201,000 Spectators Watch World Biathlon Championships
Can you imagine a shooting match that draws a couple hundred thousand spectators? Amazing right? Well that’s how many people turned out to watch the 2013 Int’l Biathlon Union (IBU) World Biathlon Championships (WBC) recently held in Nové Město in the Czech Republic.
At the 2013 WBC, event organizers constructed a stadium and filled it with 201,000 spectators to watch the best biathletes in the world. Among national teams at the WBC, Norway dominated, winning an incredible eight of the eleven competitions, including all three relays. Tora Berger and Emil Hegle Svendsen each won two individual events and contributed to the relay Golds. Tarjei Boe added Gold in the mass start. These eight Gold medals were a record for the IBU World Championships; no other nation has been so prolific or dominant.
On the other hand, biathletes from 12 different countries won medals — and that was a new record for medal distribution. In 2011 at Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, 11 nations took home a medal. This year 12 nations won at least one medal. Tim Burke from the USA earned a Silver Medal in the 20K event. This was the first medal for the red, white, and blue since Josh Thompson won the 20K Silver in 1987.
Lapua Polar Biathlon .22 LR Ammo Wins 97% of all 2013 WBC Medals
In the world of precision shooting, it’s unusual for one ammo-maker to completely dominate a major shooting event. But that’s exactly what happened at the 2013 World Biathlon Championships. An amazing 32 out of 33 total medals awarded in Nova Mesto went to biathletes shooting Lapua ammuntion, specifically Lapua .22 LR Polar Biathlon. That works out to 96.9% of ALL medals at this year’s IBU World Championships. Hats off to Lapua for producing the winningest biathlon ammunition ever made.
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Tags: ammo, Biathlon, Czech, Lapua, Polar Biathlon, Tim Burke, World Biathlon Championships
Biathlon is very popular in Europe, too bad it receives so little coverage in the USA. Tim Burke’s silver medal in the 20km event is a major accomplishment for a US biathlete.
You can watch all of the events online, both live and replays. The videos on the IBU website have no commentary, the video is the international feed which provided by the host venue.
If you are interested, take a look.
Highlights were Burke won the silver.
http://eurovision.digotel.com/ibu/index.html?video_id=10944
http://eurovision.digotel.com/ibu/index.html?video_id=10948
I watched some of it and always enjoy watching it. Just wish they had more shooting involved. That part is such a hectic moment it is hard to follow even on TV. I realize that is just how the sport is designed. I live on the gulf coast so no much biathlon around here to try