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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: Marco Gross

  • Doherty Silver in World Youth Individual, Five North Americans in Top Ten

    Doherty Silver in World Youth Individual, Five North Americans in Top Ten

    Flower ceremony for the 12.5 k youth individual competition: Sean Doherty (USA) in second, Alexandre Dupuis and Jules Burnotte (CAN) in fifth and sixth. Photo: Biathlon Canada.
    Flower ceremony for the 12.5 k youth individual competition: Sean Doherty (USA) in second, Alexandre Dupuis and Jules Burnotte (CAN) in fifth and sixth. Photo: Biathlon Canada.

    Sean Doherty, an 18-year-old New Hampshire native who had just returned from appearing in the Olympic relay in Sochi, started off World Youth Championships in Presque Isle, Maine, right: two gold medals in the sprint and pursuit competitions, both over Marco Gross of Germany.

    Tuesday’s 12.5 k individual competition was setting up to be another battle. Doherty comes from Center Conway, a town of just a couple thousand people and no biathlon team. Gross, on the other hand, comes from biathlon royalty. His father is Ricco Gross, a longtime German star who won nine World Cup competitions, four Olympic gold medals, and 20 World Championships medals in total.

    Starting just one bib apart, the who traded the lead back and forth. Gross was winning after the third of four shooting stages, when he had a 25-second lead over Doherty. In the final stage, Doherty collected the last of his four penalties, but Gross missed three shots to bring his total to five penalties – and five minutes of penalty time. Doherty was in the lead, and crossed the finish line with over a minute on Petyo Ivanov of Bulgaria.

    But the race wasn’t over yet and later starters had something to say. Yaroslav Kostyukov of Russia had the best shooting of the day, collecting only two penalties. He crossed the line with a time 6.3 seconds faster than Doherty’s and stole the gold.

    “Last night, I went to bed and tried to forget about everything before,” Kostyukov told the IBU press. “I woke up refreshed and ready to win…Before the competition, I spoke to my father and he told me to focus on the tracks and shooting range, I did that and I won.”

    Emilien Jacquelin of France had three penalties to bump Ivanov out of bronze.

    Doherty nevertheless brought his medal haul to three, matching his results from the previous year’s competition and now owning six World Youth Championships medals, extending what is by far an American record.

    It was a good race for Canada, too, with Alexandre Dupuis finishing fifth and Jules Burnotte sixth, each with three penalties and only three seconds apart in time.

    “Alexandre has had a great year on the NorAm circuit and is known as a strong shooter and skier,” Biathlon Canada High Performance Director Chris Lindsay wrote in an e-mail. “Jules Burnotte is a new talent and first-year youth. We are very pleased with the ski speed he put together yesterday and we look forward to seeing him continue to develop his natural talent.”

    In the youth women’s 10 k individual, Maine Winter Sports Center’s own Maddie Phaneuf followed up on her fourth place in the sprint with another strong showing, placing eighth with three penalties.

    “I was pleased with my shooting, as opposed to the previous race,” Phaneuf wrote on her blog. “I only missed 3 out of 20 targets, which is good because shooting really matters in the Individual race! The winner of the day, from Austria, missed none of her targets! My skiing felt a little slow, but I tried to keep my skiing technique good and relaxed.”

    Teammate Anna Kubek of Minnesota missed four shots to place tenth, her best result of the series so far.

    results:

    youth men

    1

    		 KOSTYUKOV Yaroslav RUS 0+1+0+1

    2

    35:22.6

    0.0

    2

    		 DOHERTY Sean USA 0+2+1+1

    4

    35:28.9

    +6.3

    3

    		 JACQUELIN Emilien FRA 0+2+1+0

    3

    36:06.5

    +43.9

    5

    		 DUPUIS Alex CAN 1+1+0+1

    3

    37:08.2

    +1:45.6

    6

    		 BURNOTTE Jules CAN 0+2+0+1

    3

    37:11.0

    +1:48.4

    18

    		 HALLIGAN Brian USA 2+1+1+1

    5

    38:52.7

    +3:30.1

    22

    		 MILLAR Aidan CAN 1+2+2+1

    6

    39:30.5

    +4:07.9

    34

    		 EVERETT Paul Thomas USA 1+3+1+1

    6

    41:14.5

    +5:51.9

    41

    		 HANNA Pearce CAN 2+2+2+1

    7

    42:12.1

    +6:49.5

    51

    		 HUSAIN Kamran Muneer USA 2+3+1+3

    9

    44:10.5

    +8:47.9

     

