The constantly changing wind and icy tracks in Brezno-Osrblie during the men’s 10 km sprint competition, it was bound to be an interesting competition. First to start and first to finish, Emilien Claude of France took full advantage of the conditions. Earning one prone penalty, he finished the competition in 24:35.8. The second competition of day, the women’s 10 km pursuit saw Evgeniia Burtasova winning. with two penalties, she set the stage to a strong finish in 28:44.4. 

Men’s sprint 

While Emilien Claude took the win, Norway’s Sindre Pettersen missed a total of three times, but being the fastest man on the skies, he claimed the second place, 15 seconds back. Missing once and finishing 17.5 seconds back, Petr Pashchenko of Russia completed the podium. 

First-ever senior win

As an early starter, Emilien Claude didn’t have any information regarding what his rivals were doing, so he just had to do his best and hope it would be enough. Although in many cases even one miss can be costly in the sprint, the swirling wind allowed Claude to earn a miss, but still be in the game for the win. He was sixth after prone, 27 seconds behind Norway’s Sindre Pettersen who cleaned. Clean as well, Ruslan Tkalenko of Ukraine, was second, with Germany’s Justus Strelow third and Paschenko was fifth. 

The gaps were still somewhat the same at the start of the standing stage; they all needed to shoot clean. Claude closed all his standing targets, but was not the fastest on the skis, so French athlete had to sit back and wait to see what the others were doing. While Paschenko missed once, Pettersen managed to close only two standing targets; thus Claude managed to keep his lead just before the final loop. Although Petterson seemed to be out of the game in eighth after standing, his incredible ski speed pushed him to second place. Pashchenko, unable to match the Norwegian’s speed, claimed third place. 

Ukraine’s Denys Nasyko finished fourth, with two penalties, 17.7 seconds back. Vasilii Tomshin of Russia fought hard for the podium, but with two penalties, placed fourth, 23.2 seconds back. Milan Zemlicka of Czech Republic was one of the few to clean both stages taking sixth place, 23.7 seconds back. 

Women’s pursuit 

After Burtasova’s very confident win, the question was who would join her on the podium. Sweden’s Sara Andersson, with four penalties placed second, 1:02.2 back. Jenny Enodd of Norway with four penalties as well took third place, 1:07.7 back. 

First win of the season

Rescheduled from the morning to the afternoon, the women’s pursuit was held in icy conditions. The changing winds added the element of surprise to every shooting stage, with unpredictable results. First to the range, yesterday’s winner Camille Bened missed twice giving her rivals a chance at the lead.. Natalia Gerbulova cleaned going out first, Gilonne Guigonnat of France, also clean, was second, Burtasova, after a penalty found herself in third, 22.7 seconds behind Gerbulova. 

Gerbulova led before second prone stage, her two penalties gave the clean-shooting Burtasova the chance to reclaim the lead. Pushing Gerbulova to third, Victoria Slivko moved to second, 6.5 seconds behind. After a penalty from the first prone, Jenny Enodd closed the 5 targets in the second prone moving to fifth. Andersson, however, collected three penalties, sending the Swede back to 16th place after finishing her penalty loops. 

Burtasova, widened the gap by a few seconds more by the first standing stage, cleaned once again making it sure that she will have a confident lead and backup plan for the last shooting stage of the day. Slivko missed once staying in second, but already 35.5 seconds behind her teammate. Andersson had made up for her previous mistakes by cleaning the first standing, and pushed herself to third, 1:39.4 back. 

With a 34.6-second lead over Slivko, Burtasova earned a penalty from the final shooting. Sensing a possibility to threaten the win of her colleague, Slivko took a risk in the shooting range, that unfortunately backfired resulting in four penalty loops making it clear that it was Burtasova who will take the win. Having a 1:25.1 lead after the final shooting, Burtasova arrived to the finish as the winner of the competition claiming her first win of the season. Slivko’s misery in the final standing gave Andersson the chance to even up, after clearing the last standing stage took second place. Enodd completed the podium by finishing in third.

Three penalties in total, Marthe Krakstad Johansen of Norway placed fourth, 1:10.8 back. French teammates completed the top six, with Caroline Colombo, with six penalties finishing fifth, 1:27.2 back amd Camille Bened with seven penalties, 1:29.1 back in sixth place. 

Photos: Igor Stancik / IBU