February 05, 2011 (Nove Mesto, Czech Republic) – The final day of competition at the IBU Youth/Junior World Biathlon Championships saw Russia claim the Junior Women’s 3x6km relay while Germany came from behind to take home the gold in the Junior Men’s 4×7.5km relay contest.

The Canadian team of Audrey Vaillancourt, Yolaine Oddou, and Emma Lunder made the top ten delivering an 8th place finish at 4:05 behind the winners. The US squad of Grace Boutot, Kelly Kjorlien, and Corrine Malcolm ended up in 16th.

In the junior men’s race Canada’s Scott Gow, Vincent Blais, Aaron Neumann and David Gregoire placed 13th over 9 minutes behind Germany who took the win over Russia while the American men consisting of Eathan Dreissigacher, Raileigh Goessling, Benjamin Greenwald, and Raymond Wonders finished 19th.

In the Junior Women’s race the battle for gold was between Russia’s Aleksandra Alikina, Svetlana Perminova and Olga Galich and the Italian team of Alexia Runggaldier, Nicole Gontier, and top anchor Dorothea Wierer. While Runggaldier brought the Italians in first after the lead off leg over Alikina, the remaining two Russian skiers turned the tables to finish in one hour, two minutes and 35.9 seconds; a notable margin of 1:17.5 ahead of their Italian rivals. Germans Laura Dahlmeier, Birgit Riesle and Carolin Leunig picked up the bronze.

Gusty winds complicated things for some of the Junior Men racers, making the race exciting. The eventual winners were Germany’s Steffen Bartscher, Benedikt Doll, Johannes Kuhn, and Tom Barth. However, at the first exchange, the German team was in 10th place at 1:20 seconds down on the lead team of Russians Nikolay Yakushov, Aleksandr Pechenkin, Ivan Kryukov, and Dmitry Dyuzhev. Yet windy conditions were the downfall of the third Russian skier Kryukov who took penalties in the standing shooting range.

Germany’s Kuhn took advantage and got out to the tracks 28 seconds ahead of Kryukov. The Russian anchor Dyuzhev skied faster than Barth the German anchor, but could not quite close the gap opened by the penalties, and they settled for silver, at 17.6 seconds behind the gold medal Germans. Norway’s team of Erlend Bjoentegaard, Erling Aalvik, Kristoffer Langoeien Skjelvik, and Christiansen Velte Sjastad went home with bronze medals.

The 2011 IBU Youth and Junior World Championship has now been declared closed. Kontiolahti, Finland will host next year’s Championship.

Junior Women’s Results HERE.
Junior Men’s Results HERE.