Posted 08. March 2005 by Editor

The men?s 20k in the biathlon worlds on Wednesday will be a very open event. For starters, thus far in the games we have encountered all sorts of weather.

Snow or no snow is vital for the right start group, the presumed best skiers start from number 37 on.

The 20k, where each missed shot gives a one minute penalty, favours better shooters to skiers.

Basically any Norwegian, German and Russian racing has at least a medal chance.

Then add Sikora (won in 95, 2nd last year), some Swedes, Finns (Puuruen won in 2001) and Austrians (Rottmann/Gredler double in 2000), some of the French, including Poiree and some Belarussians and then some and at least 30 athletes can medal on a good day.

Some of the leading favourites are Bjoerndalen (won in 2002, 2 golds in these games), Tchepikov (strong shooter), Krouglov, Gross (must shoot clean, has not been fast enough this season), Fischer and Sikora.

Hanevold (won in 2003) and Poiree (won in 2004) have traditionally been strong but have struggled more with shooting this season. Hanevold does his first event of the games, he reportedly did well on a Norwegian test this week.

Start list:

1 SAMARDZIJA Bojan BIH 14:15:30
2 ZATULA Vladimir KAZ 14:16:00
3 FERRY Bj?rn SWE 14:16:30
4 BOROVIK Dimitri EST 14:17:00
5 DE LORENZI Christian ITA 14:17:30
6 KLETCHEROV Michail BUL 14:18:00
7 GREBOT Lionel FRA 14:18:30
8 JACKSON Lee-Steve GBR 14:19:00
9 SIMMEN Matthias SUI 14:19:30
10 TAGSCHERER Imre HUN 14:20:00
11 POKLUKAR Matjaz SLO 14:20:30
12 CLEGG Robin CAN 14:21:00
13 ANTILA Timo FIN 14:21:30
14 BERZINS Janis LAT 14:22:00
15 SARANTIS Andreas GRE 14:22:30
16 MILENKOVIC Alexander SCG 14:23:00
17 DOSTAL Roman CZE 14:23:30
18 BLAJ Marian ROU 14:24:00
19 GRIBUSENCOV Mihail MDA 14:24:30
20 RAYMOND Mark AUS 14:25:00
21 PIECHA Michal POL 14:25:30
22 LANGER Pascal BEL 14:26:00
23 HERNANDO Luis Alberto ESP 14:26:30
24 PARK Yoon-Bae KOR 14:27:00
25 GUSEV Vadim LTU 14:27:30
26 MATIASKO Marek SVK 14:28:00
27 ZHANG Chengye CHN 14:28:30
28 LYSENKO Ruslan UKR 14:29:00
29 VALIULLIN Rustam BLR 14:29:30
30 PERNER Wolfgang AUT 14:30:00
31 EBISAWA Daisuke JPN 14:30:30
32 SHEPARD Walter USA 14:31:00
33 CHERVYHKOV Alexsandr KAZ 14:31:30
34 HIETALAHTI Vesa FIN 14:32:00
35 PALLHUBER Wilfried ITA 14:32:30
36 ZLATKAUSKAS Karolis LTU 14:33:00
37 HANEVOLD Halvard NOR 14:33:30
38 SIKORA Tomasz POL 14:34:00
39 CANNARD Ferreol FRA 14:34:30
40 GREIS Michael GER 14:35:00
41 BJOERNDALEN Ole Einar NOR 14:35:30
42 NILSSON Mattias Jr. SWE 14:36:00
43 MOSCHOVAKOS Grigorios GRE 14:36:30
44 KRUGLOV Nikolay RUS 14:37:00
45 HALLENBARTER Simon SUI 14:37:30
46 POIREE Raphael FRA 14:38:00
47 CLEMENS Tom GBR 14:38:30
48 MARIC Janez SLO 14:39:00
49 MORTON Cameron AUS 14:39:30
50 DERYZEMLYA Andriy UKR 14:40:00
51 RYZHENKOV Oleg BLR 14:40:30
52 TCHEREZOV Ivan RUS 14:41:00
53 GRAF Daniel GER 14:41:30
54 MESOTITSCH Daniel AUT 14:42:00
55 FISCHER Sven GER 14:42:30
56 ZUNIGA Marco CHI 14:43:00
57 BERGMAN Carl-Johan SWE 14:43:30
58 LEONI David CAN 14:44:00
59 BRICIS Ilmars LAT 14:44:30
60 HAKKINEN Jay USA 14:45:00
61 ADER Margus EST 14:45:30
62 GROSS Ricco GER 14:46:00
63 HURAJT Pavol SVK 14:46:30
64 TAGSCHERER Zoltan HUN 14:47:00
65 COSIC Miro BIH 14:47:30
66 GJELLAND Egil NOR 14:48:00
67 SLESINGR Michal CZE 14:48:30
68 DEFRASNE Vincent FRA 14:49:00
69 TCHEPIKOV Sergei RUS 14:49:30
70 RUDENCHYK Vitaliy BUL 14:50:00
71 NAVARRO PEREZ Jose Ramon ESP 14:50:30
72 ZIEMIANIN Wieslaw POL 14:51:00
73 ECKHOFF Stian NOR 14:51:30
74 ISA Hidenori JPN 14:52:00
75 PUURUNEN Paavo FIN 14:52:30
76 NOVAK Pavol SVK 14:53:00
77 ROTTMANN Wolfgang AUT 14:53:30
78 SLETTEMARK Oystein GRL 14:54:00
79 TEELA Jeremy USA 14:54:30
80 BILANENKO Olexander UKR 14:55:00
81 HOLUBEC Tomas CZE 14:55:30
82 ALVAREZ Modesto ESP 14:56:00
83 KASAHARA Tatsumi JPN 14:56:30
84 ROSTOVTSEV Pavel RUS 14:57:00
85 ZWAHLEN Roland SUI 14:57:30
86 TOBRELUTS Indrek EST 14:58:00
87 CSEKE Csaba HUN 14:58:30
88 LONGO Paolo ITA 14:59:00
89 PAQUET Jean CAN 14:59:30
90 PLYWACZYK Krzysztof POL 15:00:00
91 LANGER Thorsten BEL 15:00:30
92 ROBERT Julien FRA 15:01:00
93 OZBOLT Janez SLO 15:01:30
94 ZELENKOV Igor KAZ 15:02:00
95 CRISTOFORIDIS Stavros GRE 15:02:30
96 B?RJESSON Jakob SWE 15:03:00
97 SYMAN Alexandre BLR 15:03:30
98 WALKER Marc GBR 15:04:00
99 ZIMELIS Raivis LAT 15:04:30
100 FAFALIS Eleftherios GRE 15:05:00
101 BRVAR Gregor SLO 15:05:30
102 JOLLER Ivan SUI 15:06:00
103 MATIASKO Miroslav SVK 15:06:30
104 KOTIKUMPU Ville FIN 15:07:00
105 KHRAMUSHIN Andrei KAZ 15:07:30
106 DERKACH Vyacheslav UKR 15:08:00
107 BONALDI Sergio ITA 15:08:30
108 WATANABE Kennosuke JPN 15:09:00
109 LIBIETIS Kristaps LAT 15:09:30
110 LESSING Roland EST 15:10:00
111 NOVIKOV Sergei BLR 15:10:30
112 BROOKS Joe GBR 15:11:00
113 SUMANN Christoph AUT 15:11:30
114 KLANN Gerhardt CAN 15:12:00
115 BURKE Tim USA 15:12:30
116 GARABIK Petr CZE 15:13:00