February 1, 2008 (Ruhpolding, Germany) – The US Team of Leif Nordgren (Marine-on-St. Croix, MN), Russell Currier (Stockholm, ME), Wynn Roberts (Battle Lake, MN) and Mark Johnson (Grand Rapids, MN) finished 9th in the 4 X 7.5km Relay at the Youth/Junior Biathlon World Championships on Friday. The ninth place finish was 6:53 behind Russia’s gold medal effort.

In in the Youth Men’s 3×7.5km relay the team of Ethan Dreissigacker (Morrisville, VT), Preston Butler (Marion, MA), and Raleigh Goessling (Duluth, MN) finished 19th, 10:01.2 behind the German team of Benjamin Thym, Benedikt Doll, and Felix Schuster who won the Gold medal in a time of 1:08:14.1 with Norway in second and Italy in third.

12.5km Youth Individual competition
Earlier in the week on Tuesday, following his bronze medal in the Pursuit, Nordgren (Marine-on-St. Croix MN) placed 10th in the 12.5km Youth Individual competition, while Russell Currier (Stockholm, ME) finished 15th in the Junior 15km Individual at the Youth/Junior Biathlon World Championships here. Ethan Dreissigacker (Morrisville, VT) with just one penalty in the four-stage competition joined Nordgren in the top 20 finishers.

Nordgren with three penalties, finished 3:01.6 back, while Dreissigacker was 4:02.6 behind the now triple medalist at these Championships, Ludwig Ehrhart of France (one penalty), who won in 38:24.6. Ehrhart won bronze in the Sprint, gold in the Pursuit, and now gold in the Individual. Manuel Muller of Germany, with two penalties was 1:10.4 back while Ehrhart’s teammate Mathieu Souchal, with one penalty took third, at 1:22.9 back.

The 2008 Youth/Junior Biathlon World Championships conclude on Saturday with relays in the Junior and Youth Women categories.

Russell Currier Video