Ukraine’s Ekaterina Bekh, centre, won her second gold in two days in the junior women's pursuit at the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Osrblie ©IBU

Norway’s Vebjoem Soerum and Ukraine’s Ekaterina Bekh have won the junior men’s and women’s pursuits respectively to both claim their second gold medals in two days at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championships in Osrblie.

In the men’s race, which went ahead first, Soerum took victory 32min 47.2sec.

That saw him finish 6.2 seconds ahead of France’s individual winner Martin Bourgeois Republique and 12.6 ahead of Norway’s Sivert Guttorm Bakken, having already won the junior men’s sprint yesterday.

"My legs were tired from yesterday’s race but I managed to shoot just good enough to be able to keep my advantage from sprint with solid skiing," Soerum said.

"I knew Sivert and Said [Karimulla Khalili who finished fourth] would attack from behind, but they were missing too.

"This results have shown me what progress I have made and now I shall turn my focus to keep getting better and hopefully compete at the BMW IBU World Cup level in [the] not so distant future."

In the women’s event Bekh claimed her second gold with a time of 31:23.8, which saw her finish 9.1 seconds ahead of Germany’s Hanna Kebinger and 16.4 ahead of Sophie Chauveau from France.

Bekh was able to win, despite a sudden change in weather just before the race, which she claimed she was not expecting.

Vebjoem Soerum, centre, won junior men's pursuit gold to claim his second title of the Championships ©IBU
Vebjoem Soerum, centre, won junior men's pursuit gold to claim his second title of the Championships ©IBU

"Suddenly I didn’t know how my skis will be," Bekh said.

"Fortunately our waxers knew what to do."

In the youth events, Alex Cisar from Slovenia won the men's race to also claim his second gold medal of the Championships.

Having won the youth sprint on Friday (February 1), he triumphed again today in 27:59.7, a full minute ahead of Remi Broutier from France. 

Coming third was Norway's Vetle Paulsen, who finished a minute and 45 seconds behind Cisar.

In the last race of the Championships, the youth women’s pursuit was won by Switzerland’s Amy Baserga in 24:15.6.

She finished ahead of the Czech Republic’s Tereza Voborníková, who crossed the line 8.2 seconds behind, and Norway’s Maren Bakken, winner of gold medals in both the sprint and relay earlier in the week, claimed bronze 13.8 behind.