Hanna Oeberg to triumph, Alexander Loginov to amaze: here are the choices of Sweden and Russia for the Pokljuka World Cup

The Swedish and Russian biathlon federations have announced the athletes who will be competing on Slovenian soil, from 9 to 21 February 2021. Austria and Slovenia, in the meantime, have also issued the squads.

Thursday 4 February 2021 5 minutes reading time

Sweden is preparing to face a World Cup as a protagonist: there are ten athletes (between men and women) called for the world championship event. The men's team will be led by Sebastian Samuelsson, who this season triumphed in pursuit of Kontiolahti; in addition to the twenty-three year old from Katrineholm, Martin Ponsiluoma, Jesper Nelin, Peppe Femling and Malte Stefansson, born in 2000 at the world championship debut, were forced to attend. Hanna Oeberg will aim to win several medals (she won gold in the Ostersund 2019 individual), her sister Elvira, on the other hand, could prove to be a very important element for the relay races; also pay attention to the other three Swedish biathletes present in Slovenia: Linn Persson, Mona Brorsson and Johanna Skottheim. Russia presents itself as an outsider for the world championship event, calling up twelve athletes, including men and women. Among the men, the line-up will consist of Alexander Loginov (holder of the sprint world title), Evgenij Garanichev, Matvej Eliseev, Eduard Latypov, Anton Babikov and Said Karimulla Khalili. You are also the girls who will take part in the World Cup: Svetlana Mironova, Evgenija Pavlova, Uliana Kaisheva, Tatiana Akimova, Irina Kazakevich and Larisa Kuklina. On Tuesday, Austria also announced the ten athletes who will be competing in Slovenia. The top athlete will be Lisa Hauser (fifth overall and winner of the individual of Anterselva this season), together with her will be Katharina Innerhofer, Christina Rieder, Julia Schwaiger and Dunja Zdouc. The men's team will be led by veterans Julian Eberhard and Simon Eder, flanked by David Komatz, Felix Leitner and Harald Lemmerer. Also presented are the Slovenian athletes who will take part in the home World Cup, which will be a total of eleven between men and women. Jakov Fak is the greatest hope for a medal, the thirty-three year old native of Rijeka has won two world championships in his career and is having a good season; the other five biathletes who will compete on the home track will be Klemen Bauer, Alex Cisar, Rok Trsan, Miha Dovzan and Anton Widmar. Five Slovenian girls who will be competing in Pokljuka: Polona Klemencic, Lea Einfalt, Lena Repinc, Ziva Klemencic and the unknown Nike Vindisar, who according to what is reported by the Slovenian federation will be in doubt until the last.