2010 World Junior Championship (Men Schedule)

Wednesday January 27^th 13:30 (15km Individual)

Saturday January 30^th 11:05 (10km Sprint)

Sunday January 31^st 11:00 (12.5km Pursuit)

Monday February 1^st 8:50 (4X7.5km Relay)

Canadian World Junior Trials (La Patrie, Quebec)

Thursday January 14^th 2010 (10km Sprint)

I started the week with a second place finish in the 10km Sprint competition, crossing the line 58 seconds behind Scott Gow (Alberta). I recovered from 2 mistakes prone to hit 4 out of 5 from the standing position. The 3.3km course featured some difficult climbs accompanied with a steep technical downhill. I am confident for the weekend and am aiming for some better shooting. I am currently tied for first in the North American circuit and am motivated to fight for the top position.

Saturday January 16^th 2010 (10km Sprint)

Sunday January 17^th 2010 (12.5km Pursuit)

Welcome 2010 Sponsors

As I continue to improve from year to year, my sponsors become more and more important. As I enter my final year as a junior, I am training harder, traveling more, and encountering bigger expenses to accomplish my goals. This season, National Firearm Association, Prince George Rod and Gun club, Daniel Giroux (Flex art Studio.com), Alain Baril, Rudy Project Eyewear, Louise Lambert, Icebreaker Nature Clothing and the Squamish Boston Pizza have all invested their money, time, and support to help me reach the podium. Their help shows their appreciation for sport in Canada and I cannot express how grateful I am for their ongoing support. Even with the Olympics at home, Canadian athletes receive very little support. Through my sponsors generous help, I am able to train full time and focus everything I have on reaching the podium. A big Thank you!

Rudy Project Exowind

www.e-rudy.com

Squamish Boston Pizza

Every season, I encounter thousands of dollars of expenses that I must overcome in order to achieve my goals. These expenses are all huge barriers Canadian athletes must hurdle, in order to reach the international podium. This season, the Squamish Boston Pizza has acknowledged this obstacle, and generously offered to donate 10% of your next bill to my achieving my goals this season. All you have to do is enjoy your next meal at the Squamish Boston Pizza and write my name, Matt Neumann, on the bill. I appreciate Boston Pizza's generousity and would be very thankful for your support. Every dollar goes a long way!

2009/2010 Season Opener

The first races of the season are in the books after a double medal effort at North American Cup #1 in Canmore, Alberta. With a gold in the 10 kilometer sprint, and silver in the 12.5 kilometer pursuit I am excited to see that the summer training has paid off. The course featured a four stage uphill, which favored strong skiers followed by a quick set of turns during a steep and icy decent. In the range I am adjusting to my new stock, and had excellent prone shooting. Standing proved to be a bit tougher again, and was not as successful, but that cannot be blamed on my new stock.

I finished the weekend as the top Junior Man, and I'm looking forward to the next set of races coming up in Canmore. With this start, I am excited to see how the rest of the season plays out. I have all the tools and training behind me, & I look forward to bringing it all together. Thanks for following!

Thank you PGRGC!

A big thank you to the Prince George Rod and Gun Club for their generosity this season. They gave $550, which will help me in achieving my goals this season and covering the $3200 team fee for 2010 World Junior Championships in Torsby, Sweden. I encounter thousands of dollars of expenses each season, so every dollar goes a long way. I appreciate their support! Check the PGRGC homepage out at www.pgrgclub.ca.

I'll be competing in the first races of the season (Noram #1) this weekend in Canmore, Alberta. The entire course has been created with man-made snow, so other than the white band of snow, everything else is brown and green! You can check out results at www.biathloncanada.ca.

The Noram #2 will be held in Canmore, too, the following weekend. (December 5th and 6th). I'm excited to start the season and looking forward to some good results this year!

(photo: Daniel Giroux- Flex Art Studio)

Growing Champions

Visit www.growingchampions.ca to see how you can support a BC athlete!

Early Snow!

On October 15^th coach iLmar Heinicke decided to cut the Switzerland camp short and move to Klingenthal, Germany. It was getting hard to roller ski in Switzerland, with snow blowing onto the track, but not nearly enough to ski. In East Germany, they had received an unexpected snow dump, and in places there was enough to groom and ski. We skied three days in Klingenthal, and four days in Oberweisenthal. In Klingenthal we only had the option to ski on a 3km cross country track, but Oberweisenthal had a five km loop and the opportunity to shoot. We had perfect conditions! We shot on the range three days, and the skiing was amazing. On the last two days, it was -5⁰C and bright sun. It felt like February rather than October 18^th.

