Report: World Team Challenge AufSchalke

In the early morning hours of the 28th December 2002 some members of the AHFC set off for the next biathlon event, which this time should take place on Schalke. Since there would be some members of the South, the West and the North of the republic present this time, the venue Gelsenkirchen was pretty centralized, which means that all of us had nearly the same distance to go there.

	The course in the stadium

After Markus and Joerg had “picked up” Jens in Cologne, they were heading for the Ruhr, where they met Danthe. We arrived towards 11 a.m. and called one of the responsible persons, Mr. Burkhard. Of course, we had our fan club placard with us and wanted to place it somewhere inside the stadium.

After we had chosen the place next to the tunnel, which was connecting track and stadium, we fixed “Andrea” in front of the first row of spectators in the west curve. A special thanks goes to Mr. Burkhard, who had to wait for us some time, because during the fixing someone with two left hands was present. :-)) Then Mr. Burkhard guided us back to the entrance. Meanwhile a gigantic queue had formed in front of it, so we were allowed to wait inside the stadium area even if there were still 30 minutes left until the official admittance.

After some of us had more or less strengthened at the foot-stands, Jens and Joerg brought the ski bag back to the car, because it was pretty bulky and it was irritating to take it with us all the time. On the way we still met some members of the KAFC and the UDFC. After a short chat our ways separated again, because everyone wanted to go to his/her seats to watch the VIP-race. In this competition the tasks were separated from each other. The track had to be completed by skiers of the West-German Ski Federation; the VIPs had to show their abilities at the shooting range. Here Peter Oser-Veltins, Frank Busemann and Frank Rost were the most accurate riflemen.

	Andrea passes us

Afterwards the biathletes started the first part of their competition; the best and fastest riflemen/-women had to be determined. The male competition was won by Peter Sendel, the female shoot out by “our” Andrea. So the shortest was the biggest again. :-))

Finally the qualifying began, at which the starting order for the real competition had to be determined. Here Akhatova/Maigourovdie reserved the pole position in front of Andreasen/Bjoerndalen and Henkel/Luck.

Andrea started off guffawing and held on Gunn Margit Andreasen immediately. After the first shooing Akhatova was still leading in front of Molly, who showed a "rapid-fire bout”. Andrea needed a spare round and was on the fourth place. To be able to spur on Andrea properly we stood in front of the tunnel entrance and one of us shouted his vocal cords hoarse. When it was the men’s turn, Maigourov continued the outstanding shooting performance of his teammate and took over the lead from Michi Greis, who needed a spare round. Lucki was on the 6th place, having a miss as well. After Maigourov came to the shooting being in lead by 47 seconds, the competition seemed to be decided, but with a fantastic shooting Michi made nearly up the leeway by shortening it to only 6 seconds.

In the end Molly and Michi Greis could win the competitions, because they kept their heads at the last shootings. The team Andrea/Lucki finished on a good 5^th place, for which they still got price money. Molly and Michi still did a lap of honor with their prize, a Ford Fiesta, before a magnificent firework finished the WTC AufSchalke. After we had taken off our placard again we went to the parking lot. Here we said goodbye to Danthe, who set out for home to Magdeburg immediately. The rest of us went back to Cologne.

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