Para Biathlon World Championships 2024 – Day 3 & 4

SPRINT PURSUITS

On the penultimate day of the 2024 Para Biathlon World Championships, Mark Arendz and Linn Kazmaier each won their third consecutive gold, this time in the sprint pursuit competition.

In the final, Arendz improved his shooting, missing no targets compared to qualification, where he missed one. For Arendz, it has been great being able to compete in front of his family.

Oh, it’s fantastic. Only earlier this year was the first time I've ever been able to do the triple at a venue, and that was pretty special. And to do it here, my first time at a World Championship, on home soil with my brother here, my parents watching, that's–it's unbelievable.– Mark Arendz (CAN)

Joining Arendz on the men’s standing podium was Serhii Romaniuk of Ukraine in second, and Benjamin Daviet of France in third.

Over in the women’s standing class, Ukraine swept the podium. Bohdana Konashuk claimed the gold, with no errors in her shooting, and crossed the finish line in 12 minutes and 26.5 seconds. Liudmyla Liashenko won the silver, also making no mistakes on the range. She finished with a time of 12 minutes and 41.9 seconds. Oleksandra Kononova won the bronze, her first medal of the World Championships. She finished just off the podium in fourth place in the 7.5k sprint.

In the women’s sitting class, American Kendall Gretsch won the pursuit, securing another gold medal, after winning the 12.5k individual event earlier this week. While she was third to start the race, her clean shooting helped her push past Korean Yunji Kim and Germany’s Anja Wicker to cross the finish line first. Wicker completed the race in second, followed by Gretsch’s teammate Oksana Masters.

Anja Wicker (GER) and Kendall Gretsch (USA) after the sprint pursuit

Anja Wicker (GER) and Kendall Gretsch (USA) © Kelly Bergman / Caledonia Nordic Ski Club

The men’s sitting class saw Taras Rad of Ukraine win his second gold medal, and third overall at this World Championships. He crossed the finish line in 11 minutes and 11.8 seconds, a minute and 12 seconds ahead of second place finisher, Yerbol Khamitov of Kazakstan. Aaron Pike of the United States was sixth to start the race, but managed to shoot clean, and won the bronze.

To start the vision impaired races, the women were up first.

I’m very happy to win my third gold medal because it was a very good race and I think I gave everything I could, so it was good.– Linn Kazmaier (GER)

It’s very amazing to win the third time. I think we do our best and everything works how we wanted, and yeah we are super happy with the result.– Florian Baumann (GER)

In second place was Leonie Maria Walter with guide Christian Krasman, followed by Johanna Recktenwald with guide Pirmin Strecker.

Top 3 German Women vision impaired athletes with their guides posing after the Sprint Pursuit

Women VI Sprint Pursuit's podium © Kelly Bergman / Caledonia Nordic Ski Club

Ahead of the men’s vision impaired pursuit, it began to rain, shaping it up to be a challenging race. Ukrainian Oleksandr Kazik and guide Serhii Kucheriavyi landed on the top spot of the podium. It was a battle for second place, between Iaroslav Reshetynskyi (UKR) and Anthony Chalençon (FRA). In the end, Reshetynskyi crossed the finish line with his guide Dmytro Drahun first, and 1.9 seconds later was Chalençon and guide Florian Michelon.

TEAM SPRINT

On the final day of the 2024 Para Biathlon World Championships, Team USA and Team Ukraine claimed top spot on the team sprint podiums.

The day started with qualifications in the sitting class and a combined standing and vision impaired class. Mixed nations teams were allowed in the qualification stage, which saw France’s Karl Tabouret team up with Lennart Mattis Volkert (GER) and guide Nils Kolb (GER).

For the finals, only one team per country was permitted. In the sit ski final, Americans Kendall Gretsch and Oksana Masters were able to overcome a third-place start position to win the gold medal with a time of 22 minutes and 22.1 seconds. Even though Masters had to complete three penalty loops after her final visit to the shooting range, she was able to cross the finish line first.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's always so fun. We don't get a lot of opportunities to do relays. So yeah, normally we're racing against each other. So it's so fun to be a team.– Kendall Gretsch (USA)

I was gonna say the same thing. It's really fun. Normally we are going against each other, and everyone thinks like, we have this huge like rivalry and we're competing against each other, and it's really, really special to be able to put both of our strengths together and come out on top today.– Oksana Masters (USA)

Both women have been on the podium for each of the four events this week. Gretsch won the 12.5k individual and sprint pursuit events, along with finishing third in the 7.5k sprint. Masters won gold in the 7.5k sprint, silver in the 12.5k individual, and bronze in the sprint pursuit. Behind Gretsch and Masters on the podium were Ukrainian Vasyl Kravchuk and Taras Rad. In third place was the German duo of Andrea Eskau and Anja Wicker.

For the final race of the World Championships, Ukrainians Bohdana Konashuk and Liudmyla Liashenko crossed the finish line in first place in 20 minutes and 41.9 seconds. This was Konashuk’s second gold medal, after winning the women’s standing sprint pursuit the day before. Liashenko also had a successful week, winning two golds and a silver, in addition to the final day’s gold.

Standing category's podium of the Team Sprint at the medals ceremony

Second place was claimed by the German team of Leonie Maria Walter with guide Christian Krasman and Linn Kazmaier with guide Florian Baumann. Rounding out the podium were Canadians Brittany Hudak and Mark Arendz.

Ukraine has been the most successful nation at this year’s World Championships, winning a total of 20 medals.

Text retrieved from IBU