Clean-shooting Ingela Andersson of Sweden took the season’s final women's sprint at IBU Cup 8 in Raubichi, finishing in 20:49.0. In the afternoon, Norway’s Sivert Guttorm Bakken won the men's sprint with one penalty in 25:49.2.

Women sprint

Behind Andersson, second place went to Caroline Colombo of France, 4.5 seconds back, while Russia’s Ekaterina Glazyrina became third, 4.7 seconds behind. Both closed all targets.

Norwegian junior Aasne Skrede with third place in the first sprint, once again showed a great result by finishing fourth with perfect shooting, 8.3 seconds back. After yesterday’s second place, today Stefanie Scherer of Germany was fifth with no mistakes, 8.4 seconds behind. Sweden’s Elisabeth Hoegberg finished sixth despite a penalty, 43.9 seconds back, which was just enough to win the Women's IBU Cup Sprint Score.

“Ingela, you will do it!”

Starting the competition with an early bib 8, Andersson was just .6 seconds behind Glazyrina after the first shooting. Second clean bout and great skiing saw her moving to the first position. Having strong rivals behind, who were also accurate on the range, the Swede gave it all on the final lap, claiming the last season’s sprint win.

Unlike yesterday’s sprint, where Colombo missed the podium because of one penalty, today the French biathlete was more accurate on the range. Her perfect shooting and great speed saw her leaving in third place for the final lap. Pushing hard on the last meters, she was able to move up and take second place at the finish.

Glazyrina matched her rivals with accurate shooting but was just fourth after the standing stage, 5.8 seconds behind the leader. By the next split point, the Russian moved to second place, nevertheless, could not keep it until the finish, crossing the line just .2 seconds behind Colombo.

Men sprint

In the men’s competition, second place went to clean-shooting Lars Helge Birkeland of Norway, 21.3 seconds back. France’s junior Emilien Claude also was perfect on the range and finished third, 25.8 seconds behind.

Fourth place went to another Norwegian Haavard Gutuboe Bogetveit with one penalty, 27.2 seconds back. Claude’s teammate Martin Perrillat Bottonet shot 10 out of 10 to finish fifth, 28.9 seconds behind. Pavel Magazeev of Moldova finished sixth with one penalty, 36.7 seconds back.

Two wins in a row

One mistake in the prone stage saw Bakken only in 12th position with a 16.0-second gap to the leader. In standing early bib 5 was more accurate and thanks to good speed on the track, he left the stadium in first place. Adding up on the last loop, the Norwegian not only kept the lead but also increased it, securely taking the second win in a row.

Unlike his teammate, Birkeland started the competition with a late bib 56, cleaned prone but was only 7th place after shooting. The second clean bout moved the experienced Norwegian to third position with an 11.7-second gap from Bakken and 5.4 seconds from Claude. He could not reduce the time on the leader, but was fast enough to move to the second position. Birkeland finished a few seconds ahead of young Claude, who, however, took his first senior podium.

Despite finishing eighth, Lucas Fratzscher of Germany earned enough points to take the men’s IBU Cup sprint score. Moreover, with just one more competition to go, he increased his advantage in the Men's IBU Cup Total Score to 13 points from second-placed Endre Stroemsheim, who today was just 17th with five penalties.

Photos: Evgeny Tumashov