BLOG: So my World Cup season is finally finished, and while it didn’t all go to plan, there were some major highlights for me which all point towards an exciting 2013-14 season leading into Sochi.

My best result (and the best ever result for an Australian male), was placing 33rd in the 20km Individual World Cup in Sochi held in early March. This placing earned Australia its first ever World Cup points and a major factor in this result was my clean shooting, which means I hit all the required 20 targets. This shows for me I can definitely mix in with the best for shooting and as I develop my skiing and get more stronger, it all looks good for the future.
 
Other highlights of the season were qualifying for the prestigious World Cup Pursuit where you have to finish in the top 60 of a Sprint race; finishing 13th at an IBU Cup (Europa Cup); and having three results of below 10% behind the winners, which again are all my best results ever and also for Australia. I was also able to achieve the two qualifying results I need to go to Sochi so I’m pretty excited about that.

My plan now is to take a break from intense training and attend my University that I may have forgotten about and complete some more of my Sports Management degree. Then from mid-May the rest of my Australian team-mates and I will begin our summer training in Europe.
 
I’ll keep you posted over the next few months on how the summer training is going. It's going to be hard work in the off season, but this is when all athletes do their hard training as it’s just not possible to do it once the season starts in November.  I am prepared for it and pumped to hurt so it should be a good summer's worth of training. Talk some more soon!

Alex