February 25, 2017 (Brezno-Osrblie, Slovakia) – American Chloe Levins nailed her second top-15 of the 2017 Youth/Junior World Championships on Friday, finishing 11th out of 92 starters in the youth 6km sprint competition. Previously Levins came in 14th in Wednesday’s 10km individual race.

American Chloe Levins © USB

“Today’s race was seconds from being great,” said Levins post-race. “There were windy shooting conditions all day, so it feels great to have executed my plan without letting uncontrollable factors distract me from my process.”

Levins had a single penalty in the second shooting stage, in a race where only two athletes shot clean. She finished at 1:39.7 behind gold medalist Irene Lardschneider of Italy, who also had a single miss on the range, but stood out with very fast skiing. The silver medal went to Anna Gandler of Austria, who finished 1:06.5 behind Lardschneider with one penalty. Samuela Comola of Italy took the bronze with clean shooting, finishing 1:18.1 back.

Gusty winds made for an interesting day on the range, with some athletes scoring calm air, and others battling strong gusts.

With her 11th place finish, Levins easily qualified for Sunday’s 7.5km pursuit race. “A good group of athletes and myself are within ten seconds on the results list, so the pursuit will be fast and fun. I’m looking forward to it,” she added.

Joining Levins in the pursuit will be Canadian Shilo Luca Rousseau, who finished 45th in the sprint. Rousseau was 4:08.0 behind the winner, with three penalties. Americans Grace Gilliland and Amanda Kautzer also snuck into the pursuit, finishing in 55th and 59th, respectively.

Helen Wilson of the USA finished in 67th at 5:10.0 back with four penalties. Canadians Frederique Perusse, Anna Sellers, and Elise Sauve finished 73rd, 82nd, and 86th, respectively.