Review week 6

It had it all: Surprises, Disappointments and Favourite Victories

Hoefl-Riesch on her way to gold

In our preview of week 6 we started off with the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2013 in Schladming, Austria. After five out of eleven competitions it is fair to say, that the Austrian athletes have until now under-performed on home ground. So far they have won one medal through Nicole Hosp in the super combination, although fans and officials were expecting at least three by that time of the championships. Hopes are still up, as many Austrian athletes have finished in the top ten. On the other hand Tina Maze, as expected, won the Super-G which was a turbulent first race of the championships. Aksel Lund Svindal from Norway is now the king of alpine skiing, because he has won the men’s downhill on Saturday and has therefore been rewarded with ~ €30,000. Maria Hoefl-Riesch is the third athlete to mention, since she has won the super combination and came in third at today’s downhill. Each of these athletes has so far won two medals making them the most successful competitors by now.

3 times Champion Emil Hegle Svendsen

The IBU World Championships Biathlon 2013 started with the mixed relay on Thursday night. As expected the Norwegian team won, with France coming in second. It was nice to see and quite a surprise that the home team of the Czech Republic finished third winning their first medal already on the first day. As predicted in our preview of this week Tora Berger with 3 medals (2 gold, 1 silver) and Martin Fourcade with 3 silver medals are among the most successful athletes so far. Martin Fourcade though, is not as dominant as he has been at last year’s Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany. Emil Hegle Svendsen is the man of the Championships with winning three out of three gold medals. A small surprise was provided by the Ukrainian team, which has not put their best athletes in the mixed relay and (therefore) won gold (Olena Pidhrushna) and bronze (Vita Semerenko) in the women’s sprint.

Will they celebrate tonight?

The final of Africa Cup of Nations 2013 is surely a surprise to many football fans. Obviously it is not the Nigerian team which surprises to be in the final, as they have won the semi final several times in the past years (2002, 2004, 2006 & 2010). But Burkina Faso?! Yes, Burkina Faso, currently 92 in the FIFA ranking, has never survived the first round or even qualified for the Africa up of Nations in the past 13 years. It is going to be a great final with Nigeria being in the favourite of most experts.

At the 2013 Six Nations Championship we were able to see some great matches with Scotland slamming Italy (34-10), another loss from France which played against Wales (6-16) as well the second win for England which beaten Ireland on home ground with 6-12 (the first win against Ireland in the 6 Nations after a decade). With that victory England keeps their dream of winning the Grand Slam alive. 

Stay tuned for more news on the upcoming sport events!

Tanja Voegtlin