Competitors fire over a range of 50 m at the same targets as in the individual competition. Each shot must be fed into the chamber from a magazine by a manual action. For each miss the competitors must cover a 150 m handicap loop taking approximately 20- 30 seconds. This race is very lively and exciting. The competitor s time is taken between crossing starting and finishing lines.
Top athletes finish the competition in approx.
24 minutes without having to ski a handicap loop. The best women sprinters take about 23 minutes to complete the 7.5 km race. In the Relay competition each team is comprised of 4 biathletes, each of whom has to ski 7.5 km with two firing bouts, one prone and one standing. The teams cover a total distance of 30 km. There is a mass start by all the team s first skiers.