Lenzerheide Sprint to Merkushyna and Bjoentegaard

Anastasiya Merkushyna of Ukraine and Erlend Bjoentegaard of Norway are the winners of today’s Sprint at the IBU Open European Championships in Lenzerheide. It was the second Sprint Gold medal at the Open European Championships for both of them.

Merkushyna wins a thriller

Anastasiya Merkushyna of Ukraine, shooting 10/10, won in today’s Women 7.5km Sprint at the IBU OECH in Lenzerheide. Tilda Johansson of Sweden finished second and Vanessa Hinz of Germany finished third.

Eight years after winning the Sprint title at the IBU Open European Championships Otepaeae 2015, Merkushyna had one of the best days in recent years and repeated that triumph. She left the shooting range after the standing stage in the first place - with just a few seconds advantage over that time leaders Hinz and Johansson - and skied fast enough to snatch a win in 23:14.5. Johansson, with third fastest course time, was just 0.5 seconds behind and Hinz 1.8 seconds.

“Tracks here are hard and I was excited to test them before the BMW IBU World Championships, which will be here in two years. It is great to win this Gold medal, to listen to Ukraine's anthem and hopefully bring some happiness to my country. ," said emotional Merkushyna.

Merkushyna’s Gold is Ukraine’s third medal in Lenzerheide.

Stina Nilsson of Sweden, missing once in the prone, finished fourth, 7.9 seconds back. Selina Grotian of Germany, missing twice in the standings and clocking the fastest course time, finished in fifth place, 18.1 seconds behind Merkushyna. Gilonne Guigonnat of France, shooting 9/10, completed the Flower ceremony podium 20.2 seconds behind the winner from Ukraine.

Tomorrow’s Pursuit should be another dramatic competition as there is less than one minute difference between the winner and the 14th Jeanne Richard of France.

Johansson is the new IBU Cup Total Score leader after today’s Sprint.

Bjoentegaard finds his form again

Erlend Bjoentegaard of Norway, last season’s IBU Cup Total Score winner, shot 10/10 and put together a perfect race, which eluded him so far in 2022/2023. Bjoentegaard has three BMW IBU World Cup podiums to his name and started the season with Norway’s world cup team in Finland. He won in 25:03.2.

“On a scale from 0 to 10, I would describe my satisfaction with today’s performance with 11. I kept my focus throughout the race and executed well on the shooting range,” said Bjoentegaard, who defended the Sprint title from last season’s OECH in Arber, Germany.

Bjoentegaard’s teammate Vebjoern Soerum, with two misses in the standing and the fastest skiing time of the day, won a silver medal 11.5 seconds back. Philippe Nawrath of Germany was the second fastest skier of the day, but one miss in each shooting stage proved too costly. He finished with a bronze medal 43 seconds back.

OECH Lenzerheide - Sprints_M

Andrejs Rastorgujevs of Latvia missed one shot and missed a bronze medal by one second in fourth place. Daniel Schmuck, with a perfect shooting score, was the second-best German of the day in fifth place, 44.9 seconds behind the winner. Ambroise Meunier of France, shooting 10/10, completed the Flower ceremony podium 51.1 seconds behind Bjoentegaard.

Nawrath’s bronze is Germany’s fourth medal.

Endre Stroemsheim of Norway, the winner in the Individual, stayed the IBU Cup Total Score leader.

OECH 2023 in Lenzerheide continues tomorrow with the Pursuit competitions.

Photo: IBU/C. Manzoni

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