January 27, 2013 (Obertilliach, Austria) – The USA’s Sean Doherty, 17, brought his A-game to the start line for the 10km pursuit at the 2013 IBU Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships and delivered a decisive GOLD with a 28.2s margin after nailing the silver in the men’s 7.5km sprint on Friday.

“It’s an incredible feeling and hard to put into words. I had a plan and knew I had a good starting position and wanted to stay calm and not blow it…things worked out well for me,” Doherty told Trax in a phone interview from Austria. “It was beautiful Austrian weather maybe -2 or 3 Celsius and good snow conditions. My main goal was to keep calm on the range and put both halves of the race together.”

Following two initial misses in prone Doherty from Center Conway, NH, focused and put his game plan into action skiing well and shooting clean the next two occasions on the range. A miss on the final standing session meant three misses in total – the same for the top 5 finishers – but the American was clearly in a class of his own today distancing himself by almost 30s from the chasers.

“I was a little bit nervous to start second today, but I had a really good plan and stuck with that and it worked out great,” he continued. And in a shout out to all of his supporters back home especially in New Hampshire the newly crowned world champ who was the lone Yank on the start line added… “I have nothing but appreciation for all of the support they’ve given me through the years… from my friends and the local community. It’s excellent and I couldn’t ask for better support.”

Interview with Sean Doherty

Estonia’s Rene Zahkna claimed the silver while Norway’s Fredrik Roervik finished third with three misses each with only 4 seconds separating them.

Calgary’s Stuart Harden, 18, was the top Canuck with a solid 18th-place result with four missed shots (1+0+2+1) at 2:49.9 behind the American champ. Carsen Campbell, of Bedeque, P.E.I., was 42nd while Arthur Roots, of Prince George, B.C., placed 60th.

Russia’s Uliana Kaisheva won the youth women’s 7.5km pursuit title despite missing one shot in each of her four rounds of shooting. The USA’s Anna Kubek (USA) finished in 25th with two misses (1+0+1+0) while Sarah Beaudry, of Prince George, B.C.,
he lone Canadian missed three shots (0+1+2+0) ending up in the points in 28th.

Youth Women 7.5 km Pursuit results HERE.
Youth Men 10 km Pursuit results HERE.