Norway and Russia claim the IBU OECH Mixed Relays

Windy conditions still ruled the IBU Open European Championships in Arber; the competition day kicked off with the 4 X 7.5 km mixed relay. Norway with Erlend Bjoentegaard, Johannes Dale, Jenny Enodd and Ragnhild Femsteinevik, with two penalties and eleven spares, won the Gold medal finishing in 1:17:44.9. The second competition of the day saw Russia’s Evgeniia Burtasova and Anton Babikov, with one penalty and seven spares, won Gold in the single mixed relay, crossing the finish line in 39:10.5. 

Mixed Relay

Germany with Lucas Fratzscher, Philipp Horn, Janina Hettich and Sophia Schneider won the Silver medal with two penalties and thirteen spares, 18.6 seconds back.  

Finishing 4:53.7 back, Switzerland with Serafin Wiestner, Martin Jaeger, Elisa Gasparin and Aita Gasparin, with five penalties and eighteen spares won the Bronze medal. 

German-Norwegian duel 

The conditions stayed tricky throughout the competition; it was nearly impossible to predict the winner. After the very first prone stage, Ukraine with Vitaliy Trush, fastest to close all five targets claimed the lead. Bjoentegaard, clean as well, was second. Germany’s Fratzscher had to use two spare rounds already in the first prone dropping the team to seventh, 14.9 seconds behind Trush. 

The standing stage went even worse for the German team when Fratzscher needed all the spare rounds and still ended up with a penalty. They dropped to seventh, 48.9 seconds behind Norway who had taken the lead after Bjoentegaard excelled in the standing round. Team Slovenia rose to second, Belarus to third. 

Bjoentegaard exchanged first, sending Johannes Dale to protect the lead. Unfortunately, Dale struggled in the shooting range, resulting in a penalty loop and fourth position. This, however, gave the Finnihs team a chance to climb to first after closing all the targets. Taras Lesiuk was second, Slovenia with Anton Vidmar was third. Germany was up to fifth.

Vidmar managed to keep his good tempo and with the help of one spare bullet, he pushed the team up to first position after the standing stage of the second leg. Dale had skied his way back up to the top and by closing all five targets to move to second, 1.3 seconds behind the Slovenians. Germany rose to fourth; all three separated by less than two seconds. 

The strongest on the skis, Dale handed over to Jenny Enodd in the lead. Germany was second, 4.4 seconds behind Slovenia had dropped to third, 31.2 seconds behind. 

This exchange kicked off the Norwegian-German duel that lasted up until the very last minutes of the competition. Hettich and Enodd both cleaned prone fast and precise leaving the shooting range side-by-side. As expected, the duo arrived at the standing stage of their leg side-by- side as well. Both women earned a penalty, again leaving the shooting range together, with only a mere 1.5 second in between the two. 

Hettich managed to outski Enodd on her final loop, raising her team to first by the final exchange. Enodd sent Ragnhild Femsteinevik to the track in second, 4.1 seconds behind the Germans. 

The anchor final leg would decide the outcome of the competition. While Germany’s Sophia Schneider delivered a perfect zero, Norway’s Femsteinevik used three spare rounds to clean the prone stage. That gave a 10.9 second advantage to the Germans. Schneider still in the leading position, but Femsteinevik only 6.9 seconds away, the final standing round decided all. Femsteinevik was faster to clean with the help of one spare, taking the lead from the German team. Schneider, after using a spare thought that she closed the necessary target, but realized she still needed another spare, Femsteinevik was already out of the shooting range. Taking full advantage of the situation, Femsteinevik anchored the team to the IBU OECH Gold with full pride. Germany settled for the Silver medal. 

Fight for the Bronze

Things got interesting in the fight for the Bronze. Romania rose to third during the third leg, giving them a great chance to claim the Bronze. Things got messy upon the final exchange where Anastasia Tolmacheva and Elena Chirkova did not manage to exchange within the hand over zone. That resulted in two added penalty minutes and despite crossing in third, they dropped to ninth place. This gave the Bronze medal to the Swiss team. 

Single Mixed Relay 

1:01.4 behind the Russian team, Lou Jeanmonnot and Emilien Claude of France claimed the Silver, after four penalties and ten spares. Putting up a big fight for the podium, Franziska Hildebrand and Justus Strelow, with three penalties and fourteen spares won the Bronze medal, 1:34.1 back.

Babikov and Burtasova took the Gold

A fast-paced competition, the single mixed relay kept the high tempo up until the end. While Emilen Claude managed to pull off a quick zero in prone, his three penalty loops in the standing stage seemed to have ended their podium chances. When the shooting range was hit by a strong burst of wind, most of the teams started collecting penalty loops in the second shooting round of the day. That meant that France, despite three extra loops, was fourth. Sweden’s Stegmayr managed to be the fastest out of the penalty loop taking an early lead in the first exchange. Anton Babikov earned a penalty as well and exchanged in third, Germany was fifth.

Now it was up to the women to set the pace of the competition. Sweden Elisabeth Hoegberg managed to keep her team in the high game with a clean prone stage, Burtasova had pushed Russia to second, France was third, Germany fifth. Luckily the wind had calmed down for a moment allowing the women to complete their standing stage in better conditions. Burtasova made the most of the situation, closing all five targets, claimed the lead that remained with the Russians. While Hoegberg flirted with the penalty loop, using three spare rounds, France’s Jeanmonnot took the chance to gain a spot. Using a spare, she left the shooting range to exchange in second position, 22.2 seconds behind Burtasova. Sweden exchanged in third, 35.4 seconds behind, Italy in fourth, 52.2 back and Germany was fifth, 55.5 seconds back.

The men’s final leg saw Anton Babikov strengthening the lead for Russia. Cleaning prone mistake-free, he widened the advantage over France to 1:18. Claude, although in second, had to complete a penalty loop, allowing Italy’s Daniele Cappellari to come very close. Strelow was fifth. In standing, Babikov used one spare bullet to close his five targets, but the gap with others was big enough, Babikov handed over to Burtasova still in the lead. France, 1:13.1 back, was still second, Italy third, 1:31.8 back and Germany placed fourth, 1:40.3 back. Exchanging in this order, it was time to see the performances of the anchor legs. 

Burtasova did what she does the best, calmly closing all the targets in both shooting stages for a very confident win. 

Clearly, Russian team would claim the win, the only thing left was to divide the Silver and Bronze. Jeanmonnot used a spare in the prone stage but kept her second position. Italy’s Rebecca Passler and Germany’s Hildebrand both cleaned the prone still third and fourth respectively. In the final shooting stage of the IBU Open European Championships, Jeanmonnot used yet another spare, but the gap with Italy and Germany was big enough, and she took second and the Silver medal. 

With Russia and France far ahead, the fight for the last spot of the podium kicked off between Italy and Germany. In the standing stage Hildebrand used one spare, Passler two. That saw Hildebrand take a small two-second advantage over Passler just before the final loop. Passler was unable to match Hildebrand’s speed, Germany arrived at the finish claiming the Bronze medal. 

OECH 2022 Arber Mixed Relays

Photos: Harald Deubert /IBU