Norway Sends Ten to Saturday's Otepää Sprint
Norway's men's national biathlon team will race the sprint event at the IBU Regional Baltic Biathlon Cup and Estonian Summer Open Championships on Saturday in Otepää, Estonia — but reigning World Cup sprint standout Sturla Holm Lægreid will not be part of the group. The Norwegian squad has been on a training camp at the venue since late August, using the competition as a practical end-of-camp test before the domestic autumn season intensifies.
The ten athletes confirmed to start are Sverre Dahlen Aspenes, Johan-Olav Botn, Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen, Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, Isak Frey, Sivert Gerhardsen, Einar Hedegart, Martin Uldal, Martin Nevland, and Ole Suhrke. None of them will compete in Sunday's mass-start race; the team is racing the sprint as a standalone training stimulus before returning to Norway.
A First Look at the 2027 World Championships Venue
Otepää's Tehvaldi Sports Centre holds a particular significance heading into the 2026–27 biathlon season. The Estonian venue is scheduled to host the 2027 IBU Biathlon World Championships, making any race there valuable course reconnaissance for national teams. The sprint format — 10 kilometres for men with two shooting stages — closely mirrors the World Championships programme the athletes will face in February 2027.
For several of the Norwegian athletes in attendance, this weekend represents early competition miles after a summer of physical build-up. Christiansen and Dale-Skjevdal have been among the squad's most consistent performers over the past two seasons, while younger squad members like Frey and Suhrke will be looking to impress ahead of the selection period for the first World Cup events.
Lægreid Absent From the Camp Race
The notable absence is Lægreid, who finished the 2025–26 World Cup season among Norway's top performers in the sprint and pursuit disciplines. No official reason was given for his non-participation in Otepää. Norwegian biathlon regularly rotates squad members across different autumn training camps and competition appearances, so his absence here does not necessarily signal any fitness concern; his camp schedule simply points elsewhere this week.
Norway's full programme for the autumn period — before the first IBU World Cup event — includes further camps in Ruhpolding, Col de Lavazè, and Antholz or Torsby in October and November. The women's national team was not listed among the participants at the Otepää sprint, with the squad's joint Group A camp for both genders scheduled for Corrençon-en-Vercors from September 8–18.
Context: Autumn Competition Landscape
The Estonian Summer Championships sprint serves simultaneously as the first day of the IBU Regional Baltic Biathlon Cup, meaning points from the race count toward IBU regional standings. For the Norwegians, however, the primary value is competitive race practice under real conditions — shooting under pressure, managing rifle transitions on roller skis, and logging speed data ahead of winter.
Germany's parallel preseason storyline this weekend centres on the German Biathlon Summer Championships at Notschrei in the Black Forest, where the sprint takes place on Saturday at 14:00 and the pursuit on Sunday. The two events — Germany's domestic championship and Norway's training-camp sprint — together offer the clearest snapshot yet of where the two most decorated nations in modern biathlon stand as the 2026–27 World Cup season approaches.