Biathletes ski, shoot to victory Junior world contest held in Presque Isle

PRESQUE ISLE – Arild Askestad of Norway became the first double gold medalist, Germany’s Magdalena Neuner showed why she’s ready for elite biathlon now, and one event was marked by a technical miscue as four pursuit races were contested Sunday in the Biathlon Junior World Championships at the Nordic Heritage Ski Center.

The U.S. athletes, for the most part, were unable to improve on their finishes in Saturday’s sprint races.

In the pursuit, the athletes start at the same intervals and order in which they finished Saturday’s sprint. There are five ski loops and four shooting stages: prone, prone, standing, standing.

Askestad started just 16 seconds ahead of Germany’s Florian Graf in the youth men’s 10-kilometer pursuit. But Graf had three penalties to one for Askestad in the first prone stage. Russia’s Alexander Ogarkov hit all five shots in the first stage, but Askestad’s lead at the start and just two more misses in the race helped him hold on for a 41.8-second win.

“It’s a really good feeling,” said Askestad, who crossed the finish line with a smile on his face. “It’s hard to think about it now, that this is real. I guess it’s going to be some days before I understand how I felt today.”

Tarjei Boe of Norway was second with six penalties, passing Ogarkov in the final ski loop. Ogarkov finished 43.7 seconds behind Askestad and had four penalties.

“I felt really good on the tracks today,” Boe said. “I knew I could take him on the last run.”

Wynn Roberts of Battle Lake, Minn., started 14th and wound up 15th with four penalties and cleaned the first standing stage for the top U.S. result of the day.

“I normally have a little difficulty pacing myself in skiing, and then I can’t shoot because my body is shaking so badly,” he said. “The coaches told me to ski a competitive race, but not to bury myself.”

Hometown favorites Russell Currier of Stockholm and Newt Rogers of Fort Kent struggled in the pursuit. Currier started 37th but finished 43rd, while Rogers started 40th and came in 45th.

Hitting all five targets in the final stage of the 7.5-kilometer youth women’s race provided a huge boost for Slovenia’s Tamara Baric. Saturday’s third-place finisher cleaned the last standing stage to grab the lead from Iris Waldhuber of the fledgling Austrian women’s team, who led after she had just two misses in the first three stages.

“At the beginning I was a bit angry because I went too late on the track. So the first shooting was, like, very forceful,” said Baric, who had two penalties in the first stage. “But I just said to myself, calm down. I was more smart than yesterday, and I just watched out for my shooting. And it was quite an easy race, if I can say it.”

Baric went late on the track because of a clock malfunction at the start line. U.S coach Vladimir Cervenka noticed what was happening and shouted to the officials that something was wrong. The race continued and finished without incident, but chief of competition Ray Hews said afterward that the competition jury reviewed a video of the start, and times were adjusted to account for seven skiers who started either late or early.

Baric had three seconds added to her time. Waldhuber was the runner-up, 31.4 seconds behind Baric, with four penalties. Saturday’s winner, Olga Vilhukhina, was 58.2 seconds back with five penalties for third.

Hilary McNamee of Fort Fairfield had among the most promising results of the day for the U.S. women. She started 36th and finished 34th overall, shooting clean in the first prone stage and recording five penalties overall.

Both Brynden Manbeck and Laura Spector, who started sixth and ninth, respectively, struggled on the range. Manbeck, of Grand Rapids, Minn., finished 17th with nine penalties. Spector, who is from Lenox, Mass., came in 26th with 10 penalties.

Manbeck had 15 seconds sliced off her time because of the clock malfunction.

Neuner blew away the field in the junior women’s 10-kilometer pursuit. It was the third world championship in three years for Neuner, who will be 19 on Feb. 9.

Neuner started 4.8 seconds back in second place but took over the top spot on her way to the first shooting stage. She sparkled on the range with just two penalties, the top result of the 45-woman field, and beat France’s Marion Blondeau by a whopping 2:38.8.

“Shooting was very good. It was very windy and difficult. I had two mistakes and I’m very happy,” said Neuner, who has already competed at the World Cup level.

Bulgaria’s Darya Damrachova took third. Norway’s Julie Bonnevie-Svendsen skied across the finish line in third, but she said she accidentally didn’t ski one of her last four penalty loops and so two minutes were added to her time at the finish, dropping her to 12th.

Anna Roessler of Grand Rapids placed 35th overall, the top U.S. finisher.

Evgeny Ustyugov of Russia was the junior men’s 12.5-kilometer winner. With four penalties, he had to hold off Bulgaria’s Kiril Vasilev.

Vasilev had just one penalty, which came in the final stage of the race, and was just 6.5 seconds behind Ustyugov. Petr Hradecky of Germany, who started first, finished in third place with four penalties and was 28.7 second off the lead.

Ben Byrne of Bovey, Minn., jumped from 46th to 43rd for the best U.S. finish.