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.
FasterSkier’s Coverage of the Biathlon World Championships is made possible through the generous support of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center: New England’s finest snowmaking, world class race venues and touring trails, healthy food in abundance, comfortable accommodations at Craftsbury: Sports, Sustainability, Stewardship.
On the second-to-last day of 2024 World Championships, USA reached a historic fifth-place finish among 24 nations in the Men’s Relay under the lights at the Vysocina Arena in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic. (Photo: NordicFocus)
On Saturday in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic, the American quartet of Vincent Bonacci, Sean Doherty, Campbell Wright, and Jake Brown made history for US Biathlon, finishing fifth among 24 nations: the team’s best-ever World Championship or Olympic Men’s Relay result. After more than an hour and 15 minutes of racing, the team finished just 1:22 behind the winners from Sweden. Norway out-sprinted France for the silver, and Germany was fourth.
Vincent Bonacci led off for the US in the 2024 World Championship Men’s Relay. (Photo: NordicFocus)
The first leg was full of surprises. Estonia, Czechia and Kazakhstan led at the first exchange. France and Norway tagged in eighth and 12th after going into the penalty loop. For the US, Bonacci needed two spare rounds in prone but then cleared all five of his standing targets and tagged just ahead of Norway in 11th, 43 seconds out of the lead. Bonacci did his World Cup debut last season and has been steadily improving his results as he builds his ski speed. In late January he became one of the last two athletes named to this year’s World Championship roster after he took sixth at the European Championships with 20/20 shooting in the 20 k Individual. His reliable shooting earned him relay starts here in Nove Mesto, and he rose to the challenge of the World stage, scrambling with success in both the Mixed Relay and the Men’s Relay.
Tarjei Boe (NOR) set a grueling pace on the second leg but Sean Doherty was able to catch a ride on the first loop. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Doherty caught a draft from Tarjei Boe (NOR) on the first loop of the second leg. Germany briefly took the lead but then went into the penalty loop, and just as France was making a comeback from their penalty loop on the first leg, they went back in twice more. This opened the door for Boe, who out-skied the field by 30 seconds, to bring Norway all the way from 12th to first at the half-way point. Doherty cleaned his prone targets but needed all three spares in standing. Thanks to the changes at the front of the race, he only lost about 13 seconds on the leg, tagging Campbell Wright in 10th place in a tightly packed field, still within one minute of the lead.
Campbell Wright throws his rifle on his back after a successful standing bout. He skied the fourth-ranked course time and used just one spare to bring the US from 10th up to sixth on leg three of the Men’s Relay. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Wright continued his streak of outstanding performances, using just one spare and skiing the fourth-best course time on the third leg to bring the team all the way up to sixth. He tagged Jake Brown for the anchor leg just 12 seconds out of third place. In the last men’s relay before World’s, Brown suffered on the shooting range, incurring two penalty loops in prone, but on Saturday he hit all five prone targets with no spares. He arrived at the shooting range for the final bout in fifth place, and used two spares to hold his position.
Shooting on lane one, Norway’s Vetle Christiansen experienced a biathlon nightmare, missing all but two of his eight bullets, incurring three penalty loops and throwing away a huge one-minute lead! Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden capitalized on his Norwegian rival’s misfortune, shooting fast and clean. He skied to the finish with enough time to glide in waving the Swedish flag, celebrating Sweden’s first gold medal of the Championships. Behind Samuelsson, France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet used just one spare and left the range as Christiansen was exiting the penalty loop. Ultimately Christiansen hunted down the Frenchman and claimed an anticlimactic silver for Norway.
Jake Brown tuned out the distraction of a stadium full of screaming Czech fans as he shot head-to-head against the Czech Republic in the final shooting stage of the Men’s Relay. (Photo: NordicFocus).
After second-ranked Germany arrived at the finish line visibly disappointed in fourth, Brown arrived visibly thrilled in fifth. Since longtime US Biathlon stars Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey retired in 2018, the men’s team has been in a rebuilding phase, developing young athletes as well as experienced cross-country skiers like Brown. They have had three head coaches in five years, but throughout that period Brown has been a steadying force and has played a key role in building a positive and united men’s team culture. While 31-year-old Brown has not indicated any plan to retire, he summed up the importance of this result for his own career and for the team, saying, “Now I can retire in peace.” R.I.P.!
