Biathlon World Championships 2009

The 43rd Biathlon World Championships were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea from February 13 to February 22, 2009. It was the first time that the Biathlon World Championships were held in Asia (outside Asian Russia).

Biathlon World Championships 2009
Host cityPyeongchang
CountrySouth Korea
Events11
Opening13 February 2009 (2009-02-13)
Closing22 February 2009 (2009-02-22)
Main venueAlpensia Biathlon Centre

There were a total of 11 competitions: sprint, pursuit, individual, mass start, and relay races for men and women, and the relatively new mixed relay. All the events during these championships also counted for the 2008–09 Biathlon World Cup season.

Championship highlights

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Before the championships even started there was controversy with three Russian biathletes being sent home for having failed drugs tests during a previous round of the World Cup in Ostersund, Sweden.[citation needed] Then the first day's competition was only made possible after the efforts of over 500 volunteers, working overnight managed to re-lay the competition tracks with man-made snow after all the natural snow had disappeared after unusual weather conditions melted it all away.

The events themselves started with a victory for Kati Wilhelm[1] in the women's sprint and an extraordinary 1,2,3,4 for Norway[2] in the men's sprint with Ole Einar Bjørndalen coming out on top.

Drama started on the second day with reigning champion, Andrea Henkel disqualified before the women's pursuit even started after she accidentally loaded her rifle with live ammunition and fired a round during a pre-race practice,[3] leaving Helena Jonsson from Sweden to capture a surprise gold medal, moving into the medal positions from fifth place only after shooting clear on the final shoot.

Then during the men's 12.5 km pursuit, 15 competitors at least, including race leader and eventual winner Ole Einar Bjørndalen, skied the wrong way at the start of the first lap. Just after leaving the start, the athletes skied over a bridge instead of around it, which was a course change from the previous day's sprint competition.[4] Following a complaint from the Russian team, a race jury gave nine athletes a one-minute time penalty, relegating Bjørndalen from first to the bronze medal position and awarding the gold medal to the Russian Maxim Tchoudov. However, a counter complaint by seven other member states led to the Appeal Jury reverting to the original result. It was a record 12th World Championship gold medal for Bjørndalen.[5] Because the world championships count towards the World Cup, the win was Bjørndalen's 86th victory, equaling the winter-sport record of 86 World Cup victories by Swedish Alpine skier Ingemar Stenmark.[6]

The men's individual saw another victory for Bjørndalen, taking his tally of World Cup victories to 87, and breaking Stenmark's record that had stood since 1989.[7] The women's individual saw Wilhelm win her second gold medal of the Championships.[8]

The relay events started with the mixed relay event and in a very close competition France, Sweden and Germany were within 10 seconds of each other at the final change over with France coming out on top to win their first title in this event.[9]

The mass start for men saw Bjørndalen going for his 4th victory of the championships, and into the last shooting stage he was comfortably in the lead but then with 2 shots missed, Dominik Landertinger and Christoph Sumann from Austria and Ivan Tcherezov from Russia were able all get within 5 seconds of him. On the last skiing lap Landertinger was able to ski quickest, securing Austria their first medal of the championships, with Bjørndalen having to settle for fourth. The women's relay was won by Russia with an impressive margin over Germany with France taking bronze.[10]

The women's mass start was a close-run race with 4 women battling it out for gold after the final shoot, with Olga Zaitseva coming home comfortably at the end.[11] Kati Wilhelm, wearing bib one, had been expected to contend for gold having already collected 2 gold medals earlier in the championships but after missing 7 targets she came home last. The men's relay brought the championships to a close with another close race with Austria, Norway and Germany all in contention right up the final standing shoot of the final leg. Bjørndalen on the anchor leg for Norway shot clear whereas Sumann missed one target and the Norwegian had enough in him to ski his country to gold, collecting his fourth gold of the championships in the process.[12]

Schedule

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The provisional schedule of the event is below.[13]

Date Time Events
February 14 8:45 KST Women's 7.5 km sprint
11:15 KST Men's 10 km sprint
February 15 9:00 KST Women's 10 km pursuit
11:15 KST Men's 12.5 km pursuit
February 17 6:15 KST Men's 20 km individual
February 18 10:15 KST Women's 15 km individual
February 19 10:00 KST Mixed relay
February 21 9:15 KST Men's 15 km mass start
11:15 KST Women's 4 × 6 km relay
February 22 9:00 KST Women's 12.5 km mass start
11:15 KST Men's 4 × 7.5 km relay

Medal winners

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Event Gold Silver Bronze
10 km sprint[14]
details
Ole Einar Bjørndalen
  Norway
24:16.5
(1+1)
Lars Berger
  Norway
24:17.7
(1+1)
Halvard Hanevold
  Norway
24:29.0
(0+0)
12.5 km pursuit[15]
details
Ole Einar Bjørndalen
  Norway
31:46.7
(0+2+0+2)
Maxim Tchoudov
  Russia
32:28.4
(0+0+1+2)
Alexander Os
  Norway
32:39.5
(0+0+2+1)
20 km individual[16]
details
Ole Einar Bjørndalen
  Norway
52:28.0
(0+0+2+1)
Christoph Stephan
  Germany
52:42.1
(1+0+0+0)
Jakov Fak
  Croatia
52:45.1
(0+0+0+1)
4 × 7.5 km relay[17]
details
  Norway
Emil Hegle Svendsen
Lars Berger
Halvard Hanevold
Ole Einar Bjørndalen
1:08:04.1
(0+0) (1+3)
(0+0) (1+3)
(0+0) (0+0)
(0+2) (0+1)
  Austria
Daniel Mesotitsch
Simon Eder
Dominik Landertinger
Christoph Sumann
1:08:16.7
(0+0) (0+1)
(0+1) (0+0)
(0+1) (0+2)
(0+0) (0+2)
  Germany
Michael Rösch
Christoph Stephan
Arnd Peiffer
Michael Greis
1:08:36.8
(0+1) (0+1)
(0+1) (0+3)
(0+0) (0+1)
(0+1) (0+2)
15 km mass start[18]
details
Dominik Landertinger
  Austria
38:32.5
(2+0+0+1)
Christoph Sumann
  Austria
38:41.4
(2+0+0+1)
Ivan Tcherezov
  Russia
38:48.4
(2+0+0+0)

