The IBU have rather thoughtfully, as there is no World Cup this week, allowed us to stream the Junior WC races (but not the Youth ones) from Obertilliach.
Uliana Kaisheva is clearly ready for the Juniors; the Russian outskied everybody to a ridiculous level, with 1 penalty she won the sprint over 6km by a full minute, and doubled up with a comfortable pursuit win despite 4 errors. Italy's Lisa Vittozzi (clean shooting) and Russia's Svetlana Mironova (1 penalty) made up the rest of the medals in the sprint, but fell away in the pursuit, with Kazakh Galina Vishevskaya climbing from 5th with 1 penalty to 2nd, and German Marion Deigentesch, who despite matching Kaisheva's shooting record was over 2 minutes down in 16th in the sprint, shot 19/20 and outskied Zhuravok (who went 20/20) on the final lap to get the bronze medal.
The male Youth sprint was a much tighter affair, with nobody having too clear a ski advantage. France's Fabien Claude took the win with 2 penalties, though the USA's Sean Doherty started a couple of minutes behind and came closest, matching the Frenchman's shooting but not his ski time, to finish 3 seconds behind. Rene Zahkna of Estonia finished 3rd, with 1 penalty. Amazingly, no Germans or Russians (the latter having been particularly successful at these championships) in the top 10, but as opposed to the women, there were 19 male youths inside a minute, leading to a tense pursuit. Claude wilted at the range, with 7 penalties in all, with Doherty having just 3 and clearly outskiing Zahkna to take the win. Fredrik Rørvik of Norway won a keenly fought battle for 3rd, again with 3 penalties, while key movers were Niklas Homberg of Germany (climbing from 22nd to 5th) and Vemund Gurigard of Norway (from 26th to 7th), who both shot with 3 penalties but gained time on Doherty and Zahkna.
Onto the Juniors, where I actually got to see the races so can go on what I remember as well as just the reports.
First up was the women's sprint. The early running was made by Annika Knoll of Germany, who put a lot of time into those that went before her despite 2 penalties, to the point where it was amazing to see how far she tumbled down the rankings. World Cup semi-regular Daria Yurlova of Estonia was the first to overhaul her, shortly followed by Frenchwoman Enora Latuillière. Most of the main names went in the middle bunch, and the next key name was Germany's Franziska Preuß, a very promising 18yo competitor still eligible for the Youth events, who many German fans have high expectations of. She missed one in prone, but shot clear in standing in incredible time (seriously, she shoots in standing at a pace even Tora Berger might be hard pushed to match), however a few minutes later she was overhauled first by Austria's Lisa Theresa Hauser and then France's Anaïs Chevalier, who both posted times around 13" better than the young German, with clean shooting the key. Both were made to look like rank amateurs by Germany's other major contender, Laura Dahlmeier, however. Dahlmeier has a lot of Germany's fans' tongues wagging & was indeed a contender for slot 6 at Antholz. After this weekend I wouldn't be surprised to see her at Holmenkollen, Sochi or Khanty-Mansiysk. She shoots slowly and methodically, but she shot all 10 targets and the time she set was almost a minute ahead of the two other sharpshooters despite her slower range time. The only one who could contend with her was Russia's Olga Podchufarova, who set a blindingly fast course time, but paid for it with 3 penalties in standing, ending up 48" behind. The last threat to the German was Norway's Hilde Fenne, who has been excellent in relays for them this season... but she has not peaked at the right time for these championships, with 3 penalties but a time more than a minute off Podchufarova's.
Going into the pursuit, Dahlmeier had a significant lead & while Podchufarova was able to eat into it a bit with her skiing time, she lost all the time she made at the range when she missed in the second standing. Preuß made light work of Chevalier and Hauser on the trails to move into 3rd very early on. It was in the first standing that the race turned upside down; Laura Dahlmeier is the kind of biathlete I love. She is fast, but she is vulnerable. The pressure struck her in the first standing, and she followed in the footsteps of many a German star before her - Disl, Neuner, Gößner - with 3 misses to Podchufarova's 1, meaning her advantage was cut to just 6 seconds. With her insanely fast shooting style, Preuß would have taken the lead had she hit all 5, but she could only manage 4. Meanwhile, behind, others struggling at the range in standing allowed Vanessa Hinz, a converted XC skier who's only been doing biathlon a year, to step up to 4th place with 18/20 on the day. At the final shoot, Dahlmeier and Podchufarova were together... Podchufarova shot 4/5, Dahlmeier 3... but even if they shot equal it was a foregone conclusion as Podchufarova shot fairly quickly, Dahlmeier very methodically. Or would it have been? What we do know is that Preuß moved ahead of Dahlmeier due to fast and accurate shooting, emerging 21" behind Podchufarova with Dahlmeier at 37"... but at the finish Dahlmeier had turned this deficit to just 17", with Preuß only losing 3 more seconds to the Russian who had been the second fastest skier on the day (the fastest was Hilde Fenne, but with 9 penalties she became an irrelevance to those at the front). So was Podchufarova easing up knowing she had the win, or did Dahlmeier pace the race better and have that much in reserve? Either way, both are really good prospects if this is anything to go by, as is bronze medallist Preuß. The big movers were Russia's Elena Ankudinova (20th to 8th with 2 penalties) and France's Coline Varcin (21st to 10th with just 1).
