IBU Cup super sprint wins to Vebjoern Soerum and Ingela Andersson

Norway’s Vebjoern Soerum won the men's super sprint at IBU Cup 7 in Martell with two spare rounds, finishing in 14:15.1. In the women’s super sprint, Ingela Andersson of Sweden finished first with a single spare in 16:05.1.

Qualification

The men started the first competition day in Martell with the 3 km super sprint qualification, where France’s Emilien Claude finished first in 8:03.1. Simon Schempp of Germany was second, 5 seconds behind, while Claude’s teammate Antonin Guigonnat third, 9.9 seconds back.

In the women’s qualification, Amy Baserga of Switzerland finished first; followed by Russia’s Anna Nikulina, 1.9 seconds behind, while her teammate Evgeniya Pavlova was third, 3.3 seconds back.

Men super sprint

In the men's final, Schempp matched his qualification place, finishing second with two spares, 8.2 seconds back. Russia’s Kirill Streltsov also used two spare rounds, taking third position, 8.6 seconds behind.

The winner of the last super sprint Lars Helge Birkeland of Norway finished fourth with two penalties and three spares, missing the podium spot by 1.9 seconds. Germany’s Lucas Fratzscher finished fifth, .2 seconds behind Birkeland with one penalty and two spares, which was still enough to take back the first position in the Men's IBU Cup Total Score. Sixth place went to Alex Cisar of Slovenia with just a single spare round, 15.7 seconds back.

First senior win

In the afternoon, the 30 best men from the qualification started simultaneously to compete for a win in the super sprint final. Leaving just 13th after the first prone shooting with one used spare, Soerum used one more spare at the second prone. A clean third bout saw him moving to third, 8.5-seconds from the leader. While his rivals were closing the targets with the additional bullets, the Norwegian junior shot 5 out of 5, taking a 7.9-second lead. He managed to keep his advantage until the finish line, claiming his first-ever senior win.

Using one spare at the first prone and adding up one more at the last standing, the experienced Schempp left the stadium sixth, 12.0 seconds behind the leader. He easily overtook his rivals on the last lap, matching his start bib 2 at the finish. Streltsov also used two spare rounds, but at the final shooting stage the Russian was accurate, which allowed him to leave in third and keep it until the finish.

Women super sprint

Behind Andersson, second place in the women's super sprint went to Pavlova with one used spare, 8.1 seconds back. Young Baserga was perfect at the shooting range to finish third, 13.9 seconds behind.

Fourth place went to Russia’s Victoria Slivko, who did not use any spares, finishing 20.1 seconds behind. Another clean-shooter Stefanie Scherer of Germany was fifth, 21.5 seconds back, while her teammate Sophia Schneider used one spare and finished sixth, 24.1 seconds behind.

Did not expect

Starting the competition with two perfect prone shooting stages, Andersson had to use one spare at the first standing, which still saw her leaving the stadium in third, 2.5 seconds behind leading Pavlova. In the final shooting, she cleaned all five targets and was now just .9 seconds behind the Russian. With more power left for the last leg, the Swede overtook Pavlova fast, taking the second super sprint win of the season.

While Pavlova finished second, there was also a battle for the final podium spot. Swiss junior Amy Baserga, who is leading in the IBU Junior Cup and just won a medal at the IBU YJWCH in Lenzerheide, was third after the last stage but with her rivals close behind. Young Baserga managed to keep third position until the finish, taking her first senior podium in the first-ever IBU Cup competition.