot well enough and ski times were respectable (we were all close together, with mine the fastest skiing). Yet outside the magic 10%: perhaps due to the first 3 teams all performing excellently .

* Demotivated on finding myself 2 minutes behind the next team at my start; poor skis, and generally a miserable time, compounded by terrible shooting (although a staggering 13 of the 19 teams did penalty loops)

* Disappointing: although I felt good skiing I did not feel able to push hard. And I was caught by a confusing wind in the prone shoot - yet again. Good skis, and I was able to stay with Jean-Marc Chabloz throughout my first loop; did I start too fast?

* Skiing more confidently than last week, but still losing touch on the big climbs. Good skis; disappointing shooting - not sure what happened.

* Shooting quickly & confidently, holding good technique in the skiing. Getting weak on the big climbs.

* Individual and Pursuit races are 4 shoots (ie 10 prone and 10 standing shots), Sprints are 2 shoots; Relays are 2 shoots of up to 8 rounds each (if it takes that many).