Frank Ullrich's mid-term review on the season preperation right before the final training camp in Vuokatti, Finnland
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We had no major problem in our different training camps apart from difficult weather conditions during our last one on the Dachstein glacier. Our decision to integrate the B-squad in some of our training camps turned out to be motivating for athletes of both squads. All the athletes showed enormous commitment, as can be seen in the results of the German Championships. We will have to see which of the top athletes will be able to make another step forward. Maybe we'll have to wait until the first world cups are over to decide that. The members of the successful World Championships' relay team Luck, Fischer, Gross and Sendel were able to determine their top position at the German Championships. And they are model for the younger ones in training too. I was glad to see how well the young athletes do. Upcoming athletes like Andi Birnbacher, Daniel Graf and Michi Roesch drew attention on themselves in training and the German Championships. We must not expect wonders of these young people, but their results show, that things develope quite well. Alexander Wolf was in bad luck this summer, he fell on roller skis twice and due to that had to reduce training for some time. But apart from that, we are very confident with the physical condition of our team. Mark Kirchner astonishingly quick found his way around his new role as head of the Oberhof athelets. We work together very well. I'm sure we made the right decision. New head of the technicians team is Björn Weisheit. He will take care of the skis together with Arne Kluge, Marco Danz and Torsten Thrän. We will intensivate the cooperation with other technicians' teams of the DSV (German Ski Federation). Last year he was the Swiss biathletes' technician. The provisionally world cup team contains seven athletes. Sven Fischer, Ricco Gross, Frank Luck and Peter Sendel have a kind of small bonus to be nominated for the world cup team, because of their achievements of the previous season. Andi Birnbacher, Michi Greis, Alexander Wolf and eleven more athletes compete for the other three positions. There will be a definite decision on the world cup team after the rest competitions in Vuokatti in the end of November. And we might change the team after the December world cups. 30.10.2003 from: DSV |