General Description International Biathlon Union - IBU

06/03/2015 International Biathlon Union ­ IBU

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General description of a biathlon competitionIn a Biathlon competition, the biathlete skis distances varying from 6 to 20 km and stops at the shooting range to shoottwo or four times, with both the ski distance and number of shooting bouts depending on the type of competition inquestion.The shooting distance is always 50 m. Five rounds are fired in each bout at five targets, except in the Relay competitionin which the competitor has three spare rounds for each bout. There are two shooting positions, prone and standing,which are done alternating or in a series, depending on the competition.Target diameters are very small and depend on the shooting position. For standing it is 115 mm in diameter and evensmaller for prone at 45 mm. During the entire competition the clock is running. Therefore the competitors do not justhave to shoot well but also fast.Penalties for missed targets are imposed either as one minute of added time per missed target for the Individualcompetition or as a 150 m penalty loop ­ done immediately after each bout of shooting ­ for all other competitions.In essence, the athlete starts at the start line, skis one course loop (length depending on the competition), comes to therange and shoots, skis another loop, shoots, and so on, and then finishes with a ski loop to the finish line after the lastbout of shooting.

For the Individual and Sprint competitions, starts are done with one competitor at a time at a 30 second interval. In aPursuit competition, starts are based on time intervals from the qualifying competition, and for the Mass Start, allcompetitors start together simultaneously.In the Relay competition, the first members of all teams start simultaneously and after completing their part, tag the nextmember in the Hand­over Zone to start them on their way.In principle, throughout the competition, the biathletes are responsible for their own actions, such as selecting ashooting lane (assigned in the Relay and Mass Start first shooting by start numbers), and for counting the number ofmissed targets and then skiing the correct number of penalty loops. However, they must always follow the stipulations ofthe Event and Competition Rules.Mixed Relays are also held. In these, female biathletes have to complete the first and the second leg of the relayrespectively, while the third and fourth relay leg are each completed by a male biathlete. In other respects, theprocedure for the Mixed Relay competition is as in the above description.