    youth women

    1

    		 SCHWAIGER Julia AUT 0+0+0+0

    0

    32:58.7

    0.0

    2

    		 VITTOZZI Lisa ITA 0+1+1+0

    2

    34:04.4

    +1:05.7

    3

    		 DAVLETSHINA Liliya RUS 1+1+0+0

    2

    34:24.6

    +1:25.9

    8

    		 PHANEUF Madeleine Grace USA 0+1+0+2

    3

    37:14.7

    +4:16.0

    10

    		 KUBEK Anna USA 2+0+2+0

    4

    37:22.8

    +4:24.1

    30

    		 DICKSON Emily CAN 0+2+1+1

    4

    39:25.2

    +6:26.5

    33

    		 TAM VON BURG Leilani CAN 2+1+1+1

    5

    40:03.3

    +7:04.6

    41

    		 PALUSZEK Mikaela USA 1+2+1+2

    6

    41:32.4

    +8:33.7

    42

    		 BANKES Megan CAN 0+4+0+1

    5

    41:39.7

    +8:41.0

    43

    		 ELLINGSON Siena May Rose USA 0+2+1+3

    6

    42:12.7

    +9:14.0

    46

    		 VRIELINK Danielle CAN 1+3+2+4

    10

    44:07.4

    +11:08.7

     

  • Doherty Rockets to Gold on Day 1 of IBU Youth Worlds; Maddie Phaneuf Lone Skier to Clean Sprint in Fourth

    Doherty Rockets to Gold on Day 1 of IBU Youth Worlds; Maddie Phaneuf Lone Skier to Clean Sprint in Fourth

    U.S. Olympian Sean Doherty (c) celebrates gold in the first race of the 2014 IBU Youth World Championships in Presque Isle, Maine. Doherty, 18, won Friday's 7.5 k sprint ahead of Germany's Marco Gross (l) in second, and Russia's Dmitri Shamaev in third. (Photo: Craig Cormier)
    U.S. Olympian Sean Doherty (c) celebrates gold in the first race of the 2014 IBU Youth World Championships in Presque Isle, Maine. Doherty, 18, won Friday’s 7.5 k sprint ahead of Germany’s Marco Gross (l) in second, and Russia’s Dmitri Shamaev (r) in third. (Photo: Craig Cormier)

    A little Olympic experience goes a long way. So does home-turf advantage in New England.

    Less than a week after competing in his first Olympics in the 4 x 7.5-kilometer men’s relay in Sochi, Russia, 18-year-old Sean Doherty, of Center Conway, N.H., opened the 2014 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championships on Friday with gold in the youth 7.5 k sprint.

    US Biathlon staff snap a photo of the youth men's podium on Friday in Presque Isle, Maine, as represented in flags after Sean Doherty topped Germany by 1.7 seconds and Russia by nearly 19 seconds for the win. (Photo: Craig Cormier)
    US Biathlon staff snap a photo of the youth men’s podium on Friday in Presque Isle, Maine, as represented in flags after Sean Doherty topped Germany by 1.7 seconds and Russia by nearly 19 seconds for the win. (Photo: Craig Cormier)

    Shooting wasn’t easy in the two-stage race on a windy and frigid day at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle, Maine, where temperatures hovered slightly above 0 degrees Fahrenheit before the women’s 10 a.m. start, according to an IBU press release. The wind darted from left to right across the range, making clean shooting difficult in both the women’s and men’s races.

    Doherty, a favorite after taking silver in the sprint at last year’s World Championships, missed four shots en route to the win in 19:35. Two came in prone, which quickly put him 35 seconds out of the lead. On the next loop, he skied his way back near the front, hitting the first two shots, then missing the third and fifth for two more penalties.

    An early starter, Doherty’s fast ski time stood up as Russia’s Dmitri Shamaev crossed the line in second with two penalties (both in standing), nearly 19 seconds back. Germany’s Marco Gross, who missed one prone and two standing, bumped Shamaev to third, finishing 1.7 seconds behind Doherty for silver. As Doherty’s win became more evident, a small crowd broke out chanting, “U.S.A., U.S.A,” according to the Portland Press Herald.

    “This is unbelievable,’’ Doherty told the Press Herald. “It means a lot to me. All the people who supported me were here to see it.’’

