Vebjoern Soerum of Norway and Anastasia Shevchenko of Russia won today’s junior sprint competitions at the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

Vebjoern Soerum of Norway defended his junior sprint title from last year at the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships, with a single penalty, finishing in 24:02.7. Silver medalist Jakub Stvrtecky of Czech Republic shot clean but finished 25.1 seconds back. and 31.5 seconds faster than Bronze medalist Dzmitry Lazouski of Belarus also shot clean, finishing 31.5 seconds back.

With one miss, Soerum was the fastest on the skis

Soerum with the bib 32 closed all five targets in prone, then missed one in standing but was 24.5 seconds faster on the skis than the clean-shooting World Cup competitor Stvrtecky and 20.5 seconds faster than Lazouski. The Belarusian broke a ski pole in the final sprint, coming to the finish with a single ski pole. Soerum offset some of his his penalty with the eighth fastest shooting time, 11 seconds faster than Lazouski and a good second faster than Stvrtecky.

Joergen Brendengen Krogsaeter of Norway finished fourth, with one penalty, 34.4 seconds back, Said Karimulla Khalili of Russia after significant IBU Cup and BMW IBU World Cup experience this season finished fifth with one penalty, 36.9 seconds back, Tommaso Giacomel of Italy in sixth place had two penalties, 45.3 seconds back. Home favourite Niklas Hartweg, the youngest finisher in the top 10, shot clean but could not match the strength and the speed of his older rivals.

Shevchenko’s perfect day

Anastasia Shevchenko shot 10/10 while skiing the second fastest time of the day for the junior women's sprint gold medal, crossing the finish line in 23:19.3. Aasne Skrede of Norway with one penalty, won the silver medal, 40.9 seconds back. Milena Todorova of Bulgaria with three penalties but the fastest ski time won the bronze medal, 48.4 seconds back for her second medal of these championships.

Shevchenko was second after prone behind Nina Zadravec of Slovenia (who then had four standing penalties) and then gradually extended her lead over the rest of the field. She was the only clean shooter in the top six. The Swiss star-in-the-making Amy Baserga, in fourth place, with one penalty just missed the bronze medal by 1.5 seconds. Marthe Krakstad Johansen of Norway, also with one penalty finished fifth, with one penalty, 53.5 seconds back. Tereza Vinklarkova of Czech Republic with two penalties finished sixth, 1:07 back.

Tomorrow will be packed with the excitement with the youth and junior pursuit competitions for both men and women on the schedule.

You can watch live stream from Lenzerheide at: biathlon.fans every day.

Photos: Evgeny Thumashov