Kirkeeide and Oeverby win Ridnaun pursuits

Maren Kirkeeide and Mats Oeverby, both from Norway, are the Pursuit winners on the second day of the competitions in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna. For Kirkeeide and Oeverby, it was a career-first IBU Cup victory.

Kirkeeide prevails in a close-fought finish.

Kirkeeide missed just once - in the last standing shooting and was the fastest in the hard-fought finish, as she won in 30:41.8, 0.2 seconds ahead of the Sprint winner Federica Sanfilippo of Italy. Vanessa Hinz of Germany finished third, 6.5 seconds behind the winner.

Hinz was in the lead from the start until the last shooting stage but had to ski two penalty loops before the final lap, too much for a win. Paula Botet of France, missing once in each of the last three stages, finished fourth, 26.7. seconds behind the winner from Norway. Juliane Fruehwirt of Germany, with impeccable shooting, finished fifth, 28.7 seconds behind the winner. Camille Bened of France, with two misses, finished sixth, 32.8 seconds behind Kirkeeide.

IBU Cup Ridnaun - Val Ridanna - Pursuits

Oeverby's shooting excellence gives him first IBU Cup win

Oeverby shot 19/20 and saved his best skiing for the last meters to take the Men 12.5km Pursuit. Oscar Lombardot of France, with two misses, finished second, 2.7 seconds back. The photo-finish showed that he was an instant faster than Aleksander Fjeld Andersen of Norway, who missed four times and was officially also just 2.7 seconds behind Oeverby.

Lombardot held a 0.4 seconds lead ahead of Oeverby at the last intermediate time at 11.7 km and fought hard with Andersen, the fastest man of the day, for his second consecutive second place of the week.

Martin Nevland of Norway, with the bib 11, shot 19/20 and finished fourth, 32.5 seconds behind Oeverby. Lucas Fratzscher of Germany, with three misses, finished fifth, 44.4 seconds back, and Martin Uldal of Norway, third in the Sprint, with five misses, sixth, 55.2 seconds behind his teammate.

Photo: IBU/ H. Deubert