Winter vacation in Kontiolahti, Finland

This post is about our winter vacation in Biathlon World Championships in Kontiolahti, North Karelia, Finland. This was the first time we attended a winter sport event of this scale. There were some serious problems in the organization on the first major event day — long lines for toilets, food and drink stalls, and the buses that transported spectators from the town — but then something was changed, and everything worked perfectly thereafter.

We really enjoyed ourselves, and not the least because (1) the weather was gorgeous for the most of the week, (2) the audience behaved well and graciously (even if alcohol was available), (3) the stadium area was kept very clean (no trash), (4) there were so many nationalities cheering on each others’ biathletes, and (5) there were people of all ages from older couples to families with kids to young adults and teenage friends.

Saturday (March 07): Sprint men (10km) and women (7.5km)
As mentioned in the previous post, we were welcome with some truly miserable weather when we landed in Helsinki, and it continued for the first weekend of competitions in Kontiolahti. Plus five degrees celsius and horizontally gusting sleet and rain was not something we had experienced for some time.

Well, we did not expect much from our men’s team in the sprint event, but our (only) star Kaisa Mäkäräinen did not do too well either in women’s sprint; she finished 35., which meant she had to start about two minutes and 20 seconds behind the winner, France’s Marie Dorin-Habert, in the next day’s pursuit.

Sunday (March 08): Pursuit men (12.5km) and women (10km)
Sunday opened as warm and grey as the previous days, but the wind was gentler and there was no wet stuff coming down from the sky.

Kaisa Mäkäräinen missed three shots but after some phenomenal skiing she finished twelveth just 1:28 behind the winner, again Dorin-Habert from France (who also missed three shots).

Above: illuminated trees and ice sculptures in Joensuu town center.

Wednesday (March 11): Individual women (15km)
There was a two-day break from the competitions, and during those days the weather turned awesome; the mornings were chilly and the afternoons warm at about +5C with a lot of sun.

Today we got our only medal in these world championships as Kaisa Mäkäräinen finished third in women’s individual race that had a surprise winner, a young Russian Ekaterina Yurlova.

Thursday (March 12): Individual men (20km)
We were met by some chainsaw art sculptures at the entrance to the biathlon stadium.

Friday (March 13): Relay women (4×6.5km)
Our women’s team finished 17. No surprises there.

Saturday (March 14): Relay men (4×7.5km)
Before the day’s only race we visited Art Center Ahjo in Joensuu.

The only goal of our men’s team was to beat our women’s team, and that’s what they did quite unexpectedly, finishing 13.

Sunday (March 15): Mass start women (12.5km) and men (15km)

None of our men biathlete qualified for the mass start race. Our star biathlete Kaisa Mäkäräinen finished 12. in the women’s race with 4 misses and 1:29 behind the Ukrainian champion Valj Semerenko.