February 28, 2014 (Presque Isle, Maine) – The USA’s Sean Doherty picked up where he left off at last year’s IBU Junior World Biathlon Championships where he made history winning three medals, as he won the youth men’s 7.5km sprint on Day one  fresh off his Olympic debut in Sochi last week.

Doherty posted a time of 19:35.0 with four penalties to finish 1.7 seconds ahead of Marco Gross (GER) in second with a time of 19:36.7/+2. Dmitrii Shamaev (RUS) was third (19:53.9/+3). The top Canadian was Aidan Miller in 9th at 43.8s with two penalties followed by Alex Dupuis in 20th at  1:16.6 suffering three penalties.

“I am very happy to have such a good result on American soil,” said Doherty. “The home crowd was amazing. The skis were great. Now to get my shooting back on track for the pursuit.” At the 2013 Junior World Championships, Doherty won three medals – gold (pursuit), silver (individual, sprint)

Full results here.

In the women’s race Madeleine Grace Phaneuf (Old Forge, N.Y.) placed a strong 4th in the youth women’s 6km sprint with clean shooting at 59.4s behind winner Lisa Vittozzi from Italy (18:49.9/+1), Anna Weidel (GER) in second (19:02.9/+1), with Julia Simon from France in third (19:08.2/+1). Emily Dickson was the top Canadian in 16th at 1:44.8 behind with one penalty.

Full results here.

Racing continues in Presque Isle tomorrow with the junior men and women’s sprint events kicking off at 10am (ET). A full race schedule is available below. Follow the race results live here.

IBU Youth/Junior World Championships Biathlon
26.02 – 07.03.2014 / Presque Isle, ME
Preliminary start times – subject to change / All start times CET