The young wild ones are getting rolling in Antholz

By Luis Mahlknecht

Nevertheless, the 16 young ski hunters are fully motivated. Four people from Antholz, three biathletes from Piedmont, four from the Aosta Valley, three from Friuli and one each from Lombardy and one from Trento make up the junior team, with Mirco Romanin pulling the strings as the person in charge. “But I don’t see myself as a boss, everything is done in consultation with my strong team,” says the modest man from Forni Avoltri. In addition to the tried and tested Fabio Cianciana, Edoardo Mezzaro, Daniele Piller and Samantha Plafoni, Aline Noro and Pietro Dutto have also recently joined the supervisory staff.

The common thread with a view to the 2026 Olympics runs through the national teams, and young people from the years of birth in 2003 and 2004 were also included, such as Marco Barale and Nicoló Betemps for the boys and the Scattolo siblings (Sara and Ilaria) for the girls . Four people from Antholz are there There are exactly four people from South Tyrol in Antholz: David Zingerle can spend the night at home at this first team training camp, as can the medalists from the last Junior World Championships, namely Hannah Auchentaller, Rebecca Passler and Linda Zingerle, David's sister. The latter caused a sensation in Lenzerheide last winter (she became sprint world champion in the U19 category), but she doesn't see herself as the “hunted one”: “I'm one of 16 athletes,” she admits deeply, but she will as always, fully committed.

Rebecca Passler, David and Linda Zingerle and Hannah Auchentaller (from left) are the 4 South Tyroleans in the team. © lm

You can also see this during training. In Oberrasen we set off on the roller skis and the team heads into the valley in a nice, even diagonal step. The first steeper climb begins behind Bad Salomonsbrunn (the people of Antholz would say “hinton Boddegotto”), then after the flatter section near Mittertal there is another steep climb to the Südtirol Arena, where the juniors complete another lap on the scooter track. The rain is increasing, but you can see the determination in all 16 athletes to do well. Now in the summer we will have to work like this - always at a distance, with many safety precautions - and this will probably be done primarily in South Tyrol, especially since outside of our country only the biathlon stadium in Forni Avoltri is currently available (currently only with ten shooting lanes due to renovations). .

“We’ll see from time to time,” the trainers announce. And we're happy when it really gets going. The goal this winter is the Junior World Championships, which will take place relatively late (end of February/beginning of March) but very close (in Obertilliach, East Tyrol). The foundation is currently being laid.

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The young wild ones are getting rolling in Antholz

The A team in Martell, the juniors in Antholz: South Tyrol is currently the location for the first training sessions of the Italian biathlon teams. As with the “big ones”, the weather wasn’t kind to the athletes and coaches for the juniors either. SportNews was there and took a look around.

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