Shevchenko and Bogetveit dominate IBU Cup sprints

The Obertilliach IBU Cup continued today with sprint competitions. In the women's 7.5 km sprint, Russia’s Anastasia Shevchenko proved to be the best, shooting clean and finishing in 21:39.3 for her second win of the season. In the men’s 10 km sprint competition it was team Norway's Haavard Gutuboe Bogetveit took the win, with one standing penalty in 23:37.

The women's sprint

With Shevchenko claiming the top spot on the podium, clean-shooting Paula Botet of France gave her a big fight but finished second .3 seconds back. 10-for-10 Karoline Offigstad Knotten of Norway finished third, 6.1 seconds behind.

Second win of the season for Shevchenko

Shevchenko, the IBU Cup total score leader, was considered to be one of the favourites today. Not the best skier on the first loop, the Russian, despite cleaning the prone stage, found herself in ninth position, 13.9 seconds behind Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand who led after prone.

Taking back seconds, Shevchenko climbed to sixth by the 3.6 km split. Speeding up even more, she was fourth by the standing stage. At this time, Hildebrand remained in the lead with hopes for a win. Shevchenko was 12.4 seconds away, Goreeva was second, 11.3 seconds behind and Evgeniya Burtasova third, 11.8 seconds back. All Hildebrand had to do to claim the win was to shoot clean. But a miss in standing crushed the dream sending the German to the 7th position after the second shooting. Burtasova was the fastest to close the 5 targets, taking the lead. Shevchenko, also clean, was third, 3.5 seconds behind, Knotten second. As Burtasova and Knotten lost speed on the last loop, the door was open for Shevchenko to push the two aside claiming her second win of the season.

Shevchenko on her winning performance: “I did a very good race today, I am very happy. After the second shooting I got the information that I’m doing very well and I did my very best on the final loop and in the end I won. My goal now is to go to the World Cup and get good results also there!”

Career best for Botet

Eighth after her prone stage first zero, Botet managed to take back two spots by the beginning of the standing stage. Entering standing in sixth, she knew that for a good result she needed to pull off a standing zero. As the luck was on her side today, she managed to hear the targets closing five times putting her in for the podium fight. All top four women were within 5 seconds; everything was still possible and the last loop would determine the outcome. But as Burtasova and Knotten started fading off, Botet found the second gear showing the second best ski time of the last loop taking over the main competitors. Her speed, good enough to threaten Shevchenko’s win, took her to the second position with just a .3 second loss to the Russian. Her second place today marked a career-best for the young French athlete.

Clean-shooting Evgeniya Burtasova of Russia came in fourth, 8.2 seconds back. France’s Camille Bened showed also a steady hand, closing all ten targets she came in fifth 17.3 seconds back. One penalty for Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand taking the sixth position, 17.7 seconds back.

Men’s sprint

While penalties shaking up the competition, Bogetveit was the one to recover the best from a mistake taking the win. Teammate Erlend Bjoentegaard with two standing penalties, fought his way back up to finish in second, 17.2 second back. Russia’s Maxim Tsvetkov with one standing penalty finished third, only .1 second later than Bjoentegaard.

First win of the season

As the Norwegians showed the best ski times of the day, it became soon clear that the win was heading in that direction leaving up the question which one of the Viking countrymen would be the best. With four Norwegians in the top 6 after shooting one, the threat was a Norwegian sweep. However, the Russian team had plans of their own; being the fastest to close all prone targets, Maxim Tsvetkov took the lead after the first shooting round leaving Johannes Dale in second, .4 seconds behind and H. G. Bogetveit third, 5.7 seconds behind. Endre Storemsheim placed fourth, Erlend Bjoentegaard fifth, Matvey Eliseev sixth. It goes without saying that all six men cleared the prone.

Things got a bit more exciting in standing where the top contenders started picking up penalties. Dale, entering the standing as the leader, crumbled under the pressure collecting three penalties. Bjoentegaard missed twice, Tsvetkov once. That gave the possibility of a good place to Russia’s Anton Babikov, France’s Emilien Claude and Austria’s Harald Lemmerer who all managed to close all 10 targets. Despite them cleaning and the future winner Bogetveit earning a penalty, the Norwegian’s speed was too much for even the clean shots to match. Bogetveit in the lead, Babikov and Claude both second .9 seconds back, the final fight was yet to come. Showing one of the best ski times of the day, Bogetveit didn’t let anyone pass him, taking his first win of the season.

Bogetveit was relieved to earn the win: “When I had one penalty in standing I was thinking that this may not be good enough for the victory today, but I was very excited to hear what the coach had to say when I met him on the track. He said that I was in the lead by one second and then I just had to give everything I got and to go to the finish line as fast as possible. Because it was the first win of the season, it was a bit of a relief to finally make it to the top. I have been feeling strong all season and my physical shape has been excellent, but I have struggled a bit with the shooting.”

Shuffling the cards

Bjoentegaard, eighth after standing, pushed himself to second place by the end of the competition passing the zero club men just before the finish line. Despite being fourth after standing, Tsvetkov managed to outski Claude and Lemmerer claiming the last spot of the podium.

18.4 seconds back, clean-shooting Emilien Claude of France finished in fourth place. Austria’s Harad Lemmerer closed all ten targets as well, but settled with fifth place, 20.9 seconds back. Norway’s Sverre Dahlen Aspenes, with one penalty and completed the top six by finishing 28.3 seconds behind.