Well euro champs have come to a close and I had some of my best results! Thursday was the relay, which was fun but nothing special. Friday I took it easy to recovery before Saturdays sprint race. My legs were feeling a little bit dead and I knew it was going to be a tough skiing day. The sun was shinning and it was smoking hot out, but the tracks were holding up nicely. I cleaned my prone shooting and as I came into the range for my standing bout I knew that in order to hit 5 I was going to have to shoot slower than my usual, I set up and hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, awesome 10/10! My last loop was really hard and in the end I was 17th out of 53 women, setting me up for a fun pursuit.
Sunday I was feeling tired but my legs were feeling better than in the sprint. Zero went well and even though it had snowed most the morning it wasn't too slow out. I started 1min42sec behind Juliane Doll the winner. My first loop was great, Pavol Stolba had waxed me an amazing pair of ski and I was flying over the 2km course. I came into my first prone and knock down all 5 nice and quick. Back out on course my 2nd loop was feeling just as good as the first, I was sticking with the girls around me and even catching the girls in front. I set up for my second prone and missed my first shot, but the next four turned to white. One quick penalty loop and back out on course. The next two 2km loops were a bit tougher and my ski speed slowed down a bit, into first standing 5 hits and fast, last standing bout, 5 hits, 19/20 my best shooting this season! I left the range in 13th with 12th about 15sec ahead of me and 14th about 8sec behind me. I skied as fast as I could and left every thing on the trails and crossed 13th. It was really fun to be chasing the leaders rather than being chased by the leaders trying not to get lapped. It has been a while since skiing and shooting has come together in a race. It's funny how rare this seems to happen in Biathlon! I spent this past week not day dreaming about how awesome it would be to be in the top 15 but focusing on the doing. The doing of skiing fast and shooting well, that the results will come when you focus on the things that need to be done!
The rest of the team had some good results and with a couple top half's. Big props to Emma Lodge who got to start her first pursuit in an IBU race. Monday morning we took to the windy roads of Italy and are now in Forni Avoltri, the "birthplace of Nordic skiing and biathlon", or so says our hotel brochure! This weekend we will race an Alpen cup before going to France to race the last IBU cup of the season.
The World Cup team is now in Russia preparing for World Champs. First race is the mixed relay on Thursday, unfortunately with Zina being the only women there Canada will no be able to enter a team. Sprint, Pursuit on Saturday, Sunday. Good luck to those guys!
arrivederci (don't forget to roll your r's)
Rosanna
la belle Claude at opening ceremonies
team Canada Tyson, Joel, me, Paval, Pat, Claude Mel
Joel Pacas in his first 20km Individual
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