Estonia finished a historic fourth in the Women’s Relay, anchored by former MSU Bobcat and Craftsbury Green Racing Project training parter Johanna Talihaerm (left) . (Photo: NordicFocus)
Earlier in the day, the French women won their first-ever World Championship relay, followed by Sweden and Germany. Estonia shocked the biathlon world with a historic fourth-place finish, anchored by former Montana State bobcat and Craftsbury Green Racing Project training parter, Johanna Talihaerm. Norway absolutely melted down, finishing tenth, followed by the Italian defending champions in 11th. To the 30,000 fans on-site plus millions watching on TV, the race offered biathlon drama at its best: equal parts miracle and collapse. The US was unfortunately in the latter category on Saturday, getting lapped and finishing 21st.
The last day of racing at 2024 Biathlon World Championships will feature the premier Mass Start events, in which the 30 top-ranked athletes compete head-to-head over four shooting stages. Campbell Wright and Sean Doherty will represent the US starting at 10:30 eastern time.
Sunday 18 Feb Women’s 12.5 k Mass Start 08:15 eastern time
Sunday 18 Feb Men’s 15 k Mass Start 10:30 eastern time
FasterSkier’s Coverage of the Biathlon World Championships is made possible through the generous support of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center: New England’s finest snowmaking, world class race venues and touring trails, healthy food in abundance, comfortable accommodations at Craftsbury: Sports, Sustainability, Stewardship.
After finishing second in Saturday’s Sprint, Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR) moved up into first in Sunday’s Pursuit, defending his 2023 title .
On a rainy Sunday afternoon in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic, 30,000 fans packed the Vysocina Arena for the women’s and men’s Pursuit competitions of the 2024 Biathlon World Championships. The weather has been dismal for the first five days of the event, meaning a lot of soggy boots, sink laundry, and rifle cleaning for the athletes, and long, cold, days for team staff and event organizers. But it has not dampened the spirits of the biathlon fans who continue to make the atmosphere bright.
French teammates Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (foreground) and Julia Simon shoot head-to-head in the Pursuit. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Women’s 10 k Pursuit
Simon defends world title, Vittozzi moves up from seventh to silver, and Braisaz-Bouchet keeps her podium streak alive.
In the women’s Pursuit, Julia Simon of France defended her 2023 World Championship Pursuit title as well as her Sprint victory from Friday. Last year, Simon started the Pursuit wearing bib 10 and overcame a deficit of more than one minute to take the gold, but today’s defense of Friday’s Sprint gold was also impressive. Only four women in the past ten years have won both the Sprint and Pursuit at the World Championships or Olympics: Marie Dorin-Habert (FRA) in 2015, Laura Dahlmeier (GER) in 2018, Tiril Eckhoff (NOR) in 2021, and Marte Olsbu-Roeiseland (NOR) in 2022.
Lisa Vittozzi (ITA) fights to the finish line, moving up from seventh to silver ahead of bib 2 Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (FRA). (Photo: NordicFocus)
Simon started with a negligible five second advantage over teammate Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, who is the fastest skier in the field but a slower and less-accurate shooter than Simon. A gap of nearly 40 seconds separated those two leaders from the third starter, Lou Jeanmonnot (FRA), but then six women all started within about 30 seconds. Simon and Braisaz-Bouchet matched one another’s shooting (0,1) on the first two stages to hold their lead over the chasers. But then on the third stage, Simon cleaned while Braisaz Bouchet missed two, opening the door for bib 7, Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi, to move into second with her 15/15 shooting through stage three of the race.
Sophie Chauveau (FRA) finished fourth in the Sprint and Pursuit. (Photo: NordicFocus)
In the final stage, Simon closed with the same perfect shooting we’ve now seen in three of three races at World Championships, nailing all five targets in 21.5 seconds—somewhat tame for Simon but still the fastest in the 60-person field. Behind her, Vittozzi missed her only shot of the day, creating an opening for Braisaz-Bouchet and bib 4, Sophie Chauveau. But luckily for Vittozzi, both of them missed one as well. Chauveau left the range a few seconds ahead of Braisaz-Bouchet, and for a moment it looked like the 24-year old might take her first World Championship medal after finishing a bittersweet fourth in the Sprint. But Braisaz-Bouchet out-skied Chauveau on the final lap to take the bronze, leaving Chauveau in fourth again. To put things in perspective, Chauveau won her first medal (a bronze) in January of this year, and her two fourth places so far at World’s are her next-best results.
