One question many people ask - what do our biathletes do in between our two Championship and National Team selection races - Victorian Biathlon Champs and the Australian Biathlon Champs? This short article will give you a quick insight into what they get up to!

Although you may think after a big set of Championship races our athletes would rest, which, they may do for a few days, they quickly get back into training to prepare for races later in the season. After the Victorian Biathlon Championahips, many athletes returned to dryland training as they went back to their homes for school, university, and work. This gave athletes in Sydney the perfect opportunity to do regroup their technique with specific dryland roller ski training under coach Lucy Glanville at Newington Armoury. These early Sunday morning roller ski sessions were followed by a .22 shooting session at Sydney International Shooting Centre (SISC), where athletes were able to practice shooting drills, shooting with heart rate, and focusing on improving their shooting technique and positioning on the biathlon mat.

For other athletes who were able to stay on-snow after the first round of Championship races, many of them took part in the Australian Open Cross Country Championship Races held in Falls Creek. These cross country races involved a classic sprint event which includes a time trial followed by heats, semi finals and finals (depending on how many individuals were entered in the event), and a skate distance event. It was really great to see how our biathletes stacked up against all levels of cross country skiers, including 2022 Beijing Winter cross country Olympians – biathletes racing were very competitive with the cross country specific racers and left the weekend with some extremely positive results; great to see their hard training paying off!

Click here for the results 

All in all - the time between biathlon Championship races, is a time to refocus on those areas where a biathlete is looking to improve, race against the fastest XC skiers in AUS and generally prepare both mentally and physically for the next set of races.  Good luck to all our biathletes who will be starting at the Australian Biathlon Championships Sprint and Mass Start!