Dairy Report: Antholz 2003

The biathletes had successfully finished the mega events in Oberhof and Ruhpolding. Now, from 23^rd to 26^th January 2003, the last stage of the Biathlon Trophy in Antholz, Italy, took pace. There were a lot of spectators expected as well, who would support the athletes loudly in front of a dreamlike scenery and bright sunshine.

	Training laps in the early morning hours - ©AHFC

Wednesday, 22^nd January 2003
Already on Wednesday Danthe and Juergen set out for South Tyrol to support Andrea during these world cup competitions as well. With quite a fair amount of luck we arrived just in time to watch the women’s training. While the athletes were shooting and testing their skis diligently, we still had some time to have a closer look at the stadium, to find a suitable place for the fan club placard and to build it up at once. After Andrea had finished the training session, she joined us for a small chat and invited us for a coffee in the afternoon. We really had to hurry up because we hadn’t checked in yet – well, we hadn’t even found the inn while we went up to the sta-dium. So we quickly went back to Mittertal to check in, unloaded our cloths and went up to the stadium immediately – we really didn’t wonted Andrea to wait for us. We easily found the hotel of the German team, which was idyllically situated at the sea - a dreamlike scenery for having a coffee with a double Olympic champion! So we spent a nice and very amusing afternoon with cof-fee and pretty good tiramisu… well, or cheesecake. ;o) Thanks for the tip!.

The evening came closer and we started a night walk through the totally gloomy woods – first of all back to the stadium, then back to Mittertal by car. Arriving there we noticed, HOW favor-able we lived there! Exactly opposites of our inn they had built up the rostrum where the pres-entation ceremony and the distribution of the starting numbers took place. This meant for us: A comfortable supper with view at the opening ceremony through the window… ;o).

Well, it still got better: Antholz is known for it’s nightly party atmosphere. During the world cup all the garages, cellars and pig pens (!!!) are turned into pubs and discos, so that we had 14 loca-tions to choose off in a surrounding of just a few meters! And: Even here we were living directly in the center of happenings! Directly in front of our “front door” they had already built up the first marquee from which we started our evening tour…

Thursday, 23^rd January 2003
The first competitions (20 km individual men and 15 km individual women) were on today’s pro-gram. Since the races began pretty late, we had a comfortable start into the day. More or less recovered we went to the stadium by bus. Here we first watched the athletes warming up be-fore the races were finally started. In contrast to the competitions in Oberhof and Ruhpolding the crowd of spectators was still limited. The stadium was full anyway, but at the track we could go everywhere we wanted to. During the individual races we therefore changed our locations from time to time to spur on Andrea&Co loudly. Unfortunately we didn’t know the results of the shooting bouts – what is really no advantage in an individual race, of course, because the one can-not measure the rankings by taking the leeway of the athletes to each other. Especially the German team seemed to have problems with the height of Antholz, so most of them were in the midfield and Ekaterina Dafovska could win in front of Sandrine Bailly and Linda Tjörhom again.

After the competitions have been finished, we wanted to warm up in a ski hut for a short time (and really just for a short time J) – well, we didn’t know how long a “short time” could be. Even if the result of the competition was not the best: “One has to celebrate biathlon, as the targets are hit”. ;o) So out of the “short warm up” became a long and very funny “afternoonevening” in a social gathering with the Organizational Committee of Antholz… which ended with a ride on the ski-bob – at least for Danthe… ;o) The last shuttle service was already gone, of course, but for-tunately there was Hannes – our most favorable landlord in Antholz – who brought us back to Mittertal safely.

	Andrea after a hard race - ©AHFC

Friday, 24^th January 2003
Well, what should we say; the last evening took a lot out of us. Anyway, we were lucky that the relay competition took place in the afternoon again. So we were in the stadium in time, could watch the warm up and go to the track again to spur on Simi, Uschi, Romy and Kati. Even if this was not the famous relay line-up of the Olympics, the German team showed a great performance and finished second placed behind Russia and in front of Belarus.

After we had shuttled back again and had relaxed a bit from our “work”, Joerg joined us in the evening. We watched the presentation ceremony on our comfortable place in the inn and after-wards continued our tour through the pubs, which we had already started on Wednesday. Well, we still had to check some locations!

Saturday, 25^th January 2003
The women’s training already started in the morning. After a short stay in the shady stadium we went back to the track, which could be seen excellently and which first of all was lying in the sun. After Andrea had seen us she joined us for a short time. We talked to each other and got some tips how to warm up our feet again. Then we watched the rest of the training session and went back to the stadium before the men’s relay was started. After many discordant sounds and pressure in the public regarding to the older athletes, they this time nominated a German men’s team, which has never started in this line-up before. The relay consisted of Joern Wollschlae-ger, Alex Wolf, Daniel Graf and Andy Birnbacher. The competition developed to a festival of penalties, so the men had go through the penalty loop 6 times and finished on place 11 in the end. The team of Belarus won in front of the Norwegians and the Italians.

In the evening we did nearly the same as the days before: Dinner with presentation ceremony and afterwards a tour around the block. Meanwhile there was an enormous crowd of people in Antholz, so it was nearly impossible to enter one of the many pubs. How lucky that there were some parties on the streets as well, so that we could have some drinks and spend our time there.

Sunday, 26^th January 2003
On the final day there were still the mass starts of women and men on the program. We went back to our place on the track again to spur on Andrea to the top. As ever - the mass start was really exiting! Albina Akhatova won in front of the French duo Sylvie Becaert and Corinne Niogret. Andrea finished 11th placed and became second best German! Since we still had to go a long way home, we already started to take down the placard during the men’s competition and set out home immediately. Therefore, we unfortunately couldn’t see the fantastic third place of Ricco live on the spot.

RÉSUMÉ:
The days of Antholz can be summarized with one term: JUST BRILLIANT! The countryside, the people, the stadium, the track – well, even the weather – everything fitted! Antholz – we will come back again!!!

A special thanks goes to Andrea, of course, who made much time for us available and showed great competitions despite of the altitude.

Here you can find the Photos of the World Cup in Antholz

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