Hi Everyone,

Since I last wrote from Korea we have wrapped up World Championships and returned home last night.  Anyone who has been following the Canadian Men’s Team this season can see that we struggled at these Championships compared to the results we were able to achieve earlier in the year.

This year I went to battle at World Championships with Jean Phillipe Leguellec, Robin Clegg and Brendan Green by my side.  We were there to show the world that we were capable of competing with the best at the marquee event of the year.  We wanted to show that we could and would be a strong team when we have home field advantage at the 2010 OWG.

Unfortunately for reasons that are still not fully understood to me I was way off my ski form.  There were of course some glitches in my World’s preparation but not that warranted the kind of skiing I displayed at Worlds.  After the first race I knew something was off.  The 10km is something I normally enjoy and when on my game will rarely or never get passed a good race but that was not the case with this 10km.   I was sluggish from the start and suffered on the uphills and downhills with so sight of a 4th gear let alone a finishing 5th.  I was stuck in 3rd gear and it lasted the entire Championships.

I fought to get my self into better form during the Championships, afterall I wasn’t racing the pursuit or mixed relay and could make every effort to get into better shape or better recovered.

Even though I did everything in my power and fought as hard as I could it just wasn’t enough,  I did not have enough time to get into good form and it made my 20 days in Korea feel like an eternity.

But that is over and unfortunately there is no re due, we have to live with the results for a long time, but we also have a good opportunity for redemption and it is called World Cup #7.  It takes place in Whistler, BC and will be one of the major highlights of the year I am sure.  Over the week I will be preparing myself for battle in the Callaghan in Canmore and nearby training facility Mt.Shark.  I will be sure to let you know the conditions and try to take more pictures then I normally due.

Since my last post I have raced the 10km Sprint at World Championships in Korea.  This race was very difficult for me and i feel my preparations could have been much better.  But unfortunately I fell ill at terrible times,  I am healthy now however and thought that I would be in better shape for the first race.  I am starting the 20km tomorrow and feel that I should be in better shape for this race.  I am hoping the course will be in better shape and that the sprint cleared out all the rust.  I imagine I will be in pretty good shape after these championships which will be very unfortunate timing.

These championships have had a lot of distractions and chaos, not just for us but everyone and it is showing in the results.  For one there was the positive drug tests of the Russian’s they showed up at World Championships with the hope the tests would be dismissed on a technicality however they have now been sent home.

Two the conditions on the course have been everything but consistent every race the best line changes and so does the conditions.  Often forcing athletes to use extra caution on there first laps and sometimes throughout the entire race.

It is these things that  believe have led to Andrea Henkel who is a 4 time World Champion, to shoot off a live round in the communal dry shooting room which ended up disqualifying her from the Women’s Pursuit where she was starting in the top 5.

Also the King of Biathlon Ole Einer Bjorndalen and many other top athletes took a wrong turn off the start of the pursuit which led to many appeals and process’s being exercised to the point where Maxim Touchdov to be named World Champion to it only to be given back to Ole Einer Bjorndalen, because the wrong turn did not actually have a time advantage they did not get penalized.

Not to mention the number of people that have fallen on the downhills breaking rifles and injuring bodies.

Now the weather has been getting colder and snow has been getting made so it is starting to look more like a real race course.  If you need something more to enjoy.

Video Credit Jeremy Teela Biathlon USA

Hi Everyone,

Since my last post I have arrived in Korea and it has been a bit of a struggle, first of I ended up picking up a cold virus which was very disappointing which it always is but extra this time because I was feeling very strong at the end of our WCH training camp.  But since arriving I have been hard at work to get rid of it and some solid ground has been made, basically I put down the fluids and Cold FX like it was going out of style.  Today I went out for my 3rd ski since arriving in Korea which is fine considering I have knowledge of the course from last year.  But I still managed to have a crash.

Since last year they were supposed to make some changes and although they seemed to make some they certainly were not enough.  The talk here in Korea is basically all about the two downhills and how dangerous they are.  When you hear entire World Cup teams complain not because of the difficulty of the downhills but because of the danger in them you know it is serious.  Last year I managed too stay on two feet so I imagine I will this year I will as well, however today we had a bit of a downhill practice we went out and did the downhills as a team to figure out the best lines.  We were following our wax tech Tom Zidek and he had a really good line the only problem was I was 3rd in a line of 5 and gaining time on JP who was directly in front of me.  I went a bit to  the outside still a solid line only 4 feet from where I wanted to be, next I have no idea what happened I was looking at my ski tips which were right in front of my face and I hit the ground hard.  My first thought was damn I broke a rib it stung pretty good and then I could feel I had landed on my right arm.  Surprisingly my equipment was completely fine but that was hardly a concern for me at that moment.  As I was getting up I started to gasp for air I was completely winded and still trying to figure out if I was ok, this was all in a matter of 5 seconds then my teamates came up to me and said “you have to get off the track are you ok”.  They took my skis and I muttered something and took off.  They figured I was in shock and let me run off which was later described as running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

Anyways I was trying to get back to the wax cabins where it would be warm and I could inspect my arm.  When I got there I was not sure I was ok I knew that I could run fast but not if I could still ski well, but it seems I can I just seemed to sprain my wrist.  When Robin and Brendan met up with me after then said they could not believe I walked away from it, basically what happened is I caught an outside edge at the same time as taking a bit of a drop in the downhill and my legs spun abit and came up beside my head making me horizontal. And I was continuing to rotate counter clockwise. Then I hit the ground and some how landed on my right shoulder and torso.

Anyways I am fine but many of you might be thinking, oh this is just Scott being Scott, well yesterday a Swede had a crash on the same downhill and his face has the scraches to prove it and today a Frenchman fell mere minutes after I did.  And last year Catlin Compton, USA had a fall that people are still talking about today.

Anyways we Canadians actually have a pretty strong team in the Men’s and Women’s in the downhills so we should scrape by.

Cheers,

Hi Everyone,

It has been a while since I last posted mostly because we the “Canadian Biathlon World Championship Team”  have been preparing for World Championships 2009 in Korea.  There is a lot that rides on these Championships but we all know that and are prepared to do what is necessary, us North Americans might even have the upper hand because we are used to dealing with Jet Lag which will be exactly 8 hours which is what we normally have to deal with when coming over to Central Europe.  To boot 50 % of our team was competed at the World Cup in Korea last season.  I was one of those athletes that had that opportunity and I hope to bring it to good use.  Because of the knowledge I gained in Korea I know that it will be a course that is very unforgiving to those who are not in top form.

The training since the last World Cup has been pretty decent I wish I would have felt stronger at some points but I feel pretty good now and that is what is more important to me.  Additonally we Canadian’s have additional movtivation with our Youth and Junior teams performing extrememly well at the recent WJCH in Canmore, Alberta.  I believe the total medal count as of today is 1 Gold 3 Bronze which is un heard of for Canada since the days of Jean Phillipe Leguellec our current leader on the Canadian Team ranking in the Overall Top 30 which is placing him in the Mass Starts.

So with all this success surrounding us it maybe be hard to relax but motivation is around every corner and real success is with in reach.

Talk to you next from Korea