Grotian and Soerum win in the Pursuit in Lenzerheide

Selina Grotian of Germany and Vebjoern Soerum of Norway are the Pursuit winners at the IBU Open European Championships. For both it is a second individual medal in Lenzerheide.

Grotian reads the Pursuit as only born champions do

Grotian of Germany, still only 18 years old, mastered the field and won the Women's 10km Pursuit at the IBU Open European Championships in Lenzerheide. Tilda Johansson of Sweden finished second, and Gilonne Guigonnat of France third.

Sweden’s fast skiers Tilda Johansson and Stina Nilsson opened the competition with a clear agenda: go fast and break the field as soon as possible and play Catch me if you can with others. It worked in both prone stages as they entered the third lap with 30 seconds - or almost one penalty loop and a half advantage. As Johansson continued with no mistakes in the first standing shooting, Nilsson spent more than one minute on the range but still missed two shots, denying her a chance for a medal.

Behind the Swedes, Grotian wisely built her race and waited for an opening. As Johansson trembled and missed shots 18 and 19 and had to ski two penalty loops, Grotian instinctively upped her shooting speed, cleared the last five targets, and crossed the finish line as a gold medal winner in 30:25.6.

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“I am more than happy. Stina and Tilda opened the competition very strongly. I had some problems with the standing shooting the last few days here, and I was surprised that I cleared the last five targets. I know I am strong in the final laps, but I still felt I needed to give it all to withhold Johansson,” said Grotian, who comes from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, just like Magdalena Neuner and Laura Dahlmeier.

Johansson, the only athlete to finish on the podium in the Sprint and Pursuit, was 17.6 seconds behind Grotian for a silver medal and Guigonnat, shooting 19/20, 23.6 seconds for a bronze medal. Vanessa Hinz of Germany, with two misses, finished fourth, 41.3 seconds behind Grotian. Nilsson, despite four misses, was fifth, 56.4 seconds back and Alina Stremous of Moldavia, clearing 18 of 20 targets, was sixth, also 56.4 seconds behind the winner from Germany.

Johansson extended her lead atop IBU Cup Total Score standings.

Soerum the best of Norwegians

Soerum started with the bib number 2 and missed once in the first prone. But as his teammate and the Sprint winner Erlend Bjoentegaard missed two shots in the second prone Soerum took control of the race and never looked back. He won in 34:37.5. Bjoentegaard had an assertive second part of the race, closing all 10 standing targets. He finished in second place, 28.1 seconds behind Soerum. Endre Stroemsheim, wearing bib 20, attacked from behind and moved to the bronze medal position with the fastest Pursuit time of the day, 1:03.7 minutes behind the winner.

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“I would rate my performance much better than yesterday as my shooting was more accurate. I built enough lead and celebrated a big chunk of the last lap with the Norwegian flag in my hands, cheered by the fans. It doesn’t get much better than that,” said Soerum

Andrejs Rastorgujevs of Latvia, shooting 17/20, finished fourth, 1:23.3 minutes back. Philipp Nawrath of Germany, third in the Sprint, despite just 40% accuracy in the standing, finished fifth, 1:30.4 minutes behind Soerum. Paul Magazeev brought another sixth place to Moldova. He shot 17/20 and finished 1:37.2 minutes behind the winner from Norway.

Norway now has 5 medals, 3 of those gold, the most decorated nation in Lenzerheide.

Stroemsheim extended his lead in the IBU Cup Total Score standings and increasingly seems a likely winner at the end of the season.

Photo: IBU/C. Manzoni

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