    His prone shooting worried him at first: “The shots were just not falling,” he told IBU. “But I had super skis thanks to our wax techs and felt great on the tracks. … I have no words to describe how it feels to win a gold medal in a Championship on home soil.”

    None of the 62 men cleaned. This is Doherty’s second world title and fourth medal after winning the youth pursuit last year.

    The IBU Youth World Championships women's 6 k sprint podium on Friday in Presque Isle, Maine, which included Italy's gold medalist Lisa Vittozzi (c), Germany's Anna Weidel (second from l) in second, France's Julia Simon (second from r) in third, and American Maddie Phaneuf (l) in fourth. (Photo: MWSC/Katrina Howe)
    The IBU Youth World Championships women’s 6 k sprint podium on Friday in Presque Isle, Maine, which included Italy’s gold medalist Lisa Vittozzi (43), Germany’s Anna Weidel (17) in second, France’s Julia Simon (35) in third, and American Maddie Phaneuf (39) in fourth. (Photo: MWSC/Katrina Howe)

    In the women’s race, Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi had just one penalty to claim her first sprint gold the youth 6 k in 18:49.9. Like Doherty, she took silver in last year’s event.

    Vittozzi topped Germany’s Anna Weidel, who also had a single penalty, by 13 seconds for the win. Weidel missed one in prone then cleaned standing to finish first, more than a minute faster than anyone else. Vittozzi challenged her with a rapid-fire clean prone stage, then one standing miss to put her 0.4 seconds ahead of Weidel heading into the final loop. There, she picked up more than 12 seconds on the German to bump her to second.

    “I prepared well for this competition and hoped for a top place, but never expected to be World Champion,” Vittozzi told IBU. “On the final uphill, I started to think this might be a very good day for me, so I gave everything I had.”

    Also with one miss, France’s Julia Simon finished 18.4 seconds back from the winner for bronze. Maddie Grace Phaneuf, who trains with the Maine Winter Sports Center (MWSC) in Presque Isle, was the only competitor to clean all day, putting her fourth, 41 seconds off the podium.

    “I was trying to stay mentally calm, and focused on my skiing technique while I was skiing and focused on my shooting while I was shooting,” Phaneuf wrote in an email. “I tried to do what I do when I’m training and nothing different. It wasn’t too difficult to do until I heard that I was doing so well, then I got a little nervous but tried to stay focused.

    “I still can’t believe how close I was to the podium, it’s awesome,” she added. “I never thought that I would be placing 4th in my first ever international competition. I’m hoping I can continue shooting and skiing as well as I did, and maybe I’ll even get a podium in the upcoming races.”

    “I couldn’t be more proud of Maddie, her teammates, and coach Seth Hubbard for all of the hard work they’ve put in to create a culture of belief here in northern Maine,” MWSC program director Will Sweetser wrote in an email. “Maddie showed true confidence today in her first international competition. She was composed, efficient and then, just hammered to keep her 4th place around the entire last lap.”

    Results: Men | Women

    Sean Doherty en route to gold in the 2014 IBU Youth World Championships 7.5 k sprint in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: Katrina Howe)
    Sean Doherty en route to gold in the 2014 IBU Youth World Championships 7.5 k sprint in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: Katrina Howe)
    Maddie Phaneuf (Maine Winter Sports Center) racing to fourth in Friday's IBU Youth World Championships 6 k sprint. She was the only competitor, male or female, to hit all 10 targets. (Photo: MWSC/Katrina Howe)
    Maddie Phaneuf (Maine Winter Sports Center) racing to fourth in Friday’s IBU Youth World Championships 6 k sprint. She was the only competitor, male or female, to hit all 10 targets. (Photo: MWSC/Katrina Howe)
    U.S. Olympian Sean Doherty (c) tops the podium in the first race of the 2014 IBU Youth World Championships in Presque Isle, Maine. Doherty won Friday's 7.5 k sprint ahead of Germany's Marco Gross (l) in second, and Russia's Dmitri Shamaev in third. (Photo: Craig Cormier)
    U.S. Olympian Sean Doherty (c) tops the podium in the first race of the 2014 IBU Youth World Championships in Presque Isle, Maine. Doherty won Friday’s 7.5 k sprint ahead of Germany’s Marco Gross (l) in second, and Russia’s Dmitri Shamaev in third. (Photo: Craig Cormier)