Deedra Irwin was the top American in the Pursuit, finishing 46th with four misses. (Photo: NordicFocus)
From the US, Deedra Irwin started in bib 39 and fell back to place 46 with four misses. Tara Geraghty-Moats started in bib 58 but was lapped after the second shooting in her first-ever Pursuit.
Sturla Holm Laegreid’s (NOR) clean standing shooting earned him the silver medal in the Pursuit. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Men’s 12.5 k Pursuit
J.T. Boe shuffles the sprint podium to defend World title while the USA’s Wright and Doherty finish 12th and 26th.
In the men’s 12.5 k Pursuit, the Norwegian podium sweep from Saturday’s Sprint grew to a monstrous top-five sweep. Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR) overcame three prone misses with flawless standing shooting to win his eighth individual World title—his 34th World Championship medal. (If you include Olympic results, Sunday’s victory was Boe’s 11th title and 42nd medal.) After winning Saturday’s Sprint with his signature perfect shooting, Sturla Holm Laegreid (NOR) uncharacteristically missed two in the first stage of the Pursuit but then hit the rest of his targets to fight back for the silver medal. Vetle Christiansen (NOR) led the race early on when he cleared all his prone targets and J.T. Boe and Laegreid both missed. But then two misses on his final stage set him back. He left the range a few seconds ahead of Laegreid but was caught in the final lap.
Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen (NOR) finished third in both the Sprint and Pursuit. (Photo: NordicFocus)
The fight for the top-six flowers was marked by some surprising shooting melt-downs. Having hit all his targets through the third stage, Tarjei Boe came into the final shoot tied for second with his younger brother Johannes, just nine seconds behind race leader Christiansen and a full 30 seconds ahead of the chasing group. But he missed a heart-wrenching four out of five targets and fell to fifth. Meanwhile, his teammate Johannes Dale moved up into fourth by clearing his final five, recovering from a messy three misses on the third stage. Behind Dale and T. Boe, Sebastian Samuelsson (SWE) kept his wits about him and shot 17/20 to complete the flower ceremony in sixth.
Campbell Wright (USA) was the top American in the Pursuit finishing 12th with two misses. (Photo: NordicFocus)
For the US, Campbell Wright in bib 11 missed one shot each in the prone stages but then cleared all 10/10 standing targets, finishing 12th. His 11th-place finish in the Sprint was a personal-best and this 12th place ties his previous personal-best. With these two results, Wright is almost guaranteed a start spot in next weekend’s 30-person Mass Start featuring the top 30 athletes of the Championships.
Sean Doherty (USA) happy in the finish area after moving up 18 places from 44th to 26th. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Sean Doherty was one of the biggest climbers of the day, moving from 44th to 26th with just a single miss in the first standing stage. Jake Brown started 38th and finished 37th with four misses, skiing the fastest of the three Americans in the race, 1:11 off the pace set by J.T. Boe.
Sturla Holm Laegreid, Johannes Thingnes Boe, and Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen, (l-r) shuffled their podium sweep from Saturday’s Sprint in Sunday’s Pursuit. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR) congratulates his brother, Tarjei Boe (NOR) who finished beside him on the podium at the IBU World Championships Men’s Sprint in Oberhof. (Photo: Reichert/NordicFocus)
One man has won all five 10 k Sprint competitions so far this season, so even with 112 starters in today’s BMW IBU World Championship Sprint, there was no doubt about the favorite. Johannes Thignes Boe of Norway has been untouchable on skis since November, regularly out-skiing his nearest competitor by over 30 seconds. The 150m penalty loop in biathlon usually takes athletes about 23 seconds, so Boe can afford to miss once and still win. Today he missed once in prone—the target barely visible at 50m through dense fog—but cleaned standing with no hesitation in just 21 seconds. With a 36-second second margin to the next-fastest skier, Boe defended his Olympic title and become the 2023 World Champion. This sets him up for another likely victory in tomorrow’s Pursuit competition, but with four shooting stages, anything can happen.
Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR) started and finished in bib number 1 at the IBU World Championships Sprint in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Sharing the podium with the unbeatable Boe were two teammates: his older brother, Tarjei Boe, shot the perfect score to complete the family sweep for the second time this winter, and Sturla Holm Laegreid missed just one in standing to capture the bronze. Laegreid is ranked second behind J. Boe in the Overall standings and has been on the podium in all but three competitions this season, so he was very much the silver medal favorite, but T. Boe is the fifth-ranked Norwegian (and 8th in the World Cup Overall standings), so the so-called “Boedium” was a pleasant surprise for the brothers.
Tarjei Boe (NOR), Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR), Sturla Holm Laegreid (NOR) (l-r) on the podium of the IBU World Championships Sprint in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: NordicFocus)
The Norwegian men make it look easy to land on the podium even with nine out of ten hits, but it’s not. Only four people on the whole men’s World Cup circuit have a shooting average of 90%. Laegreid is one of them. The Boe brothers are among the top 15 athletes with an 88% hit rate. Add the expectation of victory, and their performances become even more impressive.
Sturla Holm Laegreid (NOR) racing to third place in the IBU World Championships Sprint in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: NordicFocus)
With Johannes Dale in fourth and Vetle Christiansen in sixth, the Norwegians almost pulled off a full sweep of the Flower Ceremony, but one athlete managed to upset the total domination. Dmytro Pidruchnyi of Ukraine shot clean and skied the 15th course time to take fifth. He had only raced twice this season—once in November and once just last week, with a knee operation in between—before coming to the World Championships. Pidruchnyi has a history of performing his best at championships; he was the World Champion in the Pursuit in 2019. Today’s fifth place was his top result since then. This victory will certainly mean a lot to him, his team, and the people of Ukraine as they suffer from war at home.
Flower Ceremony finishers in the IBU World Championships Sprint in Oberhof, Germany. Front L-R: Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen (NOR), Dmytro Pidruchnyi (UKR), Johannes Dale (NOR), Back: L-R: Tarjei Boe (NOR), Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR), Sturla Holm Laegreid (NOR). (Photo: NordicFocus)
Andrejs Rastorgujevs of Latvia shot 10/10 to finish 7th, Johannes Keuhn of the home German team finished 8th for his best result of the season, and two French athletes, Quentin Fillon Maillet and Antonin Guigonnat, rounded out the top ten. Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden finished in 11th with two penalties. Both he and Fillion Maillet will be podium threats in the Pursuit even starting around 1:10 back.
Paul Schommer (USA) zeroes his rifle before the Sprint competition at the IBU World Championships, in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Today was a tough day for the North Americans, with the exception of Paul Schommer (USA) who qualified for the Pursuit in 31st with one penalty each in prone and standing. Paul’s 31st-ranked course time was his best in a Sprint this season. “That prone miss was definitely one of those things where I thought, okay, I should have taken another second, but the standing felt good,” Schommer said of his shooting. As in yesterday’s Women’s Sprint, drafting on the long, windy straightaway into the range was critical. With that in mind, Schommer went out of his comfort zone on the second lap to stay with another athlete. “I may have pushed a little too hard before standing, but I made up so much time by staying with him.” It’s easy in biathlon to play the “what if” game, and Schommer recognized that he would have cracked the top 20 with one less miss, but he said, “tomorrow I’m going for the money!” The top 30 finishers in biathlon World Cups and World Championships earn prize money.
Maxime Germain (USA) in the finish of his first senior-level World Championship race. Oberhof (GER). (Photo, NordicFocus).
Twenty-one-year-old Maxime Germain (USA) finished just outside of the Pursuit qualification in 65th with three penalties. Both Sean Doherty (USA) and 22-year-old Vincent Bonacci (USA) cleaned prone but then uncharacteristically missed four in standing. They finished 80th and 98th.
