Abstract
Research background and hypothesis. Modern training trend for biathletes is the increasing intensity of the training process in competition activities. Competition activities of elite biathletes while preparing for the main competition of the season have received little attention by researchers. Research hypotheses: The number of starts and sports results in the competitions before the main competition of the season for elite biathletes are related to sports results in the main competition of the season. Research aim was to analyse the interaction of biathletes’ sports results and the number of starts, and to establish the relation of this interaction between the results achieved in World Cup competitions and World Biathlon Championship.Research methods. The data have been retrieved from the documents of the International Biathlon Union (IBU): protocols of the World Biathlon Championship of 2011 and World Biathlon Cup competition. We analysed the sports results of female biathletes who took the 1 st –10 th places in the World Biathlon Championship in individual events. Research results. World elite biathletes participated in E.ON and IBU category competitions 16.2 ± 3.74 times before the World Biathlon Championship. The number of starts correlates with the places taken by biathletes in the general account of the World Biathlon Cup before the world championship (r = –0.83). In the individual races in the World Championship, all medals were won by eight skiers, and five of them were among the first ten skiers in the general standing of World Cup competitions before the world championship.Discussion and conclusion. The preparation of elite biathletes for the most important competition of the season – World Biathlon Championship is grounded on the repeated participation in the World Biathlon Cup competitions. Biathletes, taking the 1 st –10 th places in the general account of the World Biathlon Cup, are real applicants for medals in the World Biathlon Championship.Keywords: number of starts, taken places, correlation, sprint, pursuit, mass start, individual start.
Highlights
I n the period of competitions, participation in competitions and the loads of competitive activities improve the body adaptation to competitive activities (Pustovrh et al, 1995; Suslovas, 1999; Платонов, 2004)
World Biathlon Championship is grounded on the repeated participation in the World Biathlon Cup competitions
We suggest that biathletes who have taken the 1–10th places in the general standing in the Biathlon World Cup competitions are real applicants to win medals in the World Biathlon
Summary
I n the period of competitions, participation in competitions and the loads of competitive activities improve the body adaptation to competitive activities (Pustovrh et al, 1995; Suslovas, 1999; Платонов, 2004). During the last 10–15 years athletes’ results have been rapidly improving due to the increase in the number of competitions in the competition calendar in that branch of sports, but because of frequent participation in the competitions, the leaders of the season cannot achieve the results which were planned for them in the main competitions Biathletes are affected by external factors (competition environment, competitors, spectators, weather conditions, and the terrain of the ski slopes) and internal factors (tension, anxiety, joy, fear). Those irritants cause psychological reactions which improve or worsen the final outcomes (Schmolinsky, 2000). It is very difficult to evaluate the influence of athletes’
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