March 17, 2019 (Ostersund, Sweden) – The USA’s Joanne Reid saved the best for last. claiming a stellar 10th-place finish in the first 12.5km Mass Start race of her career on Sunday, the final day of the 2019 IBU Biathlon World Championships in Ostersund, Sweden.

On a day that saw none of the 30-woman field shoot clean in the snowfall and strong winds, Reid utilized consistent shooting, with one penalty at each of the four stages, to notch her top-10 finish, 1:32.1 seconds behind the winning time.

“The mass start is a good format for me I think, based on a whopping data set of one, because I break very late in the race, and I start out very slowly. I also have this bizarre personality feature of usually being the speed of the person in front of me, no matter who they are. If you combine both of those, that’s basically what a mass start is all about. Anyway, no matter what I did today, it was going to be a personal mass start best, so the pressure was off for me. It’s a lot tougher to be in the hot seat with the weight of expectation than the vaguely lukewarm seat.”

Italy’s Dorothea Wierer won the women’s mass start despite two penalties in the last standing stage. She crossed the line in 37:26.4, 4.9 seconds ahead of Russia’s Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht, who also had two penalties. Germany’s Denise Herrmann, with four penalties, took the bronze medal, 15.4 seconds behind Wierer.

“It’s an odd thing, biathlon. You can have the same shooting result on two different race days and come out with a totally different finish,” said Reid. “Of course, I suppose cross-country skiing is a sport in and of itself, and so there’s that part of it. I found myself moderately bemused to come out of my last standing stage in 12th, because I didn’t shoot what on a ‘normal’ day is a good shooting. But you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth like that, you just put your head down and hammer to the finish, and while you’re hammering, everyone in front of you is a shiny, bright nail. Some days are good days, easy days. Some days are rugged days, brutal days. You’ll always have both. That’s not just biathlon, that’s life. Who you become because of it is what matters,” she added.

Italy’s Dorothea Wierer won the women’s mass start despite two penalties in the last standing stage. She crossed the line in 37:26.4, 4.9 seconds ahead of Russia’s Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht, who also had two penalties. Germany’s Denise Herrmann, with four penalties, took the bronze medal, 15.4 seconds behind Wierer. Clare Egan finished 26th with five penalties at 3:01.4 behind the winner.

In the men’s 15km mass start held later in the day in the ever-deepening snow, Sean Doherty placed 21st with four penalties, at 1:55.9 behind winner, Dominik Windisch of Italy with three penalties. France’s Antonin Guigonnat, also with three penalties, took the silver at 22.8 seconds back. Austria’s Julian Eberhard won bronze at 23.3 seconds behind Windisch with four penalties. Leif Nordgren rounded out the U.S. efforts in 30th place, 3:51.7 back with five penalties.

The final IBU World Cup of the season starts Thursday in Oslo, Norway.

Results

Women here.
Men here.