Mark Raymond - Australian Biathlon Team

Mark Raymond from the Australian Biathlon Team reports on the World Cup in Sweden and Austria. World Cup Östersund Sweden. 3/12/09 Sweden is such a beautiful country in winter.  I really love seeing the snow covered forests and rolling mountains.  What I don't like about Sweden is the roads.  Most roads don't get cleared of snow and it packs down to form an ice layer.   The side of the road is often undefined and can trap you very quickly.  I found this out in the middle of nowhere, sliding off the edge of the road at 60km/h.  The van and its occupants were all ok.  Thank you to the generous tractor driver for his help getting the van out.   The first World cup of the season is always a nervous affair.  All the athletes are trying to check there form against other athletes, to see if their summer training has paid off.  I was lucky to have had the IBU Cup to get the butterflies out of the systems.   The skiing at Östersund was fantastic, with cold and fast snow.  The trails for the race were quite demanding, long steep climbs and fast sharp downhill corners.  I raced twice in Östersund, a 20km first and then 10km race.  Both races were held under lights, I find skiing under lights fine but shooting is very difficult.  This showed in my results, missing 2-1-3-1 in the 20km and 2-2 in the 10km. I skied well in both races but missed too many targets to be competitive at this level.  Happy with my ski form I'm confident for the next World Cup I would like to thank Alan Eason for his support, waxing and coaching during the World Cup as Paul Connor was unable to attend. We now have a two day drive back to Austria for the next World Cup.  I'm not looking forward to it at all.   World Cup Hochfilzen Austria. 15/12/09 The second World Cup was a hectic affair for me. After driving down from Sweden, I was very tired and was worried about getting sick. I was also unsupported as my coach Paul Connor was not arriving from Australia until the day of the race.   I trained easy during the week, on the slow, soft, wet snow of Hochfilzen, feeling flat and tired.  My shooting was on form and the targets were falling without effort.   I had only one race at Hochfilzen, a 10km, held on the Saturday afternoon. By the time race day rolled around I felt better and ready to race well.  The conditions for the race were terrible.   It had been raining most of the night and then started to snow mid morning.  The ski tracks were deep and slow.   The skiing was just so hard as every glide you sank into the snow.   I raced well in the very testing conditions.  I missed 2-1 in my shooting.  This was a good shooting  average for the day as it was windy and snowing.   My result was another Olympic Qualifying time.  This also re qualified me for World Cup after Christmas.  Keeping my plan on track for the 2010 Winter Olympics   Thank you for your support. Mark Raymond Australian Biathlon Team Target 2010 Citius Altius Fortius

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