The men's sprint was laid out fairly similarly to the women's, with the main names going in the middle order. Russia's Aleksandr Chernyshov set the early time to beat, with 2 penalties, and Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, who has had some good performances at the World Cup level this season, most notably at Östersund, showed that again Norwegians hadn't quite peaked this right, as despite shooting 10/10 (which only 4 people managed) and setting a long-time target time, he couldn't make the podium. The big deal was Maxim Tsvetkov, who won the sprint and pursuit at Junior level in both 2011 and 2012, and posted a mind-boggling ski time again in the sprint, only for his composure to desert him at the range and, after 2 penalties in standing, he only quashed Christiansen's time rather than obliterating it. A couple of decent challengers missed 1 target, and still fell nearly a minute shy of Tsvetkov's time - Quentin Fillon-Maillet of France and Roman Rees of Germany - but it was left to two consecutive starters to make the decisive moves. Aleksandr Loginov missed one shot in standing; Johannes Thingnes Bø missed one in prone. Both posted times akin to Tsvetkov's after two laps, so we could be forgiven that given the extra miss, they would fall away from his time at the finish. But we would be wrong, for Loginov posted the fastest time, 11" ahead of his compatriot, and Bø fell 5" behind. The only remaining challenger was yet another Russian, Timur Makhambetov, as long as he could shoot cleanly in standing. He couldn't, and had to settle for 6th.
Onto the pursuit then, and the first bit of news was that Christiansen, 4th in the sprint, had chosen not to take the start. This left a huge gap between the leading trio and the chasers a minute behind. Tsvetkov fought hard on the first lap to catch up to the leading duo, but paid for it when he missed one in prone 1 and had to do all that work again, but he was helped by Bø setting a seemingly very pedestrian pace. The next trio on the trails were Makhambetov, Fillon-Maillet and Rees, with the Russian again being the one to miss. At prone 2, Bø missed, giving Loginov the clear advantage and putting himself back behind Tsvetkov, while Rees shot clear and rid himself of any company. The Russians started to work to distance him and came in to standing 1 together, but both had respective meltdowns - Loginov missing 2 and Tsvetkov 3 - meaning Bø could take the lead if he shot well... but he missed 2 himself. This gave the fast-shooting Rees the chance - Rees shoots rather like Andi Birnbacher, taking a bit of time to set up his position but once shot 1 is away shot 5 is shortly afterwards. Knowing a medal was a possibility he went for it, shooting at the kind of speed normally reserved for Tora Berger and repeater rifles, but sometimes shooting at that speed sacrifices accuracy, and so it was, missing 2 himself and falling back into the clutches of Fillon-Maillet, who just missed 1. Tsvetkov's faster skiing and quicker shooting times meant that he completed his 3 laps shortly behind Loginov's 2, with Bø some 30 seconds behind. Coming into shooting 4, it was a question of which Russian would blink first? The answer was both, as they both missed shot number 1 simultaneously. This time it was Tsvetkov who missed 2 and Loginov 3, so Bø didn't have as much time as he had at shooting 3. Perhaps because of that, he didn't overthink things, just shot, getting all 5 quickly and reminding us of his brother's explosion onto the scene. This time, Rees and Fillon-Maillet didn't get the chance, because Bø was off on the trails already. They missed 2 each to sacrifice the medals anyhow. Tsvetkov trailed in 15" behind Bø having started 6" behind and with 3 extra misses; he was the fastest on the trails, but Bø raced smarter, as Tsvetkov seemingly took too much out of himself in the skiing to be able to control the shots; Loginov took home the bronze. Few big movers in the pursuit, despite the close times; Giuseppe Montello, the Italian, was by far the best of these, shooting 19 out of 20, en route to 7th from 20th position.
Shipulin seems to be good at altitude, so he will be dangerous in Sochi according to the TV dudes.
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