Sport through the lens

Now winter really started also for us. From now, until end of January, thing are going to be crazy. But I actually like this :)

Everything started with e.on Ruhrgas IBU Biathlon World cup races in Pokljuka, Slovenia. And it will continue with Viessmann Cross country FIS World cup races in Rogla, Slovenia

Anna Carin Olofsson-Zidek of Sweden

Pokljuka welcomed us with really low temperatures, a bit of new snow, new courses and totally new press center facilities. House where is press center and other race related facilities was build in last two years instead of old house, but obviously people really didn’t think about races, and needs which everyone included in those races have, even though World cup races, and possible World championships, were main reason why they build it. Press center is much smaller then it was, and it was extremely crowded on Thursday already. So it would be interesting to see, what would happen if they would really go for World championships, when there’s much more people coming.

Winner Helena Jonsson of Sweden

Marie Laure Brunet of France during women 15km individual race

But their excuse is, that these year they didn’t even plan to have races. In reality this is actually true, since Pokljuka was not in original IBU WC calendar, but they took races from Osrblie, Slovakia, which were canceled. But even if this is all nice and dandy, I still have no idea what would this change, even if they would know ub April, races will be held in Pokljuka. Would they water house a bit more, so it would grow until December?

Kaisa Makarainen of Finland during women 15km individual race

Swedish team testing skis

Oh well… never mind this :) New courses are actually nicer to shoot. There’s few more nice spots, and access to shooting range is much much better then it was before. And this means much nicer photos. So in general, I like new Pokljuka :)

Carl Johan Bergman of Sweden during men 20km individual race

Teija Lehtimaki of Finland

But for me, covering biathlon is over for this year, and today afternoon, I’m already sitting in my car heading to Rogla, where I will be covering cross country skiing World cup on Saturday and Sunday. And my colleague will stay on Pokljuka, covering biathlon, while another one will be shooting alpine skiing World cup in Val Gardena and Alta Badia, Italy. So on the end we have everything covered.

Andreas Birnbacher of Germany during men 20km individual race

Janne Kantanen of Finland

Even though I was myself racing in cross country skiing for huge part of my life, I don’t shoot xc skiing all that often. So I need to think a bit, how to go for it, since, as normally, I want my photos to stand out, and be different then rest of pack. But I still have quite some time, to figure this out :) I’m sure I will do something about it :)

Peter Dokl of Slovenia during men 20km individual race

Jarkko Kauppinen of Finland shooting

And as always, you can check our current coverage in PhotoSI on-line archive, and here are links to specific biathlon races:

Women 15km individual race of e.on Ruhrgas IBU Biathlon World cup
Men 20km individual race of e.on Ruhrgas IBU Biathlon World cup