Nordgren misses podium with missed shots, takes 5th in WJ Biathlon pursuit

The top 60 racers from yesterday’s sprint qualified to start in pursuit format for today’s World Junior/Youth Biathlon Championships in Torsby, Sweden.

The last race of the Championships will be a team relay on Tuesday.

Junior Men

Leif Nordgren moved closer to the top of the results in today’s 12.5km pursuit, but was weighted with 5 penalties which kept him from closing in on the podium. After placing 6th in yesterday’s sprint, Nordgren started 47 seconds behind leader Evgeny Petrov in today’s race. Nordgren lost another 41 seconds on the first place finisher, but managed to climb towards fourth place before losing the sprint finish to Mathieu Souchal (FRA) and ending in 5th.

Petrov (RUS) also missed 5 shots and dropped from first place to third, 50.6 seconds off the leading pace of Manuel Mullen of Germany. Mullen, who had started just 2 seconds back to Petrov, was able to take the lead and give himself a 50 second cushion by only missing one shot. Vladimir Alenishko (BLR) was the podium upset of today, climbing from 9th place – one minute behind Petrov – to end up in a sprint finish with Petrov, beating the Russian by half a second at the line.

There were no other U.S. finishers. Canadian finishers: Scott Gow dropped from 21st to 43rd because of 9 penalties. Matthew Neumann was 46th (4,4,0,0); David Gregoire 50th (0,2,0,2); Joel Pacas 51st (1,0,1,2).

Youth Men

Aleksandr Pechenkin (RUS) started 30 seconds down to Johannes Kuhn (GER) in today’s 10km pursuit but only missed 1 shot to Kuhn’s 4, and was able to take the gold with an 18.7 second lead. Ivan Pichuzhkin (RUS) moved up one place from yesterday’s sprint, and finished just 1.4 seconds behind Kuhn.

There were four Americans in today’s pursuit: US biathletes Eathan Dreissigacher in 36th (1,1,2,1) and Casey Smith in 56th (2,1,1,2); and Canada’s Aaron Gillmore in 40th (1,2,1,1) and Christian Gow in 45th (1,3,4,1).

Junior Women

Sophi Boilley (FRA) took the gold in the 10km pursuit. Bailley had 3 penalties and won by 22.1 seconds. Anastasia Kalina (RUS) who started in 4th, 53 seconds back, shot a perfect four rounds and without any penalties made up time on her competitors to earn the silver medal. Synnoeve Solemdal (NOR) had 5 penalities but still managed to keep her third place spot and earn the bronze medal. The winner of yesterday’s sprint, Maren Hammerschmidt, ended in fourth place, 41.3 seconds back with 4 penalties.

U.S. racer Grace Boutot improved yesterday’s 45th place finish to end in 37th today (2,0,1,1). Teammate Addie Byrne dropped one place to finish in 47th (0,2,0,4).

Canadian finishers: Tatiana Chesham 50th, (2,0,0,0); Carly Shiell 56th (2,2,1,2); Isabell Abran 58th (2,0,0,0).

Youth Women

The podium today mirrored yesterday’s sprint podium, only the top three finished slightly closer together in today’s 7.5 km pursuit. The gold medal went to Elena Badanina (RUS) who started with a 17 second lead, had 2 penalties, and won by 5 seconds. The silver went to Ingela Andersson of Sweden who had three penalties. Bronze went to Moniko Hojnisz of Poland, also with three penalties, who finished 11 seconds back.

U.S. biathlete Kelly Kjorlien jumped up the results list by taking only two penalties (1,0,1,0) and moving from 58th to 40th place. Teammate Afton Snyder (0,2,2,3) improved four places to finish in 53rd.

Rose-Marie Cote, who had taken bronze in the individual race for Canada, shattered her string of perfect shooting performances by picking up 3 penalties today and dropped from 13th to 18th place. Cote had three more teammates in the top 35: Julia Ransom, 23rd (0,3,2,0); Audrey Vaillancourt,26th, (0,0,1,1); Emma Lunder, 34th (0,0,1,2).