Many inexperienced sports enthusiasts are often interested in the question of what is grazed in biathlon. This English-language word haunts true racing fans. And surely just obliged to call a real sight. In this article, we decided to enlighten beginner biathlon lovers.
Which races are more interesting?
Fans with experience consider individual races with a separate start with four firing lines to be a biathlon classic, where for each miss, an additional minute is added to the athlete's current time. However, younger sports enthusiasts grew up at the time of attempts to increase the entertainment of biathlon and the heyday of new disciplines. Therefore, when the biathlon (World Cup) is listed in the TV program, graze causes increased excitement. And this is not surprising, because this race is nothing more than a continuation of the sprint that took place the day before. Therefore, fans furiously rub their hands in anticipation of real battles and look forward to answering the question of whether the leader will retain his handicap or maybe the pursuers will be able to take revenge.
A few words about the rules
So, what is grazed in biathlon? This is a pursuit when the winner of the last sprint race goes the distance with the first starting number. The pursuers will start in the order they allocated places in the final protocol the day before, according to their lag behind the winner in seconds. In other words, if the silver sprint medalist is 5.4 seconds behind the winner, then in the pursuit race the leader will have the corresponding time in the form of a handicap. In the modern biathlon in the top 10 leaders, the gaps between the results are sometimes minimal, the more interesting it is to follow the upcoming battles.
Distance and firing lines
Now you know what is grazed in biathlon. The distance that at major starts (stages of the World Cup, world and European championships, Olympic games) is overcome by men is 12.5 km. Women chase the winner of the 10 km race. And in that, and in another case, shooting was allocated 4 firing lines (5 shots each), which also helps to increase entertainment. For each miss, athletes are punished by passing a penalty loop through the stadium, which is 150 meters long. However, one should not assume that faultless shooting is the key to victory. The fastest biathletes pass such a short distance in less than 25 seconds, and in the distance they are “feet” able to reduce the distance from the leader who previously shot flawlessly.
In addition, when the pursuer sees the opponent’s back, additional motivation is included. It is impossible to discount the principles of contact wrestling when rivals seem to play cat and mouse with each other, alternately leading in distance and waging a positional battle. And at the shooting range, when the opponent’s breathing is felt nearby, the nerves can not withstand any, even the most psychologically trained athlete.
The psychological factor is especially acute at major starts, when not prize money is at stake, but medals and titles for the country. That is why the results of the pursuit are absolutely unpredictable. Biathlon is not only a struggle of the physical preparation of different athletes, it is also a struggle of technicians, tactics, a struggle with oneself.
Where are athletes more likely to miss?
Statistics is a stubborn and eloquent thing, fortunately, it is maintained properly, and the results are taken even with the most insignificant starts. Despite the fact that when shooting from a prone position, the diameter of the target is much smaller, biathletes as a percentage have higher rates precisely on the “prone” position.
By the way, we have determined what grazing is in biathlon, but we did not touch upon the issue of alternating firing lines in discipline. Fill this gap. The first and second shootings in the pursuit race are carried out from an emphasis lying down, and the next two are conducted in a standing position. Why do many athletes shoot worse on the rack? Perhaps the general fatigue affects the end of the race, but most often athletes do not correctly spend their forces on the distance, rushing too quickly to win back the gap. As a result, having come to the firing line not at his usual pace, it’s difficult for a biathlete to catch the very notorious phase of unrecovering at which he is used to firing. Simply put, breathing goes astray.
Biathlon: World Cup (graze), men. Start Position Change Statistics
Again, turn our eyes to the statistics and see how often the winner of the sprint holds a leading position during the pursuit. It turns out that sprint winners rarely maintain their position in pursuit in exactly the same order as they settled the day before. With a probability of 90%, we can only state the fact that at least one of the winners of the sprint race can again be on the podium and in the pursuit. However, the sprint winner can quite often confirm his reputation in the pursuit, especially the leaders of the season. If an athlete unsuccessfully sprints, with a good set of circumstances, he can climb the prizes, even having a starting position at the end of the second ten.