1979–80 Biathlon World Cup

The 1979–80 Biathlon World Cup was a multi-race tournament over a season of biathlon, organised by the UIPMB (Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne et Biathlon). The season started on 18 January 1980 in Ruhpolding, West Germany, and ended on 30 March 1980 in Murmansk, Soviet Union. It was the third season of the Biathlon World Cup, and it was only held for men.

1979–80 World Cup
Discipline	Men	Women
Overall	Frank Ullrich
Competition
←1978–79 1980–81→

Calendar

Below is the World Cup calendar for the 1979–80 season.^[1][2]

Location	Date	Individual	Sprint	Relay
Ruhpolding	18–20 January	●	●	●
Antholz-Anterselva	24–27 January	●	●	●
Lake Placid	16–22 February	●	●	●
Lahti	14–16 March	●	●	●
Hedenäset	20–23 March	●	●	●
Murmansk	27–30 March	●	●	●
Total		6	6	6

• 1980 Winter Olympics races were not included in the 1979–80 World Cup scoring system.

*The relays were technically unofficial races as they did not count towards anything in the World Cup.

World Cup Podium

Men

Stage	Date	Place	Discipline	Winner	Second	Third	Yellow bib (After competition)
1	18 January 1980	Ruhpolding	20 km Individual	Klaus Siebert	Eberhard Rösch	Matthias Jacob	Klaus Siebert
1	19 January 1980	Ruhpolding	10 km Sprint	Frank Ullrich	Klaus Siebert	Yvon Mougel
2	24 January 1980	Antholz-Anterselva	20 km Individual	Klaus Siebert	Frank Ullrich	Alfred Eder
2	26 January 1980	Antholz-Anterselva	10 km Sprint	Frank Ullrich	Mathias Jung	Manfred Beer
3	14 March 1980	Lahti	20 km Individual	Vladimir Gavrikov	Mathias Jung	Keijo Kuntola	Frank Ullrich
3	15 March 1980	Lahti	10 km Sprint	Vladimir Gavrikov	Frank Ullrich	Klaus Siebert
4	20 March 1980	Hedenäset	20 km Individual	Klaus Siebert	Frank Ullrich	Eberhard Rösch
4	22 March 1980	Hedenäset	10 km Sprint	Frank Ullrich	Klaus Siebert	Vladimir Alikin
5	27 March 1980	Murmansk	20 km Individual	Frank Ullrich	Vladimir Velichkov	Eberhard Rösch
5	29 March 1980	Murmansk	10 km Sprint	Eberhard Rösch	Vladimir Alikin	Vladimir Velichkov

Standings: Men

Overall

Pos.		Points
1.	Frank Ullrich	148
2.	Klaus Siebert	146
3.	Eberhard Rösch	133
4.	Vladimir Gavrikov	129
5.	Mathias Jung	127

• Final standings after 10 races.

Achievements

First World Cup career victory

•  Vladimir Gavrikov (URS), — the WC 3 Individual in Lahti; it also was his first podium
•  Eberhard Rösch (GDR), 25, in his 3rd season — the WC 5 Sprint in Murmansk; first podium was 1977–78 Individual in Ruhpolding

First World Cup podium

•  Matthias Jacob (GDR), 19, in his 1st season — no. 3 in the WC 1 Individual in Ruhpolding
•  Yvon Mougel (FRA), 23, in his 3rd season — no. 3 in the WC 1 Sprint in Ruhpolding; it also was the first podium for a French biathlete
•  Alfred Eder (AUT), 26, in his 3rd season — no. 3 in the WC 2 Individual in Antholz-Anterselva
•  Mathias Jung (GDR), 21, in his 2nd season — no. 2 in the WC 2 Sprint in Antholz-Anterselva
•  Manfred Beer (GDR), 26, in his 3rd season — no. 3 in the WC 2 Sprint in Antholz-Anterselva
•  Keijo Kuntola (FIN), 26, in his 3rd season — no. 3 in the WC 3 Individual in Lahti
•  Vladimir Velichkov (BUL), 20, in his 1st season — no. 2 in the WC 5 Individual in Murmansk; it also was the first podium for a Bulgarian biathlete

Victory in this World Cup (all-time number of victories in parentheses)

•  Frank Ullrich (GDR), 4 (8) first places
•  Klaus Siebert (GDR), 3 (8) first places
•  Vladimir Gavrikov (URS), 2 (2) first places
•  Eberhard Rösch (GDR), 1 (1) first place

Retirements

Following notable biathletes retired after the 1979–80 season:

•  Manfred Beer (GDR)
•  Klaus Siebert (GDR)
•  Alexander Tikhonov (URS)
•  Alexander Ushakov (URS)

Notes

1. ¹ This team was a regional team from Finland called Suomussalmen Rasti.

2. ² The Aftenposten source gives the French team a time of 1:59:58.