Martin Nevland of Norway and Lea Meier of Switzerland won youth individual competitions in perfect biathlon weather conditions at the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

Nevland wins with a great skiing speed

Martin Nevland of Norway with three penalties and by far the fastest skiing time won the youth men's 12.5 km individual and with that the first competition of the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Damien Level of France with one penalty finished second, 12.9 seconds behind the winner, and his compatriot Eric Perrot with two penalties finished third, 30.7 seconds behind Nevland.

Nevland paved the way toward his win with one miss in each of the prone stages and the first standing shooting, gradually progressing from 21st place to eight to fifth before the last shoot where he cleared all the targets and went into the last loop just 13.7 seconds behind the leader after the fourth shooting Damien Levet of France. The Norwegian had the fastest second, third, fourth and the last loop, skiing 1:03.1 faster then the rest of the field over the 12.5 km course. Perrot had one miss in the second prone and the second standing shooting and fourth fastest skiing time of the competition.

Shooting star Meier wins for Switzerland

In the youth women's 10 km individual Swiss shooting star Lea Meier won the first gold for the host nation. Meier started well, clearing all five targets and then missed in the second prone which pushed her temporarily into seventh place. Meier, who finished third in the pursuit at IBU Junior Cup 2 in Martell - Val Martello, missed once more in the fist standing but kept her nerves together at the last shoot while building up her ski speed just enough to be faster 12.7 seconds than silver medalist Rebecca Passler of Italy and 13.4 seconds faster than bronze medalist Anna Gandler of Austria.

Just like the winner Meier, Passler and Gandler compete regularly in the IBU Junior Cup competitions.