German Junior Men Win Gold

The German Junior Men led the competition the whole time, although they raced head-to-head with the French almost until the fourth leg. Benedikt Doll, the third leg, got ahead of Ludwig Erhart on his final loop, with Manuel Müller securing the Gold medal with clean, spare-round free shooting.

Russia in third place fell back after second leg Evgeny Petrov had two penalties which left him inconsolable in the finish. However, the shooting in the Junior Men’s relay was a bit ragged as only Germany, France and Austria in the 18-team field, stayed clear of the penalty loop.

Birthday Present for Alexandr Loginov

In the Youth Men’s Relay Alexandr Loginov of Russia got ahead of his competitors during his first lap already and stayed there, despite using three spare rounds and being chased by Antonin Guigonnat of France as he left the shooting range.

 Russia, although they needed 15 spare rounds, did everything right and stayed ahead of France and Norway during the whole competition. That might not have been too surprising to them. Ivan Pichuzhkin explained: “Two days ago was Alexandr Loginov’s birthday; he turned 18. So this Gold Medal is the perfect gift for him.”

 France finished 1:01.3 behind Russia, with 8 spare rounds and no penalties. Norway was 1.43.3 back, with14 spare rounds.

Exciting Sprint To the Finish for Junior Women

Russia was in the lead the whole time in the Junior Women’s Relay and deserved the win with no penalties and only 3 spare rounds. Behind them, Germany looked like the Silver Medal winner for a long time, even after the sixth shooting stage when anchor Nicole Wötzel went out of the stadium 24 seconds ahead of France and 29 seconds ahead of Norway.

However, Synnøve Solemdal from Norway showed how fast she is during the past several days. Soon, she was on the heels of Sophie Boilley of France; they flew around the course together. About 150 Meters before the finish, they caught Wötzel. Solemdal commented: “At first I could not believe it. I thought that is one of the athletes that we lapped. When I realized it was the German I was very happy because she looked very tired.”

The three went toward the finish together and came around the last bend head to head, but Solemdal had fired the “Synnøve-Special“ and took the Silver ahead of Germany and France. None of the first four teams had any misses and Norway, with 3 spare rounds, was 29.7 seconds behind Russia a only two-tenths of a second ahead of Germany, who had needed 5 spare rounds.

No Celebration for the Gold

With this effort, Norway had won a Bronze and a Silver Medal and accordingly seemed to give Thekla Brun-Lie, Marion Rønning Huber and Anne-Tine Markset wings. They were close to the front during the whole Youth Women’s Relay and won the Gold 23.9 seconds ahead of the Russians who were extremely strong in the tracks. The Russian second leg, Natalia Shalaeva had one penalty and the team used 12 spare rounds. Yet they stayed ahead of the girls from Belarus who only needed two spare rounds today and were 40.2 seconds back at the finish.t

The cheering Norwegians will have little time to celebrate their full set of Medals at the end of these IBU Youth and Junior World Championships because tonight they will all drive back home to Norway, just a few hours away.

Next World Championships in Nove Mesto

After the last athlete, Rahsan Yilmaz of Turkey crossed the finish line while being cheered on by her fellow athletes, the coaches, officials and spectators, the last medals were handed out. Following that, the IBU flag was passed on by IBU Race Director Franz Berger from Torsby to the organizer of the 2011 IBU Youth and Junior World Championships, Nove Mesto na Morave in the Czech Republic.