GRP Biathlon: Oberhof and Arber
A scene from skiing near last weekend’s IBU Cup in Arber, Germany from GRPer Luke Brown.
The turn of the year launched the GRP Cedar Sprig biathletes into period 2 of racing on both the World and IBU Cups. Here’s what happened this last weekend:
World Cup Oberhof
Margie Freed headed to Oberhof, Germany to compete in 3 races over 4 days, January 8-11. Margie had a solid day on the range during the 7.5k sprint, cleaning (no misses) her prone and missing only 1 shot in standing. She finished in 39th place, which became her start number for the final day’s pursuit.
But in between the women’s sprint and pursuit was the relay, and the US women’s relay raced to their best result since 2022, finishing in 6th! Margie anchored that relay, once again cleaning her prone stage while needing 2 spares in standing.
In final race of the weekend, the women’s pursuit, Margie missed 7 shots over the 4 stages dropping her back to 57th place.
The World Cup now heads to Rupholding, Germany where the women will begin with another relay on Wednesday, January 14th.
World Cup results
*All WC races can be live-streamed for free on Eurovision after creating a free account
*You can also follow both the World and IBU Cups via the Official IBU App
IBU Cup Arber
The GRP had 4 athletes racing in Arber, Germany, January 8-11. The weekend started with a short individual race in which Bjorn Westervelt placed 67th in the men’s 15k after missing 7 in 4 stages. Jackie Garso missed 4, finishing in 63rd with teammate Kelsey Dickinson finishing in 74th with 3 misses. Luke sat out the first race after just recently flying over from the US.
A sprint followed for both the men and women, with Bjorn placing 75th and Luke Brown in 81st for the men with Jackie cleaning her race to finish 38th. Kelsey missed the rest of the weekend, resting up for future races with Jackie doing the same after the sprint.
The IBU Cup heads to Osrblie, Slovakia for racing January 14-17.