For Canada, Adam Runnalls was the team’s top finisher in 82nd with five misses. Trevor Kiers was 86th with three, Christian Gow was 92nd with four, and Logan Pletz was 94th with four. This was certainly not the day that either North American team had hoped for. Those not racing in tomorrow’s Pursuit will shift their focus now to next week’s 20km Individual competition.
Eric Frenzel (r) leads German teammates Vinzenz Geiger (c) and Fabian Rießle (l) toward a sweep of the podium in the Nordic Combined World Cup individual normal hill/10 k on Sunday in Ramsau, Austria. (Photo: FIS Nordic Combined/Facebook)
Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers.
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FIS Nordic Combined Continental Cup in Klingenthal
[UPDATE] Ben Loomis tallied two top 10’s and his U.S. Nordic Combined teammate Ben Berend notched eighth place this past weekend at the Continental Cup in Klingenthal, Germany.
Loomis ended the three-day series on Sunday by placing fifth in the large hill/10 k for his second-best result at the Continental Cup level (he finished fourth last year in the normal hill/10 k competition in Park City, Utah). Loomis put himself in position by jumping to sixth then racing to fifth, 49.9 seconds behind Japan’s winner Go Yamamoto, who finished in 24:06.4.
Florian Dagn of Austria placed second (+6.0) after jumping to first. Yamamoto jumped to second and headed out on the course seven seconds behind him.
Norway’s Sindre Ure Soetvik placed third (+28.8), after starting the 10 k in third. Germany’s David Welde finished fourth (+36.0), moving up after jumping to eighth.
Also on Sunday, Berend placed 15th (+2:25.3) and Jasper Good was 35th (+3:07).
Berend started the long weekend out with an eighth-place finish in the large hill/5 k on Friday. He jumped to fourth and finished the ski race in eighth, 1:09.2 minutes behind Germany’s Maximilian Pfordte, who won in 10:58.9.
Pfordte posted the best jump to start the 5 k first, then held his lead for a 16.4-second victory over Yamamoto in second. Dagn placed third (+18.3) after jumping to second, and Yamamoto’s jump ranked third.
Also for the U.S., Good finished 21st (+2:05.8) for his best result of the weekend, Loomis was 28th (+2:50.5) and Stephen Schumann 29th (+2:52.1).
On Saturday, it was Loomis who tallied another eighth place for the U.S. in the large hill/10 k. He jumped to 10th then improved to eighth, finishing 58 seconds behind German winner Tobias Simon. While Simon dominated the jump as well as the race, winning by 10.1 seconds, Yamamoto repeated in second place and Austria’s Thomas Joebstl reached the podium in third (+38.3).
Berend finished 25th (+1:45.9) and Good 45th (+3:24.9) on Day 2.
The Nordic Combined World Cup resumed this weekend in Ramsau, Austria, with Germany not only topping but sweeping the podium in both individual normal hill/10 k competitions.
On Saturday, Team Germany swept the top four, with Johannes Rydzek notching his third individual win of the season, ahead of teammates Fabian Rießle (+1.5) and Eric Frenzel (+8.7). Vinzenz Geiger completed the sweep in fourth (+15.0), a career best for the 19 year old after placing seventh earlier this month in Lillehammer, Norway.
Frenzel led after the jump on the 98-meter hill, which put him 2 seconds ahead of the second-best jumper, Austria’s Mario Seidl, in the 10 k Gundersen start. (Seidl went on to place seventh.)
Rydzek posted the third-best jump and started 10 seconds back, while Rießle started another 10 seconds later in seventh. Rydzek went on to ski the fifth-fastest course time and Rießle was third fastest en route to first and second at the finish.
Americans Taylor Fletcher and Bryan Fletcher finished 27th (+1:17.6) and 29th (+1:18.4), respectively, and Adam Loomis was 47th (+3:16.2).
Taylor started 41st, 1:18 back, and Bryan started five seconds later in 43rd. Bryan posted the seventh-fastest course time and ended with a photo finish with Finland’s Arttu Maekiaho, which Maekiaho took by 0.1 seconds for 28th. Loomis started 50th.
Day 2 in Ramsau went to Frenzel, who won the normal hill/10 k in 22:49.4. Rießle repeated in second (+0.8) and Geiger improved on his career best for his first podium in third (+23.4). Seidl again jumped to first and this time ended up fourth (+24.3).
