Marcel Laponder was born in South Africa and has both British and South African citizenship. The soldier from the 35 Engineer Regiment RE is trained by Marc Walker , previously Jason Sklenar . He started biathlon in 2005 and has been competing in international competitions since 2007. He contested his first races as part of the Biathlon European Cup . In 2008 he contested his first race as part of the Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof and was 20th with the British relay. Laponder contested his first individual race of the World Cup at the sprint of the Biathlon World Championships in 2008 in Östersund , where he finished 105th. Mostly Laponder is used in individual races in the IBU Cup , the successor to the European Cup, as Kevin Kane and Lee-Steve Jackson , who are more likely to run in the World Cup . He regularly competes in the World Cup with the relay. At the 2009 World Championships in Pyeongchang , Laponder was 89th in the individual with his best World Cup performance.
Biathlon World Cup placements
The table shows all placements (depending on the year, including the Olympic Games and World Championships).
1st - 3rd Place: Number of podium placements
Top 10: Number of placements in the top ten (including podium)
Points ranks: Number of placements within the point ranks (including podium and top 10)
Starts: Number of races run in the respective discipline