Biathlonworld cup 2021/22
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The Covid problem emerges, the participation of red and white athletes in the first round of the World Cup is in doubt. Meanwhile, even Oberhof announces a stage without an audience (from 6 to 9 January).
Friday 26 November 2021 5 minutes reading time
In the late morning of today, the Austrian biathlon team announced the confirmation of the positivity of a team member, who according to rumors would exclude the athletes from the races scheduled for the weekend in Oestersund for the seasonal opening. "A member of our staff, who currently has no symptoms, has been isolated and contact tracing has begun," the OESV said.
No other component is positive at the moment, while the IBU and the Swedish authorities are in contact to decide on the next steps. The IBU reported that 98% of the members of the various teams, including athletes, coaches, officials and technicians, are vaccinated or recovered from Covid. The remaining 2% swabs every 72 hours. In fact, the association's rules are precise: “The IBU has established clear rules for our locations and general behavioral recommendations for our teams. We rely on vaccinations for our events, but as we can see from recent developments in the pandemic, vaccination does not give participants carte blanche to do what they want.
We will rely on the collaboration of National Federations, their teams and athletes to offer a fair and safe biathlon season. Not only the guidelines of the IBU Covid-19 event, but also the internal Covid protocols for each individual team are fundamental to avoid quarantine and isolation in the event of a positive test in a team ", commented the general secretary Niklas Carlsson. With the season approaching tomorrow, it is hoped that there will be no further setbacks and that everything can proceed as planned.
Meanwhile, the German stage of Oberhof scheduled from 6 to 9 January 2022 will take place without an audience. The resumption of infections in Germany forced the organizers to take this drastic decision well in advance; the announcement comes a few days after that of Hochfilzen. So, as in Austria, for the second consecutive season Oberhof is forced to find itself in the same situation as a year ago, in the place where the world championships will take place in 2023.
In reality, the rules in force would allow the presence of a limited number of spectators, but the organizers prefer to be cautious: “Given the epidemic situation we have decided to take this decision as soon as possible. We regret this choice and apologize to our fans, ”said Thomas Grellmann, chief organizer of the event.
In the Oberhof program there are sprint, pursuit and mixed relay for both men and women. Ruhpolding remains the only German stage (12-16 January) where the presence of the public is currently allowed.
Davide Sarti
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