The snowy and windy conditions in Arber didn’t make the competitions easy for anyone. With only a few men shooting 10/10, the clear advantage today was for those who remained focused on the shooting range. Norway’s Erlend Bjoentegaard was the fastest to clean both shooting stages taking the men's 10 km sprint Gold medal in 26:39.4. Doubling up for Norway, Ragnhild Femsteinevik made the most of the tricky conditions. With perfect shooting, she won the women's 7.5 km sprint Gold medal in 21:52.7. 

Men’s sprint competition

Finishing 20.6 seconds behind Bjoentegaard, the Silver medal went to Russia's Nikita Porshnev, also one of the few to finish the competition mistake-free. Germany’s Lucas Fratzscher with one standing penalty took the Bronze medal, 22.9 seconds back. 

10/10 secures the Gold

The prone stage saw Russia’s Alexander Povarnitsyn taking the lead. Cleaning prone he left the range in first, 2.6 ahead of Fratzscher. Petr Paschenko was third, 4.7 seconds behind. Bjoentegaard, despite being the member of the zero-club, was 9th, 14.4 seconds behind. 

The Russians, stronger on the course, Paschenko and Povarnitsyin were first and second just before the second shooting. Fratzscher, still keeping the 2.6 second gap, was just behind them. Bjoentegaard, however, picking up speed jumped from barely being in top ten to fourth. 

As the penalties started coming in for Paschenko and Povarnitsyin, the door opened for the clean shooters to claim the lead. Nikita Porshnev cleaned leaving to the final loop in the lead. Since he was an early starter, Porshnev had to wait and see what his colleagues werer doing. As his teammates and Fratzscher earned a penalty each, Porshnev maintained the lead up until the late starting Bjoentegaard, cleaned both stages as well claiming now the advantage over the Russian before the last loop. Keeping the pace up, the Norwegian claimed the title of the IBU Open European Sprint Champion, with Porshnev and Fratzscher taking the other two medals. 

Petr Paschenko, with his one standing penalties 23.4 seconds back, finshed fourth. Germany’s Justus Strelow, with one penalty finished fifth, 43.6 seconds back. Clean-shooting Emilien Claude of France came in sixth, 45 seconds back. 

Women’s sprint competition

Just missing out on the Gold medal, clean-shooting Franziska Hildebrand of Germany finished 3.7 seconds behind Femsteinevik taking the Silver medal. Her teammate Janina Hettich missed once, but still managed to add another podium place for 'Germany, taking the Bronze medal, 25.9 seconds back. 

First-ever medal for Femsteinevik 

Starting with bib number 1, Russia’s Larisa Kuklina set the bar high right from the start, after cleaning the prone stage. With all her rivals unable to match her speed, Kuklina took the lead. Sweden’s Ingela Andersson was second, 3 seconds back, with Norway’s Karoline Erdal in third. Hettich, despite cleaning as well, was fourth. Femsteinevik was fifth, Hildebrand ninth. 

Kuklina started losing speed on the second loop while Moldova’s Alina Stremous was gaining speed, the Moldovan was the leader just before the standing round. Hettich had climbed to second, Kuklina was third. Like in the men’s competition, the penalties started sneaking in for the women in the standing stage. 

Hettich and Stremous earned a penalty each dropping to seventh and ninth respectively. Kuklina missed twice, dropping to 22nd. Now the options were offered to those who managed to shoot clean. Hildebrand and Femsteinevik both cleaned with only a mere .7 second gap between them; the Norwegian who started her final loop leading the competition. By the 8.2 km split-time, Hildebrand who was ahead with a 1.4 second lead. Everything depending on the last kilometer, the hopes were high for both of them. But as Femsteinevik was one of the fastest athletes of the day during the third loop, she took the Gold pushing Hildebrand to Silver and Hettich, despite her one miss, claimed the Bronze medal. 

Photos: IBU/Harald Deubert