Topic - Biathlon in the UK
Date first posted on eCommunity - 11
March 2007
There has been a growth in interest in biathlon in the UK in the
last couple of years. Traditionally a military-dominated sport, it has begun to develop a civilian following. Two new clubs have been
established, one at either end of the UK.
CAIRNGORM BIATHLON & NORDIC SKI CLUB – was founded in 2004. It is
based at Glenmore Lodge, near Aviemore. Activities include roller
skiing on Glenmore Lodge's track and on nearby country roads and
cycle tracks, snow skiing when conditions permit, shooting on
Glenmore Lodge's range, and indoor physical fitness sessions in a
community hall in Kincraig. For more details go to
http://www.cbnsc.co.uk/
WESSEX BIATHLON & NORDIC SKI CLUB – was founded in 2006 to serve
Nordic skiers in the South West of England. The club has given
itself an impressively ambitious remit, which is worth quoting in
full:
" . . . to develop the sport of biathlon in both the summer and
winter formats and hence introduce people to cross-country skiing
(through roller skiing) and target rifle shooting, eventually
combining the two disciplines to create biathletes.
The club hopes to produce athletes to compete at inter-club,
national level and above."
Summer training activities include aerobic endurance sports -
running, roller-skiing, mountain-biking and hill walking – as well
as rifle shooting with .22 rifles and air rifles. Winter training
takes place both in the UK and overseas at suitable cross-country
and biathlon centres.
For more details go to
http://www.thewasc.org/biathlon/
General information and news on biathlon can be found on several
websites.
The official website of the OLYMPIC MOVEMENT describes the features
of the sport, and gives news of events:
http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/
THE BRITISH BIATHLON UNION (BBU) is the UK National Governing Body.
The BBU was incorporated on 23 October 1996. Colin Jackson is
President; otherwise it is dominated by the military. Its website
site is mainly concerned with news of events, but there is some
general background, too:
http://www.britishbiathlon.com/
The official site of the INTERNATIONAL BIATHLON UNION can be found
at:
http://www.biathlonworld.com/eng/news/default.htm
HUGH PRITCHARD'S WEBSITE. The British Olympian used to maintain an
interesting site at:
http://web.onetel.com/~hughp/index.htm.
It has not been updated since 2003 but still contains good
information on training for both the skiing and shooting elements of
the sport, as well as diary articles on training and racing
(including the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics). There is also a
useful article on choosing a rifle.
THE FOLLOWING GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BIATHLON – WRITTEN BY PADDY
FIELD – IS EXCERPTED FROM STRIDE AND GLIDE.
The basic format of biathlon is a free technique race in which the
skiing is broken up by two or four visits, depending on the length
of the race, to the 50 metre small-bore rifle range. The range
visits will alternate between prone (lying) and standing practices,
of 5 rounds each. (In relay races competitors are each allowed to
carry three extra rounds, which they can load manually – thereby
incurring an additional loss of time – if they have not hit all five
targets with their first five rounds.)
The targets fall when hit, displaying a white disc, and any target
left standing at the end of the shooting incurs a penalty. In the
shorter biathlon races, competitors ski one lap of a 150 metre
penalty loop for each missed shot; in the longer races, a time
penalty of one minute is added for each missed target.
Targets are 115mm in diameter (or about 4.5 inches) for the
standing practice, but only 45mm in diameter (less than 2 inches)
for the prone shoot – not easy to hit from 50 metres when breathing
heavily in a crosswind.
The challenge for the biathlete is to reconcile the conflicting
demands of two entirely different sports. On the one hand, the all-out effort of cross-country skiing leads to a high pulse rate, heavy
breathing and a gradual diminution of the oxygen supply - which,
taken together, can result in some unsteadiness, impaired judgement
and blurred vision. On the other hand the shooting element requires
a calm, unhurried approach, settled breathing and clear vision.
Although `ski-shooting', the forerunner of biathlon, has a very long
history – the Trysil Shooting and Skiing Club in Norway was founded
in 1861 and skiing races with shooting were being held regularly in
Norway in the early 20th Century – biathlon was not accepted into
the Winter Olympic Games until 1960. Prior to that, there had been a
Military Patrol Race, which included shooting with large-bore rifles
on long ranges. The use of .22 rifles and 50 metre ranges, which
have done so much to make the sport more attractive to spectators,
dates only from 1978.
Biathlon has seen an amazing growth in public interest in recent
years, largely generated by TV. Unlike cross-country skiing, where
a skier with a good lead is likely to hold it to the finish, each
visit to the range in biathlon can completely alter the race
position and it is this unpredictability that makes the sport so
exciting for the spectator. Biathlon's administrators have also
appreciated the need to keep the sport up to date and have
experimented with a variety of new events. Two of these, the
Pursuit race and the Mass Start race, were added to the World
Championship and Olympic Winter Games programmes in 2002.
Safety factors are clearly a major issue where the firing of live
ammunition is concerned. Not only is an approved rifle range
necessary for training as well as competition, but the presence of a
trained and qualified person will normally be needed to supervise
the shooting elements. Such facilities are not always readily
available outside military establishments and it should therefore
come as no surprise to find that biathlon in Great Britain – as well
as in other parts of the world – has been largely dominated by the
military, although there have been notable exceptions, the most
recent being the presence in the British Salt Lake City Olympic team
of Hugh Pritchard in 2002.
Unlike cross-country skiing, which has traditionally been dominated
by the Scandinavian countries, biathlon has been embraced in other
parts of the world. Germany has for long been the strongest
biathlon nation, pursued by Russia, but in recent years many smaller
nations, perhaps seeing a greater chance of international success in
biathlon than in cross-country, have joined the competitive circuit,
whilst a number of elite athletes from the more traditional cross-country nations have followed the same course. The break-up of the
former USSR has had a similar impact on the sport, creating `new'
teams from Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The result has been to
make biathlon a truly international sport.
Biathlon is an entirely separate sport from skiing and is governed
worldwide by the International Biathlon Union (IBU) and in Britain
by the British Biathlon Union (BBU). It continues to diversify -
World Championships are now held in Summer Biathlon (running and
shooting), Roller Ski Biathlon (roller skiing and shooting) and
Archery Biathlon (skiing and archery).
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