January 27, 2008 (Ruhpolding, Germany) – After two days of competition at biathlon’s Youth/Junior World Championships, one thing is certain: Germany means business (i.e., winning medals) when it hosts biathlon championships. Through two days, Germany had 10 medals (four of them gold) in eight races; they were blanked in only one race.

And, of course, Magdalena Neuner sure can ski. The 19-year-old German picked off two more gold medals, winning by 42 seconds Saturday and by more than two minutes Sunday in the winds and rain that pelted the junior women’s pursuit. Maren and Janin Hammerschmidt won the two gold medals among the youth women.

But a bronze medal for American Leif Nordgren is good, right?

He earned that in a near-photo finish Sunday in the Youth Championships 10km pursuit. Jay Hakkinen won gold at the 1997 World Juniors and the team collected two junior women’s medals in ’02, but Nordgren is the first U.S. biathlon youth medal-winner.

Neuner, 19, who has three gold from the Biathlon World Championships and eight World Cup victories, added her sixth and seventh Junior Worlds gold medals this weekend.

She won the 7.5km sprint Saturday in 24:38.9 despite two penalties. German teammate Susann Koenig took silver in the sprint (25:20.7) and Marine Dusser of France was bronze medalist. Sunday, Neuner skied off and hid. Despite seven missed shots in gusting winds, she won by more than two minutes with a time of 37:22.6 with Czech Veronika Vitkova second in 39:50.3. The bronze went to Marie Laure Brunet of France.

Canadian Megan Tandy was 14th in the junior sprint and barreled her way to eighth place Sunday, despite five misses, finishing 4:30.4 behind Neuner. “I’m pretty happy with today because I got off to a fairly disappointing start with two misses shooting, and pulled it together,” said Tandy. “It was a really solid ski for me today, but I need to get better shooting. I am happy so far with my results. Both have been good, but neither are perfect, so I do have some work to do.”

Rosanna Crawford, another Canadian, moved up 16 places in the pursuit to finish 16th. U.S. skier Laura Spector was 20th in the sprint and finished 25th Sunday.

Anton Shipulin of Russia won both junior men’s events. He shot clean and beat German Florian Graf by 12 seconds Saturday in the 10km sprint with a time of 24:47.7. Third place went to another German, Arnd Pfeiffer, who was only 16.7 seconds back despite two penalties.

Nordgren, 18, missed one shot Saturday in the Youth Championships and was sixth in 7.5km sprint won by Vladimir Alenishko of Belarus. Sunday, Alenishko had 10 missed shots and Nordgren methodically churned his way up to third place behind Frenchkid Ludwig Ehrhart (who had been bronze medal-winner in the sprint 24 hours earlier). Nordgren nipped Italy’s Lukas Hofer in a final lunge at the finish line.

“I left the shooting range just ahead of him [Hofer], and then he pulled ahead by a couple of meters. When we got to the first hill, I tested him a bit and pulled away easily,” Nordgren explained.

“I knew he did not have much left. I decided to rest [and Hofer passed again]. Coming to the finish, I started to go wide to pass and he was forcing me to the left even more. We were so close that our skis touched. Then I just went for the finish line.

“I could hardly feel my legs as we came off the last bridge. As we approached the finish line, I was doing two things; trying to stay on my feet and keep from losing my breakfast, that’s all!”

As jubilant as he was, Nordgren conceded he “more than exceeded” his expectations for the day. A video of him on the podium and a post-race interview is below.

Maren Hammerschmidt won the youth women’s 6km sprint Saturday by 2.2 seconds in 20:21.6 with Norway’s Elise Ringen taking silver and Janien Hammerschmidt was bronze medalist (20:31.3). Canada’s Yolaine Oddou was 17th and U.S. biathlete Hilary McNamee 18th.

Sunday, the winds and the wet got to Maren and she missed 10 shots, dropping to ninth, but Janien Hammerschmidt took gold, overcoming six penalties to win by 20 seconds in 34:41.1. McNamee was top North American in 25th place.

Perhaps American Laura Spector, who was 25th in the pursuit after being 20th in the sprint, best summed up Sunday: “It was like doing biathlon in the summer, getting soaked by the rain and beaten up by the wind.”