Frenzel started third and raced to first, Rießle moved up from fourth in the jump to second, and Geiger made the most of his second-best jump.
Taylor Fletcher skied the third-fastest course time to move up from 46th after the jump to 22nd at the finish (+1:20.2). Bryan Fletcher finished 32nd (+1:33.5), losing one place after starting 31st.
The Nordic Combined World Cup goes on holiday break until resuming Jan. 7-8 in Lahti, Finland.
The NorAm mini tour in Rossland, British Columbia, wrapped up with a classic pursuit race on Sunday.
In the women’s 10 k classic, APU’s Chelsea Holmes continued her strong form, winning the mini tour with an aggregate time of 1:08:04.4. Holmes finished the 10 k in 35:35.4 minutes, 6.2 seconds behind fastest woman of the day, Katherine Stewart-Jones (NTDC Thunder Bay).
SMS Elite’s Erika Flowers continued her podium-filled visit to Canada with the third-fastest ski of the day, 48.1 seconds behind Stewart-Jones, to take second overall, 2:23.9 behind Holmes. AWCA’s Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt was the fifth fastest in the 10 k to hold on to third overall (+3:25.2), while Stewart-Jones was just 0.5 seconds back in fourth overall.
NTDC Thunder Bay’s Evan Palmer-Charrette used a fourth-fastest ski in the 15 k to keep the overall title, with an aggregate time of 1:28:54.0. Alexis Dumas (CNEPH) skied 1:14.7 faster than Palmer-Charrette to climb from sixth at the start to second overall (+52.2). AWCA’s Jack Carlyle had the second-fastest time of the day, 29.9 seconds behind Dumas, to climb into third overall (+1:10.1).
National Para-Nordic guide Erik Carleton had the third-fastest 15 k time, 1:01.3 back, but it wasn’t enough to catch Team R.A.D.’s Russell Kennedy, who placedfourth overall (+1:20.8).
Full results (with tabs for the overall and time of the day)
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FIS Cross-Country World Cup in La Clusaz: Men’s and women’s relays
Team Norway I emerged victorious in Sunday’s men’s 4 x 8 k mixed relay event in La Clusaz, France, with Didrik Tønseth leading the winning group’s first classic leg.
After crossing in seventh, Tønseth handed off to Martin Johnsrud Sundby for a second classic leg. Sundby dropped a spot, finishing his classic leg in eighth. Sundby tagged off to Anders Gløersen for the first freestyle leg.
Gløersen rocketed the team to first, and held the position straight through his 7.5 k. The final leg for Norway’s winning team went to Finn Hågen Krogh. The Norwegian men’s team completed the relay event in a total time of 1:11:25.7
Second place overall, two-tenths of a second behind, was team Russia, led by Evgeniy Belov for the first classic leg. Belov handed off to Alexander Legkov for the second classic leg, with Legkov putting down the third fastest time by the time he returned to the exchange zone.
The third and first freestyle leg for Russia went to Alexey Chervotkin, who maintained the team’s third place position. Anchoring the team was Sergey Ustiugov, who managed to maneuver the team from third place to second during his final freestyle leg.
The men’s 4 x 8 k relay podium on Sunday in La Clusaz, France, with Russia in second (left four) Norway first (center four) and France third overall. (Photo: FIS Cross-Country/twitter)
Rounding out the men’s mixed relay podium on Sunday was France I (+7.7).
Jean-Marc Gaillard led team France’s first classic leg, racing in a sixth position into the exchange zone. Gaillard handed off to Alexis Jeannerod, who moved up to fifth place by the end of his classic leg.
Skiing the third and first freestyle leg was Clement Parisse who held onto fifth place and tagged off to Maurice Manificat for the final freestyle leg. Manificat managed to move around Sweden’s Axel Ekstrløm and Germany’s Lucas Bøgl for third place overall.
Neither Canada or the U.S. entered a men’s relay team due to illness.
In the women’s 4 x 4 k relay event, it was another Norwegian team who stood atop the podium.
