Twelve nations won the medals at the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Lenzerheide, which proved to be a huge success. Among more than 200 athletes few stood out, this is what we learned from the week.

• Lenzerheide was a success on all fronts

Youth and junior biathletes from 43 nations took part in Lenzerheide and 12 nations won one medal or more what showed for a great depth in the world’s biathlon. Norway and Russia were the most successful nations while Swiss host celebrated three medals and could see that Amy Baserga and Niklas Hartweg are the stars in the making for they performed with excellence at the age of 19 with Baserga winning bronze in the individual while Lea Meier showed her talent in her golden youth individual performance. Lenzerheide’s OC is burning with the ambition and also excelled on all levels of the organisation.

• Shevchenko, Todorova and Skrede each won three medals in junior competitions

Anastasia Shevchenko of Russia with two gold and one silver medal, Milena Todorova of Bulgaria with one silver and two bronze medals and Aase Skrede of Norway two silver and one bronze medal. Shevchenko was the outstanding shooter in the women junior competitions, shooting 30/30 in the sprint and the pursuit combined; Todorova relied on her BMW IBU World Cup experience and covered for her at times unstable shooting with great power on the skis while Skrede competed with great maturity for a 19 year old.

• Nevland and Zingerle were the most successful youth athletes

Martin Nevland of Norway and Linda Zingerle of Italy had the most success in the youth competitions in Lenzerheide. Nevland, a fantastic skier who can challenge the best of cross-country skiers in his country on any given day, won gold in the individual, relay and pursuit competitions and finished fourth in the sprint. His coaches say he has a world class technique and outstanding aerobic capacities with that. Zingerle, the daughter of four time IBU World Champion Andreas Zingerle, started the championships with six misses and only 32nd place in the individual and then stroke back with the silver in relay, impeccable performance for gold in the sprint and another silver in the pursuit.