Darcie Morton and Will Neuhaus were the sole biathletes representing NSW and Australia at the recent IBU Youth/Junior World Championships. Held in Oteppa, Estonia, the event is the highest Junior event on the IBU calendar each year.

Both Will and Darcie were competing in the Youth U19 age category and Australia did not have any representatives in the Junior U21 age category. The weather was very cold and unfortunately, Will was unable to start in his favoured Sprint event due to becoming ill after the 12km Individual event held on the 2^nd day of the Championships.

Darcie achieved some very consistent results across all her events, with strong shooting and fast skis in the Sprint and Pursuit events. The extreme cold made ski waxing tough and Darcie’s ski preparation in the Individual event impacted on her result.

“I just watched other girls in the race pass me on the downhills”, said Darcie, “so I knew there was a problem with the wax chosen.”

However, a few days later in the Youth Women’s 6km Sprint, Darcie hit form with good wax and skis, finishing 37^th in the 6km Sprint and qualifying for the Pursuit.

In the Pursuit, Darcie shot and skied very well, moving up to finish 33^rd overall.

Results:

Will Neuhaus

12.5km Individual 91^st (2,2,3,3) 19mins 41.4secs behind

Darcie Morton

10km Individual 33^rd (0,0,1,0) 3mins 33s.3secs behind

6km   Sprint 37^th (2,0) 2mins 16.0secs behind

7.5km Pursuit 33^rd (1,1,1,1) 5mins .2.06secs behind

All in all, good competitions from Will and Darcie, with Darcie's results continuing to progress after her 16^th place in the Sprint at Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2016. Next year’s Youth/Junior World Championships are being held in Brenzo-Osrblie (SVK).