Doherty Silver in World Youth Individual, Five North Americans in Top Ten

Flower ceremony for the 12.5 k youth individual competition: Sean Doherty (USA) in second, Alexandre Dupuis and Jules Burnotte (CAN) in fifth and sixth. Photo: Biathlon Canada.

Sean Doherty, an 18-year-old New Hampshire native who had just returned from appearing in the Olympic relay in Sochi, started off World Youth Championships in Presque Isle, Maine, right: two gold medals in the sprint and pursuit competitions, both over Marco Gross of Germany.

Tuesday’s 12.5 k individual competition was setting up to be another battle. Doherty comes from Center Conway, a town of just a couple thousand people and no biathlon team. Gross, on the other hand, comes from biathlon royalty. His father is Ricco Gross, a longtime German star who won nine World Cup competitions, four Olympic gold medals, and 20 World Championships medals in total.

Starting just one bib apart, the who traded the lead back and forth. Gross was winning after the third of four shooting stages, when he had a 25-second lead over Doherty. In the final stage, Doherty collected the last of his four penalties, but Gross missed three shots to bring his total to five penalties – and five minutes of penalty time. Doherty was in the lead, and crossed the finish line with over a minute on Petyo Ivanov of Bulgaria.

But the race wasn’t over yet and later starters had something to say. Yaroslav Kostyukov of Russia had the best shooting of the day, collecting only two penalties. He crossed the line with a time 6.3 seconds faster than Doherty’s and stole the gold.

“Last night, I went to bed and tried to forget about everything before,” Kostyukov told the IBU press. “I woke up refreshed and ready to win…Before the competition, I spoke to my father and he told me to focus on the tracks and shooting range, I did that and I won.”

Emilien Jacquelin of France had three penalties to bump Ivanov out of bronze.

Doherty nevertheless brought his medal haul to three, matching his results from the previous year’s competition and now owning six World Youth Championships medals, extending what is by far an American record.

It was a good race for Canada, too, with Alexandre Dupuis finishing fifth and Jules Burnotte sixth, each with three penalties and only three seconds apart in time.

“Alexandre has had a great year on the NorAm circuit and is known as a strong shooter and skier,” Biathlon Canada High Performance Director Chris Lindsay wrote in an e-mail. “Jules Burnotte is a new talent and first-year youth. We are very pleased with the ski speed he put together yesterday and we look forward to seeing him continue to develop his natural talent.”

In the youth women’s 10 k individual, Maine Winter Sports Center’s own Maddie Phaneuf followed up on her fourth place in the sprint with another strong showing, placing eighth with three penalties.

“I was pleased with my shooting, as opposed to the previous race,” Phaneuf wrote on her blog. “I only missed 3 out of 20 targets, which is good because shooting really matters in the Individual race! The winner of the day, from Austria, missed none of her targets! My skiing felt a little slow, but I tried to keep my skiing technique good and relaxed.”

Teammate Anna Kubek of Minnesota missed four shots to place tenth, her best result of the series so far.

results:

youth men

1	KOSTYUKOV Yaroslav	RUS	0+1+0+1	2	35:22.6	0.0
2	DOHERTY Sean	USA	0+2+1+1	4	35:28.9	+6.3
3	JACQUELIN Emilien	FRA	0+2+1+0	3	36:06.5	+43.9
5	DUPUIS Alex	CAN	1+1+0+1	3	37:08.2	+1:45.6
6	BURNOTTE Jules	CAN	0+2+0+1	3	37:11.0	+1:48.4
18	HALLIGAN Brian	USA	2+1+1+1	5	38:52.7	+3:30.1
22	MILLAR Aidan	CAN	1+2+2+1	6	39:30.5	+4:07.9
34	EVERETT Paul Thomas	USA	1+3+1+1	6	41:14.5	+5:51.9
41	HANNA Pearce	CAN	2+2+2+1	7	42:12.1	+6:49.5
51	HUSAIN Kamran Muneer	USA	2+3+1+3	9	44:10.5	+8:47.9

youth women

1	SCHWAIGER Julia	AUT	0+0+0+0	0	32:58.7	0.0
2	VITTOZZI Lisa	ITA	0+1+1+0	2	34:04.4	+1:05.7
3	DAVLETSHINA Liliya	RUS	1+1+0+0	2	34:24.6	+1:25.9
8	PHANEUF Madeleine Grace	USA	0+1+0+2	3	37:14.7	+4:16.0
10	KUBEK Anna	USA	2+0+2+0	4	37:22.8	+4:24.1
30	DICKSON Emily	CAN	0+2+1+1	4	39:25.2	+6:26.5
33	TAM VON BURG Leilani	CAN	2+1+1+1	5	40:03.3	+7:04.6
41	PALUSZEK Mikaela	USA	1+2+1+2	6	41:32.4	+8:33.7
42	BANKES Megan	CAN	0+4+0+1	5	41:39.7	+8:41.0
43	ELLINGSON Siena May Rose	USA	0+2+1+3	6	42:12.7	+9:14.0
46	VRIELINK Danielle	CAN	1+3+2+4	10	44:07.4	+11:08.7

Chelsea Little

Chelsea Little is FasterSkier's Editor-At-Large. A former racer at Ford Sayre, Dartmouth College and the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, she is a PhD candidate in aquatic ecology in the @Altermatt_lab at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. You can follow her on twitter @ChelskiLittle.