Alexey Katrenko of Russia took the first Gold of the 13th Summer-Biathlon World Championships in the Cross-Sprint discipline. 23-year-old Katrenko finished after 4 km in 13:57.3 minutes. He had a miss each in the prone and the standing position. In the Bessans stadium Kazach Dias Keneshev took silver (+1:00,7 minutes). He had three misses in the prone position. Bronze went to Ruslan Nasirov of Uzbekhistan (+1:02,8).

On a clear but cold morning at only four degrees Celsius the competitions have finally begun at Bessans at an altitude of 1750 meters. After the two training sessions on Monday and Tuesday, this morning at 10:00 CEST the men and junior men went onto the track which had become very slippery due to the glazing frost on it.

Katrenko win despite downfall

In his very first apperance at Bessans Katrenko even fell when running downhill: "It was very, very slippery on the track". Yet, neither the Russian nor Keneshev had used spikes - a tricky decision to make on the 1.3 km track which is partly made of gras, partly of concrete ground.

In the Juniors section Anuzar Yunusov of Uzbekhistan won the gold, only 1.1 seconds ahead of Russian Stanizlav Bazeev. Both had missed twice. Bronze went to Niklas Heyser. The German had to run the 70 meter penalty lap only once and finished 37.6 seconds behind the winner.

Pursuit decisions tomorrow

The Pursuit will follow tomorrow where the athletes take today's deficits onto the 6 km track. The men will start at 10:00 CEST, the Junior Men at 10:50.

Russian-Uber-Dominance in Women’s Cross Sprint
Russians win five of six possible medals

With a triple win in the women's Cross-Sprint and a gold and silver medal in the female Juniors section, Russia dominated the second competition of the day at the Summer World Championships. Ekaterina Siderenko, Lubov Ermolaeva and Anastasia Kusnezova took the senior medals whereas Irina Maximova and Alkesandra Ralishina took the spots on the podium at the Juniors. Only Vera Kalbianok of Belarus managed to break into the Russian phalanx.

In condititons a lot more pleasant than those the men had had in the morning, 26-year-old Siderenko claimed her first triumph in Summer Biathlon in outstanding fashion. She finished the 3km Sprint in 12:09.6 minutes, 45.7 seconds ahead of her training-mate, 32-year-old Lubos Ermolaeva. Both recorded two misses at the range. Kuznetsova in third position was 1:01.5 behind the winner - she had to run through the 70m penalty lap three times.

Only 13 women registered on start list

The Russians profited from the absence of the Ukrainian team in the small senoir's field where only 13 runners had registered. Besides the Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians are amongst the best Cross-Biathletes on the summer cirucit.

Siderenko and Ermolaeva, however, are traditional winter biathletes. "We see summer biathlon as a kind of extra training for us," Siderenko explained after the race. "But despite our success here, winter biathlon remains our priority," the silver medalist claimed. Explaining why they won't start in the roller ski divison, she said: "That was decision of our coaches".

Second summer gold for Maximova

With today's success Irina Maximova repeated her victory from last year's IBU Summer World Champs. The 21-year-old is already an established winter biathlete in the senior's field. Maximova won a gold medal in the last European Championships with the Relay and bronze in the Individual competition.

The Cross-Biathlon competitions in Bessan will end tomorrow with the decisons in the Women's pursuit. The seniors start their 5km competition at 13:00 CEST, the juniors race at 13:50.

Tom Klein
www.biathlonworld.com
24.09.2008, Haute Maurienne Vanoise

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