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Biathlon World Championships 2009

Sports competition in Pyeongchang, South Korea

Summary

Sports competition in Pyeongchang, South Korea

FieldValue
nameBiathlon World Championships 2009
host_cityPyeongchang
countrySouth Korea
events11
opening
closing
stadiumAlpensia Biathlon Centre
previousÖstersund 2008
nextKhanty-Mansiysk 2010

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).

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

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. 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 in the women's sprint and an extraordinary 1,2,3,4 for Norway 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, 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. 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. 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.

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. The women's individual saw Wilhelm win her second gold medal of the Championships.

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.

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.

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. 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.

Schedule

The provisional schedule of the event is below.

DateTimeEvents
February 148:45 KSTWomen's 7.5 km sprint
11:15 KSTMen's 10 km sprint
February 159:00 KSTWomen's 10 km pursuit
11:15 KSTMen's 12.5 km pursuit
February 176:15 KSTMen's 20 km individual
February 1810:15 KSTWomen's 15 km individual
February 1910:00 KSTMixed relay
February 219:15 KSTMen's 15 km mass start
11:15 KSTWomen's 4 × 6 km relay
February 229:00 KSTWomen's 12.5 km mass start
11:15 KSTMen's 4 × 7.5 km relay

Medal winners

Men

15 km mass start
Dominik Landertinger38:32.5
(2+0+0+1)Christoph Sumann38:41.4
(2+0+0+1)Ivan Tcherezov38:48.4
(2+0+0+0)

Women

12.5 km mass start
Olga Zaitseva34:18.3
(0+0+1+1)Anastasiya Kuzmina34:25.8
(0+0+1+1)Helena Jonsson34:30.6
(0+0+1+1)

Mixed

2 × 6 + 2 × 7.5 km W+M relay
1:10:30.0
(0+0) (0+1)
(0+0) (0+1)
(0+2) (0+0)
(0+0) (0+2)1:10:36.2
(0+0) (0+0)
(0+0) (0+1)
(0+0) (0+0)
(0+0) (0+2)1:10:39.0
(0+0) (0+2)
(0+2) (0+1)
(0+0) (0+2)
(0+1) (0+3)

Medal summary

References

References

  1. [http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/14022009/58/golds-bjorndalen-wilhelm.html Golds for Bjorndalen and Wilhelm]{{dead link. (November 2011)
  2. [https://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5htIHPwes2fj8oZY8n0SDK2N1adpw Bjorndalen leads Norway sweep at biathlon world championships]{{dead link. (June 2024)
  3. "IBU Press Release - February 15th, 2009". Biathlonworld.com.
  4. [http://www.norwaypost.no/content/view/21641/29 Biathlon: Bjoerndalen gold after protest], The Norway Post. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  5. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090221020516/http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/15022009/58/bjorndalen-wins-gold-protest.html Bjorndalen wins gold after protest]
  6. [http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-sport/joy-for-recordequalling-bjoerndalen-20090216-88bi.html Joy for record-equalling Bjoerndalen] {{Webarchive. link. (2009-02-21 , The Age. Retrieved 2009-02-16.)
  7. [https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j7fyaqI2tF6b3Qp0N0pxf-zPjfYQD96D9PPO0 Bjorndalen becomes triple biathlon world champ] {{webarchive. link. (February 20, 2009)
  8. [https://archive.today/20120804004142/http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/256302,wilhelm-wins-individual-race-to-take-second-gold-at-biathlon-worlds.html Wilhelm wins individual race to take second gold at biathlon worlds]
  9. [https://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hoZaaPdANUc-YJQD4Cv26yPnPBcQ France wins biathlon mixed relay for first gold of world championships]{{dead link. (June 2024)
  10. [http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/21022009/58/golds-landertinger-russia.html Golds for Landertinger and Russia]{{dead link. (November 2011)
  11. (2009-02-22). "Russia's Zaitseva takes biathlon mass start gold". Usatoday.com.
  12. [https://archive.today/20090227000400/http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/22022009/58/bjoerndalen-wins-fourth-gold-relay.html Bjoerndalen wins fourth gold in relay]
  13. "World Championships schedule". Biathlon-pyeongchang.or.kr.
  14. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/SMSP/BT_C73B_1.1.pdf Men's sprint results]
  15. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/SMPU/BT_C73D_1.1.pdf Men's pursuit results]
  16. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/SMIN/BT_C73A_1.0.pdf Men's individual results]
  17. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/SMRL/BT_C73C_1.0.pdf Men's relay results]
  18. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/SMMS/BT_C73E_2.0.pdf Men's mass start results]
  19. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/SWSP/BT_C73B_1.0.pdf Women's sprint results]
  20. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/SWPU/BT_C73D_1.0.pdf Women's pursuit results]
  21. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/SWIN/BT_C73A_1.0.pdf Women's individual results]
  22. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/SWRL/BT_C73C_1.0.pdf Women's relay results]
  23. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/SWMS/BT_C73E_1.0.pdf Women's mass start results]
  24. [https://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0809/BT/SWRL/CH__/MXRL/BT_C73C_1.0.pdf Mixed relay results]
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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