Junior Super Sprint Gold to Goreeva and Hornig

The RBU’s Anastasia Goreeva came out of the last standing stage of the IBU Summer Biathlon World Championships Junior Women’s Super Sprint this afternoon with the lead skiing to the Gold medal, in 23:16.5, despite five wind-blown penalties. Later, Vitezslav Hornig after leading early came back in the same last stage to claim the Junior Men’s Super Sprint Gold medal with three penalties in 20:00.2.

IBU Summer Biathlon World Championships Junior Super Sprints

Junior Women

Latvia’s Sanita Bulina won the Silver medal with six penalties, 6.3 seconds back. Tereza Vobornikova of Czech Republic who won the qualifier earlier took the Bronze medal, also with five penalties. 13.3 seconds back.

Fourth went to RBU’s Ksenia Dovgaya, 21 seconds back with Slovenia’s Lena Repinc fifth, 22.1 seconds back and Poland’s Joanna Jakiela sixth, 23.8 seconds back. All three had six penalties.

Qualifier to Vobornikova

The Qualifying competition kicked off the day with wind and a heavy downpour. In this notoriously short 4.5 km competition, the needed very fast shooting meant a lot of penalties. Yet the combination of solid shooting and a fast track time put Vobornikova on top. After a single prone penalty, she shot clean in standing to seal the win, finishing just two seconds ahead of Jakiela, with two penalties. Vobornikova’s teammate Klara Polednova, also with two penalties finished third, 24.2 seconds back.

Last Standing Seals win for Goreeva

50 minutes later the top 30 came back for the final that would test recovery and again the ability to shoot fast four times while avoiding the 75-meter penalty loop in the longer 7.5 km final. By the start, the sun was peeking out of the cloudy skies, but the earlier very strong wind persisted. Seven shot clean within seven seconds in the first prone stage led by the RBU’s Polina Pliusnina with the top three from the qualifier falling back. From that point the leaders changed in each stage as penalties piled up. Five women came to the last standing within a few seconds; no one shot clean Adding just one penalty, Goreeva came out of the stadium in the lead with the speedy Bulina and Vobornikova second and third just seconds back. Goreeva controlled the last loop, easily skiing to the victory with the second and third remaining the same.

Junior Men: Hornig, Mikyska 1-2 for Home Team

Hornig’s teammate Thomas Mikyska won the Silver medal, also with three penalties, 1.4 seconds back. RBU’s Dmitrii Shamukaev won the Bronze medal, with two penalties, 11/6 seconds back.

Fourth went to Czech Republic’s Jonas Marecek with five penalties, 14/3 seconds back. Roman Borovyk of Ukraine finished fifth, with four penalties, 22.4 seconds back. Sixth place went to RBU’s Daniil Usov, with five penalties, 23.8 seconds back.

Crutches to Silver medal

Silver medalist Mikyska was more than happy to be on the podium, after recent knee surgery. “One month ago, I was still on crutches, but the recovery went faster than I thought. I am lucky to have a good team that helped me a lot. Even if you cannot run, you can still train for biathlon. I am really satisfied with this result.”

Czech Duo top Qualifier

Like the earlier Junior Women’s Qualifier, good shooting in the Junior Men’s Qualifier was again hampered by strong swirling winds. Yet it was no surprise that two men who train regularly at the Vysočina Arena prevailed. After shooting clean in prone, Marecek with a single standing penalty took the lead, speeding to a 3.2 second win over teammate Hornig who missed once in prone but cleaned standing. Romania’s George Marian Coltea who lead after the prone stage but missed twice in standing finished third.

Hornig’s Comeback

By the time the Junior men started, the sun was shining brightly. Five of the top six men shot clean in the first prone stage, all going out within nine seconds, led by Hornig. He quickly cleaned the second prone building up a 14.5-second lead over teammate Mikyska, making them the only men to go 10-for-10. The leader faltered in the first standing, slipping to third while Marecek, picking up a single miss moved into the top spot Hornig came back with a one-penalty fast final standing stage, going out for the last 1500 meters with a slim 1.9 second lead over teammates Shamukaev and Daniil Fomin with Mikyska just 6 seconds back. Pushing hard Hornig claimed the win while Mikyska powered past the two RBU athletes to give the Czech team a 1-2 finish, with Shamukaev holding on for third.

Competition continues on Friday with the women and men’s super sprints.

Photos: IBU/Christian Manzoni