March 13, 2011 (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia) – The final day of the 2011 IBU World Championships was anything but predictable as the favoured team Germany had to come from behind to earn the victory, while top-rated Russia faltered to the dismay of the host country’s fans.

It was an emotional day as the legendary Magdalena Neuner was 1:07 down in fourth place on the final leg, yet the legendary biathlete persevered with solid shooting and incredible skiing to claim gold for the second straight day, this time taking her German teammates with her. The Ukraine and France also shared in the championship limelight taking home silver and bronze respectively.

“At first I did not think about the gold medal. I thought, ‘okay it is a silver medal.’ Then the Ukraine was just before me and I knew it was not very far to get the gold medal,” said Neuner in an IBU report, “I had very good skis and on the downhill I came nearer and then I knew I could get the gold medal. It was a great feeling.”

The squad of Andrea Henkel, Miriam Gössner, Tina Bachmann and Neuner missed two targets and used 13 spare rounds, but looked vulnerable as Italy began the day with a solid effort but could not keep pace giving way to Belarus and the Ukraine who shot well to garner a commanding lead.

The Germans were in trouble during the second leg as Gössner struggled on the range with two penalties, hoping to make it up with fast skiing, while Darya Domracheva kept Belarus at the front with clean shooting. The Ukraine’s Vita Semerenko also shot clean using two spare rounds to keep them in contention.

Backmann was in fourth down 50s as the third leg began and again Germany had their work cut out for them. She shot well using 4 extra rounds but the deficit was not coming down – in fact it was increasing.

Meanwhile France was suddenly in contention following Marie Laure Brunet’s perfect shooting on the second leg and maintained by Sophie Boilley, while Italy was trying to regain its composure as well.

The Ukraine flexed its muscles to take over the lead from Belarus heading into the final stage with France moving into third as Backmann tagged off to Neuner in fourth place, down over a minute to the leaders.

Neuner got to work with her smooth skating and began eating away at the gap. She used two spare rounds shooting prone and knew she had a chance despite superb perfect shooting by the Ukraine’s Oksana Khvostenko, as no one could match Neuner’s speed on the skis.

Khvostenko shot perfect again to up the ante on the final standing stage and left the stadium with a 24s lead on the hard-charging German who had to shoot well on her final session to allow enough time to catch her Ukrainian rival.

Neuner tasted gold once again as she has many times before and entered the range meeting Khvostenko’s challenge with her own perfect score – and now it was game on for gold.

Followed closely by France’s Marie Dorin and Belarus skier Liudmila Kalichik, Neuner erased the deficit to 11 seconds with just one kilometer to go. Crediting her fast skis, the German eventually overcame the Ukrainian sharpshooter to take the relay competition by an astounding 24.5 seconds for a final time of 1:31.1.

In a race where many teams had chances for medals, the glory went to the squads that retained their composure and consistency throughout. Ukraine used just 4 spare rounds with zero misses, to solidify a silver medal performance for the team that included Valj and Vita Semerenko, Olena Pidhrushna, and Khvostenko.

France, heavily aided by a no-miss, no-spare round performance from second leg Brunet, and a no-miss one-spare race from Dorin on the final leg, took bronze. The foursome, which also included Anais Bescond and Boilley, easily defeated 4th place Belarus by just over a minute, finishing with a total time of 1:14:18.3.

The US Biathlon squad of Sara Studebaker, Laura Spector, Annalies Cook and Haley Johnson had a tough day on the range, missing three shots and using 16 spare rounds to finish 14th overall. The team’s final time of 1:19:55.7 put them 6:24.6 out of the top podium spot.

Canada did not field a relay team for Sunday’s event, which marked the final race of this year’s IBU World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Full results HERE.

Results (Brief)

1. Germany, (2+13) 1:13:31.1
2. Ukraine, (0+4) 1:13:55.6
3. France, (0+9) 1:14:18.3

14. USA, (3+16) 1:19:55.7