The 2008-09 Biathlon World Cup/Individual Women will start at Thursday December 4, 2008 in Östersund and will finish Wednesday March 11, 2009 in Vancouver at the pre-olympic Biathlon event. Defending titlist is Martina Beck of Germany.
Competition format
The 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) individual race is the oldest biathlon event; the distance is skied over five laps. The biathlete shoots four times at any shooting lane, in the order of prone, standing, prone, standing, totalling 20 targets. For each missed target a fixed penalty time, usually one minute, is added to the skiing time of the biathlete. Competitors' starts are staggered, normally by 30 seconds.
References
2008–09 Biathlon World Cup – Individual Women Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA