Emilien Claude of France completed the day of the pursuits in which all the sprint winners confirmed their golden status. A win in the junior men's 12.5 km pursuit was Claude’s third medal at the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Obertilliach, Austria. Swiss shooting star Amy Baserga, the winner of the IBU junior Cup Total Score title for the 2019/2020 season, competing to the beat of her own drum. shot 19/20 for a win in the junior women's 10 km pursuit for her second consecutive gold earlier in the day in Obertilliach.

Claude held his nerves together when it mattered the most

Claude missed in the first prone and in both standing shootings but it was his clean shoot in the second prone that gave him enough time cushion to add second gold and third medal to his name. Claude was 7.7 seconds faster than his compatriot Eric Perrot who had just one miss and started fifth after the sprint and 14.2 seconds faster than Mikhail Pervushin of Russia who missed twice but confirmed his bronze medal from the sprint.

Fourth place went to Niklas Hartweg of Switzerland who was among the fastest on the skis and was in second position before his last shot of the day went missing. Hartweg finished with three misses, 16.7 seconds behind Claude. Fifth was Norway’s Joergen Saeter with one miss, 18.2 seconds behind the winner and sixth Vitezslav Hornig of Czech republic, just 0.3 seconds behind Saeter

Silver to Synne Owren Of Norway, bronze to Rebecca Passler of Italy

Baserga missed just once, in the first standing shooting, and her win was never in danger. Synne Owren attacked from eighth position after the sprint, missed once in the second prone and twice in the second standing shooting, then had a strong last lap and finished 41.8 seconds behind Baserga while Rebecca Passler also missed three times but couldn’t match Owren’s speed in the final lap for a bronze medal (she was second in the sprint), 47.5 seconds back.

Fourth place went to Camille Bened (the individual gold medalist in Obertiilliach) from France with three misses and 1:12.1 back, fifth to Sweden’s Ella Halvarsson with one miss and 1:16.7 back and sixth to clean shooting Beatrice Trabucchi (bronze medalist from the individual) of Italy, 1:20.1 behind Baserga.

"I did the best I could and I couldn't be happier," said a happy winner Baserga.

Photo: IBU/Bjorn Reichert