Ingvild Flugstad Østberg led the women’s first classic leg, skiing in first place until her hand-off to Marit Bjørgen. Bjørgen maintained the first place position during her classic leg, tagging off to Ragnhild Haga.
Haga completed the first freestyle leg for Norway, handing off to Heidi Weng, who anchored the team’s last freestyle leg. The Norwegian women finished in a total time of 39:23.3.
In second was team Finland, 50.2 seconds behind Norway’s winning time. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen started the first classic leg for Finland, passing off to Anne Kyllønen.
The women’s 4 x 4 k mixed relay podium on Sunday in La Clusaz, France. Norway (c) took the win ahead of team Finland in second (l) and Sweden in third. (Photo: FIC Cross-Country/Twitter)
Taking on the first freestyle leg for Finland was Riitta-Liisa Roponen, who tagged off to Laura Mononen for the final freestyle leg.
Rounding out the relay podium in third overall was team Sweden (+1:08.9). Emma Wiken raced the first classic leg, who tagged off to Stina Nilsson for the second classic leg. Maria Rydqvist raced the first freestyle leg and handed off to Anna Dyvik, who anchored the team to third.
Only one U.S. women’s relay team was entered on Sunday, with both Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen out due to illness. Sophie Caldwell led the U.S.’s first classic leg, followed by Rosie Brennan. Liz Stephen followed Brennan, taking on the first freestyle leg. Anchoring the team was Kikkan Randall in the final freestyle leg. The Americans finished in seventh overall (+2:26.0).
Canada also entered a women’s team in Sunday’s relay. Emily Nishikawa led the first classic leg, and handed off to Cendrine Browne for the second classic leg. Dahria Beatty raced the first freestyle leg and tagged off to Sophie Carrier-Laforte, who anchored the team to 12th overall (+4:07.9).
IBU World Cup in Nove Mesto: Men’s and women’s mass starts
Gabriela Koukalová of the Czech Republic looks to her home crowd as she wins the women’s 12.5 k mass start on Sunday at the IBU World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. She fended off Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier (r), who took second. (Photo: IBU)
Despite skiing in 14th at one point in the men’s 15 k mass start on Sunday, France’s Martin Fourcade came back to win the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
That makes him seven for eight in individual races so far this season.
Fourcade started with bib 1 as the overall World Cup leader and finished first in 36:18.9 minutes, despite a penalty on his second prone that put him in 14th and 22 seconds back heading out on his third loop.
He rebounded with a clean third shooting to move into third, 2.5 seconds behind Ukraine’s Dmytro Pidruchnyi in first and 1.3 seconds behind Russia’s Anton Babikov in second.
By the final shooting stage, Fourcade was back in first with clean shooting (0+1+0+0), 28 seconds clear of Babikov in second. Babikov had his first penalty of the day on the final stage (0+0+0+1) to drop out of contention.
Germany’s Simon Schempp (1+1+0+0) came out on top of an eight-way battle for second place on the final loop. Schempp took it, 8.3 seconds after Fourcade and 1.1 seconds ahead of Babikov in third (+9.4).
The Czech Republic’s Ondrej Moravec was 0.3 seconds off the podium in fourth (+9.7), Pidruchnyi placed fifth (+10.2), Russia’s Matvey Eliseev finished sixth (+11.0), Norway’s Ole Einar Bjørndalen was back in the top 10 in seventh (+11.3), France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet notched his second-straight top 10 in eighth (+13.7), and Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø finished at the back of that pack in ninth (+19.8).
American Lowell Bailey missed the top 20 by 10 seconds in 21st (+1:17.1). He had three penalties, two of which came on the last stage (0+1+0+2) to drop him from ninth to 20th at the start of the final loop.
Bailey retained his spot in ninth in the overall World Cup standings, while Fourcade continues to lead, 158 points ahead of Shipulin in second.
In the women’s 12.5 k mass start, Gabriela Koukalová delivered to her home fans in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, racing to her second win of the season in 34:42.1.
“I was so nervous before the race so it was amazing,” Koukalová said, according to an IBU press release. “I have so many emotions; it’s even more emotional than at the Olympics. I would like to say thanks to all the spectators and I hope I was able to make a nice Christmas present to all of them.”
