And the American junior women's relay team answers the call, placing second in the final day of competition in Ridnaun, Italy. The team of Carolyn Treacy (Duluth, MN), Tracy Barnes (Durango, CO), and Lanny Barnes (Durango, CO), was in first place for much of the race. Carolyn Treacy was the first leg, and entered the range first, closely followed by Germany, Belarus, and Russia. She cleaned with no extra rounds, leaving the range in first. Jenny Adler of Germany, who used one extra round, quickly followed and passed Treacy before the second shooting bout. Treacy stayed calm, however, and cleaned her next five targets as well, with no extra rounds. But Adler did as well, and was able to tag off to her second leg 13.3 seconds before Treacy handed the pressure off to Tracy Barnes. Barnes lost some time to the German team on her first loop, but quickly hit all of her five targets in the first shooting stage. Germany's Kathrin Pfisterer had to use one extra round. The German had lost ground, and Barnes was again in the lead. At the second shooting stage in the standing position, Barnes cleaned again! Pfisterer missed four targets, and thus had to ski a 150-meter penalty. Tracy handed off to twin sister Lanny Barnes almost twenty seconds ahead of the German team. Ute Niziak of Germany passed Lanny, who placed third in yesterday's individual competition, in the first loop. Niziak shot clean, while Barnes missed one and had to use an extra round. She skied off, but Niziak was far ahead. The German used only one extra round in the final standing stage, putting the pressure on Barnes to shoot clean. She was unable to, and had to make use of three extra rounds. She brought the American team to its first relay podium ever at a major World Championship event, in second place. They were 1:18 behind the German team, almost a minute ahead of the team from Russia.

Earlier that day, however, the junior men's relay team was putting pressure on traditionally dominant nations in its own field. Walt Shepard (Yarmouth, ME) started the team off well; even with a second wave start position. He entered the range in second place, behind the Slovakian leader. Shepard cleaned with no extra rounds in a brisk 32 seconds, and went on course. He was soon passed by the German's first leg, Michael Roesch. The two entered the range together, and Shepard cleaned again in the standing stage. The last loop proved brutal, however, as he was passed by two teams, from Slovakia and Belarus. He handed off to teammate Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) in the fourth position, only seven seconds behind the German team. Burke, who placed eleventh in Thursday's pursuit race, was up to the challenge. He was able to pass the two nearest teams and ski onto the tails of German Wick's skis, arriving in the range only two seconds behind him. Burke cleaned with no extra rounds, but the German was able to clean with one extra round in only twenty-five seconds. Burke left the range in second place. He arrived in the range for his final shooting only thirteen seconds down to the German. Missing one, he had to utilize one extra round - the relay competition gives biathletes three extra rounds to use. He skied well in the final lap, and brought the team to second place, before handing off to youth team member Evan Ray (St. Paul, MN). Ray was out skied by the competition on the first loop, and was passed by two teams, arriving in the range in fourth position. He had to use all of his three relay rounds, which can take ten to fifteen seconds to use. Ray moved out on course, but had lost a lot of time with his shooting errors. He arrived in the range in sixth place, more than two minutes behind the German leader. Ray again had to use three extra rounds, but thankfully had to ski no penalty loops. He tagged off to Anders Osthus (Duluth, MN) in sixth place, less than three minutes behind the leader. Osthus skied a respectable first loop, but the fifth place team was already well ahead of him. Anders hit all of his targets, using no extra rounds. Only one more shooting stage remained, and he entered the range confidently in eighth place. However, he had to use three extra rounds in order to hit all five targets, losing some time in the loading process. He skied a nice last loop, bringing the team into seventh place. The relay team placed twelfth last year in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Abundant shooting penalties plagued the youth men's relay team. Nathan Erlandson (Grand Rapids, MN) used five extra rounds, but skied one penalty loop, to bring the team into thirteenth place. Ben Byrne (Bovey, MN) used six extra rounds and skied two penalty loops, only to drop to fifteenth place. The final leg, Kurt Farchmin (Duluth, MN), shot very well, using only three extra rounds, to bring the youth American team to a final fourteenth place.

The youth women's relay team skied no penalty loops today, finishing in fifth place. Emelia Demarchis (Burlington, VT) used only two extra rounds to hand off to Annalies Cook (Saranac Lake, NY) in fifth place, a little over a minute behind the leading team from Russia. Cook cleaned all of her targets in the prone stage, putting her in a strong third place for the second stage. She used three extra rounds, however, and dropped to fourth place, less than twenty seconds behind the leader. Antonia Slaughter (Orono, MN) had excellent shooting today. She used only one extra round. The other competitors were faster on skis, and she fell to a respectable fifth place at the finish line.

