Any budding biathletes out there?

The British Biathlon Union [BBU] is searching for new members of the GB Biathlon Team. Jason Sklenar MBE, Team Coach/ Manager is looking for talented athletes, not necessarily skiers, aged between 17 and 24 who are keen to give the sport a go.

Go to http://www.britishbiathlon.com/TID.htmto find out the fitness criteria and if you qualify, contact them before 17th April to get your invitation to the selection camp.

As Stuart Montgomery, our touring member says, 'this could be a good time to get involved in British biathlon, for the sport is on a bit of a roll at present, buoyed by recent encouraging results. For a flavour of this, see the BBU's website, at http://www.britishbiathlon.com/pages/home2.htm. On the homepage, under the headline "Season's end marked with positive progress", you can read that:

"The races are over for the GBR World Cup Men & Women's Teams and both have . . . [achieved] an improvement in their Nations Cup final positions. The two teams moved up 2 places in the final finishing order with the Women ending in 24th and the Men in 22nd. The Men's position is very significant as it will allow GBR to start each WC with 4 athletes next winter rather than 2."

The Chairman's Annual Report was upbeat too:

"During the 2007/2008 season, the BBU Board used all available resources to support the national athletes and develop potential talent. Thanks to extra sponsorship from Skandia International, a new Team Coach, Walter Pichler, was appointed . . . The standard of international competition continues to rise and . . . the performance of our national athletes also improved . . . For the first season ever, the British Women's team have qualified for a Women's World Cup relay team."

This recent good performance bodes well for the 2010 Winter Olympics, in Vancouver, and the BBU are hoping for a good showing. But they know they are up against some very strong competition and it is sensible for them to be taking a long view of the road to the eventual winner's podium.'