There was no gold for Sean Doherty of Center Conway, N.H., in the youth men’s 12.5-kilometer individual race of the IBU biathlon youth/junior world championships at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle on Tuesday.
But a silver isn’t so bad.
Doherty, 18, finished second by 6.3 seconds to Yaroslav Kostyukov of Russia in the final individual race. Doherty won the sprint and pursuit in the first two youth men’s races. The age division is for biathletes 17-18.
The difference Tuesday was shooting. While Doherty missed only four targets (of 20), Kostyukov was a bit better, missing just two. His winning time was 35 minutes, 22.6 seconds. Doherty, a member of the U.S. Olympic biathlon team in the Sochi Winter Olympics, finished in 35:28.9.
It had appeared that Doherty was on his way to a third gold medal. Trailing Marco Gross of Germany by 20.9 seconds after the fourth lap, Doherty surged into the lead on the final shooting station when he missed just once and Gross, who had finished second to Doherty in the first two races, missed three.
Doherty finished in the lead, then had to wait to see if Kostyukov had the speed and marksmanship to pass him. He did, missing just once at the final standing station.
Emilien Jacquelin of France finished third in 36:06.6 with three misses. Gross never recovered from his final shoot, dropping to eight place.
Brian Halligan, who trains at the Maine Winter Sports Center, had his best result, finishing 18th with a time of 38:52.7. He had five misses. Also for the U.S., Paul Everett was 34th, in 41:14.5 (six misses) and Kamran Husain, a 16-year-old sophomore at Fort Kent Community School who also trains at MWSC, was 51st in 44:10.5 (nine misses).
In the women’s 10-kilometer individual race, Julia Schwaiger of Austria had clean shooting and eased to a victory over Lisa Vittozzi of Italy. Schwaiger finished in 32:58.7 while Vittozzi, who won the first two individual races, was second in 34:04.4. She missed just two shots.
Liliya Davletshina of Russia was third in 34:24.6. She also had two misses.
The U.S. continued its strong showing with two women in the top 10: Maddie Phaneuf, who trains at the Maine Winter Sports Center, was eighth in 37:14.7 (three misses) and Anna Kubek was 10th in 37:22.8 (four misses).
Phaneuf finished fourth in the opening sprints of the championships.
Mike Lowe can be reached at 791-6422 or at:
mlowe@pressherald.com
Twitter: MikeLowePPH
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