The defending World Cup champion beat the current World Cup leader, Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier, by 3.1 seconds after shooting a single penalty and cleaning the last two stages (0+1+0+0) to move into first. Dahlmeier missed two on the first stage to drop 23rd, but cleaned her last three stages (2+0+0+0) to capture second at the finish. She passed three athletes on the last lap, including Italy’s Dorothea Wierer, who ended up third (+9.7) with one miss (1+0+0+0).
“I don’t really know what happened with those two misses,” she told German broadcaster ARD. “But in terms of skiing I had a great day on the course, and I had skis that were the bomb. It’s just a lot of fun when you can make the podium reaching the second place despite a large deficit in the beginning. I am overjoyed.”
Germany’s Vanessa Hinz rebounded from Friday’s sprint (where she placed 73rd) to end up fourth (+15.5) with a single penalty (0+0+1+0). None of the 29 finishers hit every target, and American Susan Dunklee did not start.
Dahlmeier leads the overall World Cup standings by 98 points over Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen, and Koukalova is third, just seven points behind Mäkäräinen. Dunklee is 11th.
The IBU World Cup now goes on holiday break until resuming Jan. 5 in Oberhof, Germany.
The third IBU Cup was held on Dec. 16-17 in Obertilliach, Austria. In the men’s 20 k individual on Friday, the top three finishers were France’s Antonin Guigonnat, with a winning time of 49:58.6, Russia’s Yury Shopin in second (+32.2), and Germany’s Florian Graf in third (+35.6). Each of the top three had one miss, and Canada’s Matthew Hudec was the top North American in 34th (+4:11.3) with two penalties (0+2+0+0). Also for Canada, Carsen Campbell finished 38th with three penalties (1+2+0+0), Matthew Neumann was 53rd with three penalties (0+2+0+1) out of 118 finishers.
In the women’s 15 k individual on Friday, Germany’s Karolin Horchler took the win with clean shooting (0+0+0+0) in 44:54.7. France’s Coline Varcin was 1.1 seconds back in second with one penalty (1+0+0+0), and third went to Russia’s Daria Virolaynen (+30.2), who had one miss as well (0+1+0+0). Canada’s Nadia Moser was the top North American in 35th (+5:10.8) with two penalties (0+1+1+0). Also for Canada, Erin Yungblut placed 66th with five penalties (0+3+0+2).
In the men’s 10 k sprint on Saturday, two Norwegians took first and second with Henrik L’Abee-Lund winning in 23:29.9, and Vetle Sjastad Christiansen 13.9 seconds back in second. Third was claimed by Germany’s Phillipp Nawrath (+29.5) and all of the top three shot clean. Neumann led Canada in 47th (+2:20) with one miss (1+0). Campbell missed two (1+1) and finished 59th (+2:47.4), and Hudec was 64th (+2:58.9) with two penalties as well (1+1). Canada’s Pearce Hanna finished 87th, with two misses (2+0), out of 125 finishers.
In the women’s 7.5 k sprint, Russia swept the podium with Virolaynen winning in 20:31.5, followed closely by Uliana Kaisheva (+3.7), and then Anna Nikulina (+23.1). Virolaynen missed one (0+1), Kaisheva cleaned (0+0) and Nikulina had a standing miss as well (0+1). The top North American was Canada’s Megan Bankes in 30th (+2:08.1), with one prone penalty (1+0). Also for Canada, Sarah Beaudry finished 34th (+2:18.1), with two standing misses (0+2), Yungblut was 45th (+2:40.6) with clean shooting (0+0), and Moser finished 49th (+2:45.5) with two misses (1+1), out of 85 women.
FasterSkier’s Coverage of the Biathlon World Championships is made possible through the generous support of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center: New England’s finest snowmaking, world class race venues and touring trails, healthy food in abundance, comfortable accommodations at Craftsbury: Sports, Sustainability, Stewardship.
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![Gabriela Koukalová of the Czech Republic looks to her home crowd as she wins the women's 12.5 k mass start on Sunday at the IBU World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. She fended off Germany's Laura Dahlmeier (r), who took second. (Photo: IBU)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/12/pskpj8bjzd1u9byuqbcf.jpeg")