PRESQUE ISLE — New Hampshire’s Sean Doherty continued to make the IBU Biathlon Youth/Junior World Championships at the Nordic Heritage Center his personal playground Sunday afternoon.
Doherty , the 18-year-old from Center Conway, won his second gold medal of the championships, pulling away from the field to win the youth men’s 10-kilometer pursuit. He finished in 28 minutes, 51.8 seconds, more than a minute faster than silver medalist Marco Gross of Germany.
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Doherty had also won the 7.5-kilometer sprint on Friday, with Gross also second in that race.
Doherty crossed the finish line waving the American flag in his right hand and holding his ski pole high with his left.
“It’s awesome,” said Doherty, who competed in the Sochi Winter Olympics. “It’s so incredibly satisfying when it comes together in a race like today. And to really have that, in front of the home crowd, just makes it better.”
Doherty hit his first 14 shots — all 10 prone, the first four standing — and missed only three overall. Gross, who started two seconds behind Doherty, also missed only three. But on this day, he knew he could not catch Doherty doing that.
The junior men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit was won by France’s Fabien Claude with a time of 33:02.8, 10.9 seconds ahead of Russia’s Alexander Povarnitsyn, who had won Saturday’s sprint.
Fabien began Sunday’s race 23 seconds behind Povarnitsyn. He missed four targets and the Russian missed six.
There was little suspense in the women’s races.
Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi won her second gold medal in three days in the youth women’s 7.5-kilometer pursuit, finishing in 24:39.9, 19.2 seconds ahead of Germany’s Anna Weidel — who took the silver for the second consecutive race.
“In my mind I was very well prepared,” said Vittozzi. “But I didn’t expect the golds.”
Weidel actually had fewer misses on the range than Vittozzi — six to the Italian’s seven — but had a critical miss at the last shooting station and knew she couldn’t catch Vittozzi.
“But I am very satisfied with my silver,” said Weidel.
Anna Kubek led the American finishers, in 18th place, 1:43.7 behind with four misses, and Maddie Phaneuf, who started fourth, was 24th, 2:55.6 behind with eight misses.
The junior women’s 10-kilometer pursuit was won by Galina Vishnevskaya of Kazakhstan, one day after she finished second in the sprint by three-tenths of a second.
“That was a huge motivation, losing so close,” she said.
Sunday she left no doubt, her winning time of 32:36.3 was 57.8 seconds ahead of Germany’s Luise Kummer, who was the only competitor to shoot cleanly in both women’s races.
Sarah Beaudry of Canada was a surprise third, 2:08.0 behind Vishnevskaya. That was an impressive finish because Beaudry started the race 2:37 behind the leaders.
Kelsey Dickinson was the top U.S. finisher, in 38th, 7:58.0 behind the winner, with just three misses.
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