Women

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Event Gold Silver Bronze
7.5 km sprint[19]
details
Kati Wilhelm
  Germany
21:11.1
(0+0)
Simone Hauswald
  Germany
21:21.0
(0+0)
Olga Zaitseva
  Russia
21:38.2
(0+0)
10 km pursuit[20]
details
Helena Jonsson
  Sweden
34:12.4
(2+0+0+0)
Kati Wilhelm
  Germany
34:30.6
(1+1+3+1)
Olga Zaitseva
  Russia
34:36.4
(0+3+1+2)
15 km individual[21]
details
Kati Wilhelm
  Germany
44:03.1
(0+1+0+0)
Teja Gregorin
  Slovenia
44:42.6
(0+0+0+1)
Tora Berger
  Norway
44:49.6
(0+0+0+1)
4 × 6 km relay[22]
details
  Russia
Svetlana Sleptsova
Anna Boulygina
Olga Medvedtseva
Olga Zaitseva
1:13:12.9
(0+2) (0+0)
(0+0) (0+3)
(0+1) (0+2)
(0+0) (0+1)
  Germany
Martina Beck
Magdalena Neuner
Andrea Henkel
Kati Wilhelm
1:14:28.0
(0+1) (0+1)
(0+2) (2+3)
(0+1) (0+1)
(0+2) (1+3)
  France
Marie-Laure Brunet
Sylvie Becaert
Marie Dorin
Sandrine Bailly
1:14:40.4
(0+0) (0+1)
(0+2) (0+3)
(0+0) (0+3)
(0+1) (1+3)
12.5 km mass start[23]
details
Olga Zaitseva
  Russia
34:18.3
(0+0+1+1)
Anastasiya Kuzmina
  Slovakia
34:25.8
(0+0+1+1)
Helena Jonsson
  Sweden
34:30.6
(0+0+1+1)

Mixed

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Event Gold Silver Bronze
2 × 6 + 2 × 7.5 km W+M relay[24]
details
  France
Marie-Laure Brunet
Sylvie Becaert
Vincent Defrasne
Simon Fourcade
1:10:30.0
(0+0) (0+1)
(0+0) (0+1)
(0+2) (0+0)
(0+0) (0+2)
  Sweden
Helena Jonsson
Anna Carin Olofsson-Zidek
David Ekholm
Carl Johan Bergman
1:10:36.2
(0+0) (0+0)
(0+0) (0+1)
(0+0) (0+0)
(0+0) (0+2)
  Germany
Andrea Henkel
Simone Hauswald
Arnd Peiffer
Michael Greis
1:10:39.0
(0+0) (0+2)
(0+2) (0+1)
(0+0) (0+2)
(0+1) (0+3)

Medal summary

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RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  Norway (NOR)4138
2  Germany (GER)2428
3  Russia (RUS)2136
4  Austria (AUT)1203
5  Sweden (SWE)1113
6  France (FRA)1012
7  Slovakia (SVK)0101
  Slovenia (SLO)0101
9  Croatia (CRO)0011
Totals (9 entries)11111133

References

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  1. ^ Golds for Bjorndalen and Wilhelm[dead link]
  2. ^ Bjorndalen leads Norway sweep at biathlon world championships[dead link]
  3. ^ "IBU Press Release - February 15th, 2009". Biathlonworld.com. Archived from the original on 2009-02-21. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  4. ^ Biathlon: Bjoerndalen gold after protest, The Norway Post. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  5. ^ Bjorndalen wins gold after protest
  6. ^ Joy for record-equalling Bjoerndalen Archived 2009-02-21 at the Wayback Machine, The Age. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  7. ^ Bjorndalen becomes triple biathlon world champ Archived February 20, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Wilhelm wins individual race to take second gold at biathlon worlds
  9. ^ France wins biathlon mixed relay for first gold of world championships[dead link]
  10. ^ Golds for Landertinger and Russia[dead link]
  11. ^ "Russia's Zaitseva takes biathlon mass start gold". Usatoday.com. 2009-02-22. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
  12. ^ Bjoerndalen wins fourth gold in relay
  13. ^ "World Championships schedule". Biathlon-pyeongchang.or.kr. Archived from the original on 2008-10-31. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  14. ^ Men's sprint results
  15. ^ Men's pursuit results
  16. ^ Men's individual results
  17. ^ Men's relay results
  18. ^ Men's mass start results
  19. ^ Women's sprint results
  20. ^ Women's pursuit results
  21. ^ Women's individual results
  22. ^ Women's relay results
  23. ^ Women's mass start results
  24. ^ Mixed relay results
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