While Junior Cup 3 had to be relocated last minute, the athletes got a chance to compete on the tracks in Pokljuka, where the Junior Open European Championship 2022 will take place from 19 - 23 January. Looking at the results, some names will be worth keeping a closer eye on.

Double podium for Kornev and Mareček

The first week in Pokljuka saw two sets of Sprints with Jonáš Mareček of the Czech Republic and Aleksander Kornev each earning a victory and a second place in both competitions. It was the shooting that gave one of them an advantage over the other, as they showed similar performance on the skis. Together with the second place from Sprint in Martell, the young Russian is now in the lead of Junior Men’s IBU Cup Total Score with 223 points, 63 points ahead of Germany’s Hans Koellner.

Third position in Thursday’s Sprint went to Italy's Michele Molinari, who was one of the few with clean shooting score. He crossed the finish line 33.5 seconds behind the leader. Darius Lodl of Germany completed the podium in Saturday’s Sprint despite one miss in prone shooting.

German dominancy amongst women

It was the German team, who had a lot to celebrate on Thursday afternoon as the German junior women finished in the first four positions. Hanna-Michele Hermann with bib #17 got in the lead at the finish with one miss in prone shooting. No other athlete crossed the finish line with less than a minute behind, until Selina Grotian with bib #78 cleared all targets. She left the shooting range with a disadvantage of 8.6 seconds. Despite showing the fastest course time in the final loop, she did not manage to overcome Hermann and finished second, by just 0.8 seconds. Third place went to Luise Mueller with two misses and Johanna Puff (0+1) finished fourth.

Tereza Jandová secured another victory for the Czech Republic in the second Sprint of the week. Clean shooting and the third course time gave her an advantage of 2.8 seconds over the Junior Women’s IBU Cup Total Score leader Sara Scattolo. The Italian was in the lead until she missed two targets in standing shooting. Johanna Puff added another podium for Germany with third place.

Italy, Russia & Germany with the strongest relays

Sunday in Pokljuka was dedicated to the mixed relays. Dionis Roduner and Anastasiia Grishina did not give much of a chance to their opponents, shooting a rare 40/40 without using any spares in Single Mixed Relay, adding another victory for Russia. Italy finished second with one penalty loop and 12 spare rounds, thanks to the fastest course time. Germany, who controlled the second position until the last exchange crossed the finish line third. The same nations also succeeded in the afternoon’s Mixed Relay competition. This time, nothing was decided until the last meters. Italy, Russia and Germany all left the final shooting within 10 seconds for each other and in the end, it was Gaia Brunetto, who had a little more power in the finish, thus securing the win for Italy. “After the final shooting I tried to control the last uphill to keep the German team behind me and to have enough energy for a great finish,” the 20-years-old Italian said after the competition. Germany took the second place and Russia finished third.

The Junior Cup stays in Pokljuka for the Junior Open European Championship, which begins on Wednesday, 19 January with Individual competitions.

Photos: Reichert/IBU