January 8, 2010 (Oberhof, Germany) – The IBU Biathlon World Cup started up again in Oberhof, Germany, with the men’s and women’s relays. Known as the ‘Mecca of Biathlon’, tens of thousands of spectators were on hand to cheer on their teams, and the conditions were ideal.

In the men’s 7.5km relay on Thursday, the Norwegian squad was comprised of veterans Halvard Hanevold and legendary Ole Einear Bjoerndalen, and newcomers Emil Hegle Svendsen and Tarjei Boe. They held off the spectacular French Team of Vincent Jay, Vincent Defrasne, and brothers Simon and Martin Fourcade, to win by 27.5seconds, after battling back and forth with the German and Austrian teams. Germany grabbed the final spot on the podium, finishing 3rd, 15 seconds behind France, and just 6 seconds ahead of Austria.

In the women’s relay, it was Svetlana Sleptsova of Russia who squeaked out the with a win in the women’s 4x6km relay competition, as Andrea Henkel of Germany shot clean and closed a big gap over the final 2km loop, but could not catch the Russian, finishing just three-tenths of a second back. France, with a strong final leg by Sandrine Bailly, finished 1:00.9 back in third.

Only fifteen teams lined started the relay competition, compared to the twenty-four that started just over three weeks ago in Hochfilzen, Austria. And some of the squads did not feature all of their top performers. Missing were Olga Zaitseva of Russia, Tora Berger of Norway and Kati Wilhelm of Germany.

The U.S. Team was competing in sprint races in Altenberg, GER, for the final selection races for their 2010 Olympic team, and return to the World Cup for the men’s 10km and women’s 7.5km sprint events on Friday.

The Canadian team chose to stay home for the rest of the World Cup season and prepare for the Olympics in Vancouver. They held the final trials to select their team, and the last spot went to Rosanna Crawford.

The official Canadian Olympic Biathlon Team for the 2010 Games for the women is Zina Kocher, Megan Imrie, Megan Tandy and Rosanna Crawford, and the men’s ‘team’ is Jean-Phillipe Le Guellec.

Women full results http://services.biathlonresults.com/results.aspx?RaceId=BT0910SWRLCP04SWRL”>here.

Men’s full results http://services.biathlonresults.com/results.aspx?RaceId=BT0910SWRLCP04SMRL”>here.

Results (brief)

Women
1. Russia (Anna Bogaliy-Titovets, Anna Boulygina, Olga Medvedtseva, Svetlana Sleptsova) 6-2, 1:14:23.6
2. Germany (Martina Beck, Simone Hauswald, Tina Bachmann, Andrea Henkel) 3-8, 1:14:23.9
3. France (Marie Laure Brunet, Sylvie Becaert, Marie Dorin, Sandrine Bailly) 6-5, 1:15:24.5

Men
1. Norway (Halvard Hanevold, Tarjei Boe, Emil Hegle Svendsen, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen) 2-5, 1:17:03.3
2. France (Vincent Jay, Vincent Defrasne, Simon Fourcade, Martin Fourcade) 0-7, 1:17:30.8
3. Germany (Christoph Stephan, Michael Greis, Arnd Peiffer, Simon Schempp) 0-9, 1:17:45.5