 
Junior Women's Relay
1 GERMANY GER           0 1 1:11:04.4 
2 USA USA               0 0 +1:19.3 
3 RUSSIA RUS            1 0 +2:16.1 
4 SWEDEN SWE            0 2 +3:02.9 
5 BELARUS BLR           3 0 +3:20.7 
6 FINLAND FIN           0 0 +3:28.1 
7 CZECH REPUBLIC CZE    0 2 +4:04.0 
8 FRANCE FRA            1 3 +4:07.4 
9 NORWAY NOR            2 0 +4:59.7 
10 CANADA CAN           0 1 +5:08.6 
11 UKRAINE UKR          0 1 +5:38.6 
12 ROMANIA ROM          0 0 +6:29.9 
13 POLAND POL           2 2 +7:10.0 
14 ITALY ITA            2 1 +9:10.4 
15 BULGARIA BUL         1 3 +11:13.8 
16 GREECE GRE           7 3 +29:48.9 

Junior Men Relay 4 x 7.5km
1 GERMANY GER           0 0 1:20:29.9 
2 CZECH REPUBLIC CZE    0 0 +2.8 
3 BELARUS BLR           0 0 +1:28.5 
4 SLOVAKIA SVK          0 0 +1:53.4 
5 RUSSIA RUS            1 0 +2:14.7 
6 SWEDEN SWE            0 0 +2:41.3 
7 USA USA               0 0 +3:40.1 
8 FRANCE FRA            0 0 +3:53.2 
9 AUSTRIA AUT           1 1 +4:07.6 
10 LATVIA LAT           0 2 +4:46.4
11 NORWAY NOR           0 3 +5:29.3 
12 UKRAINE UKR          0 2 +5:50.5 
13 SLOVENIA SLO         0 2 +6:06.6 
14 ITALY ITA            0 4 +7:24.1 
15 CANADA CAN           0 2 +7:39.7 
16 BULGARIA BUL         1 0 +7:57.9 
17 POLAND POL           4 0 +8:45.7 
18 ESTONIA EST          0 1 +9:03.1 
19 SWITZERLAND SUI      6 1 +9:44.1 
20 GREECE GRE          13 4 +29:41.3 

Youth Women's Relay 3x 7.5
1 CHINA CHN             1 0 58:01.1 
2 RUSSIA RUS            2 0 +6.8 
3 GERMANY GER           0 0 +22.3 
4 FINLAND FIN           0 0 +1:51.4 
5 USA USA               0 0 +2:01.5 
6 KAZAKSTAN KAZ         2 1 +3:27.4 
7 POLAND POL            1 2 +3:40.3 
8 CZECH REPUBLIC CZE    4 1 +4:15.6 
9 AUSTRIA AUT           1 0 +4:31.5 
10 CANADA CAN           0 1 +5:05.1 
11 SLOVAKIA SVK         2 2 +5:30.7 
12 UKRAINE UKR          1 5 +7:01.0 
13 NORWAY NOR           1 4 +8:28.3 
14 ITALY ITA            4 5 +9:18.1 
15 BULGARIA BUL         3 5 +12:41.7 

Youth Men's Relay 3 x 7.5km
1 GERMANY GER           0 0 1:01:10.3 
2 RUSSIA RUS            0 2 +3:25.5 
3 POLAND POL            0 0 +4:00.4 
4 SLOVENIA SLO          2 1 +4:57.1 
5 FINLAND FIN           0 0 +5:29.3 
6 SLOVAKIA SVK          0 3 +5:33.9 
7 ITALY ITA             1 3 +5:37.6 
8 UKRAINE UKR           0 2 +5:59.2 
9 LATVIA LAT            1 1 +6:22.4 
10 CZECH REPUBLIC CZE   0 1 +6:34.7 
11 NORWAY NOR           1 0 +6:48.7 
12 BULGARIA BUL         0 2 +6:51.5 
13 AUSTRIA AUT          0 2 +7:20.2 
14 USA USA              2 2 +9:24.7 
15 ESTONIA EST          2 4 +9:40.0 
16 CANADA CAN           1 4 +10:32.3 
17 CROATIA CRO          9 5 +16:41.2 

Complete result from World Junior Biathlon Championships