The first stop on the IBU Cup circuit is two weeks and a handful of races in Arber, Germany. The fields were large (130+) and the competition fierce. The athletes included Olympic and Junior World Championship biathlon medalists, as well as Stina Nilsson a Swedish Olympic medalist who recently switched to biathlon from cross country.
For Lucy, in the opener she had her "worst race ever." Today's race was a solid effort, although halfway through the race with only one missed target - and skiing quite well - she was still down 1:35 ... the reason ... almost every one of the top 25 had cleared prone targets and of course they had polished fast range procedures over several years.
As a first year full-time biathlete, I mentioned she needs to remember that the top three on the American squad averaged at least 60 international biathlon starts in their careers. No doubt the Euros averaged even more high level racing. So top results are going to take awhile, however she is having a great time and learning a bunch.
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