Oberhof Ski Hall

We spent the last nine days in oberhof, skiing in the ski arena. The snow hall had a 2 km horse-shoe loop that i skied about 250 km on. It wasn’t action packed, but it provided awesome training, and perfect, consistent conditions. The hall was maintained at minus four degrees and groomed daily. You couldn’t ask for better fall training conditions, especially in September.

For the remainder of the European camp, we moved to Antermatt, Switzerland in the heart of the Alps. October 11^th was the first day of training, and the conditions were a big change from oberhof. We went from 15⁰C and shooting in an indoor shooting range to -6⁰C and 30km winds in Switzerland. It was a hard adjustment, but reminded me that biathlon is an outdoor sport.

World Summer Champs/ European Training Camp

For the next four weeks ill be continueing my training camp in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The first race of the camp began in Altenburg, Germany with German National Summer Biathlon Championships (septmeber 19^th-20^th). I was racing in the senior category against some of Germany’s top biathlon celebrities. In the Saturday 10km sprint, I finished 3:10 behind World Champion Christoph Stephen (Germany). I started the 12.5km pursuit in 22^nd place (3:10 behind the leader) and finished the weekend in 19^th place.

Immediately after German Champs the BC Biathlon High Performance Team travelled to Oberholf, Germany for Summer Running Biathlon World Championships. In the first 4km sprint competition I finished in 20^th position (out of 46 junior competitors) 1:17 behind the leader. I had a clean prone shooting (5 for 5) but had four misses standing! I was motivated for improvement the next day. In Sunday’s 6km Pursuit competition, I cleaned my first two prone shootings, moving into 8^th for the first standing. I finished with 5 total misses (15/20) and in 13^th position. I was happy with a top 15 result at a world championships, but knew I was still capable of a better performance.

This weekend was World Summer Rollerski Biathlon Championships. I had two average races with good skiing and bad shooting. I finished the 10km sprint just inside the top 30, 3 minutes 45 seconds behind the leader. I had the 18^th fastest ski time, which i was happy about and was less than a minute from a top 20. In the 12.5km pursuit on Sunday I finish 32^nd overall, with 17^th fastest ski time and again poor shooting. I finished the week very motivated to improve my shooting, and happy to see that my ski times were competitive with the leaders.

Tomorrow is off and starting on Tuesday, we start a nine day ski camp in Oberholf Germany, where we will be skiing in a man made snow tunnel. I’m excited to continue the camp, and look forward to an awesome next four weeks!

Canmore-Whistler Rollerski Trip

Biathlon BC along with Galileo Coffey, CE Communications Limited, CE Corporate Electric Limited, Corsa Cycles, and SRB Rollerskis(www.ski-roller.de) put on a 1080km rollerski trip from Canmore to the Whistler Olympic park. The entire distance was covered in 5 days and divided between 8 athletes. The entire trip, we were followed by a support car, and often had TV Stations working beside. The trip was a very unique experience to rollerski parts of BC that we would never beable to, without the help of coaches (iLmar Hienicke) and team staff Daniel Giroux. The trip was important for putting in long slow base hours, essential for the summer training leading into the fall.

Canmore-Whistler Rollerski Trip

In light of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the provincial Biathlon BC team will be participating in a rollerski trek from Canmore Alberta, to the Whistler olympic Park. The Tour is set to start on July 12th and run until the 16th when the team will arrive at the 2010 Olympic Biathlon venue. There will be 8 athletes rotating in turn, rollerskiing continuous over the 1000 km journey. The idea of the trip is to promote the sport and to bring the Olympic spirit from the 1988 Winter Olympic site, to the 2010 Whistler Park. The trip will be sponsored by the German company SRB Rollerskis, as well as the German TV network Deutsche Welle, local coffee shop Galileo Coffee, squamish bike store Corsa Cycles, and local GM Dealer Greg Gardner. If you are interested, support is still needed.

Okanagan Bike Camp '09

I returned Monday from a five day bike camp through Okanagan (southern BC). The camp was hosted by Biathlon BC and included athletes from the High Performance program and development squad. The tour covered 800km over five days including Silverstar mountain, Apex mountain, and the Penticton Ironman course. After four days of sun and +30 C temperature, the only rain was on the final decent into Pentiction on the final day.