Wright Holds on to U23 Blue Bib Finishing Ninth in Oberhof Sprint
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by Sara Donatello
Since securing the U23 blue bib on December 13th with a tenth-place finish in the Hochfilzen men’s sprint, Campbell Wright (Wanaka, NZL/Waiorau Nordic Skiing) has not let it slip from his possession. Continuing into the New Year with strong skis and near perfection on the range, Wright raced to his fourth-best career World Cup result, missing just one shot in standing, setting himself up well for tomorrow's pursuit.
“I’m really happy with my ninth place finish,” said Wright after the race. “Good skiing out there in Oberhof. We got good weather for my first time in four years here, which was great. I also did a lot of tuck skate here today. So, if you want to be a good biathlete, work on your tuck skate! It’s really important on a day like today.”
With a 14th overall ski speed, Wright landed just +48.3 behind the victor Quentin Fillon-Maillet of France, who shot clean. Fillon-Maillet led the French podium sweep as he was joined by Fabien Claude in second and Emilien Jacquelin in third.
A string of top-20 results, including today’s ninth place finish, has continually bested Wright’s closest U23 competitor, Vitalii Mandzyn of Ukraine. Wright now sits 13th in the World Cup overall rankings with 241 points, 56 points ahead of Mandzyn in 19th overall.
In addition to Wright’s top-10 performance, teammate Maxime Germain (Chamonix-Mont Blanc, FRA/National Guard Biathlon), with a top-20 overall range time, skied to 47th despite two laps around the 150m penalty loop. Vincent Bonacci (Salt Lake City, UT/Team Crosscut) finished 54th, with just two misses in standing. Vaclav Cervenka (Grand Rapids, MN/Army World Class Athlete Program) had a solid first part of his race, cleaning all five prone targets, but ran into trouble in standing, missing three, to cross the line in 89th.
Wright, Germain, and Bonacci will be back on the start line tomorrow at 8:45 EST/14:45 CET for the men’s 12.5km pursuit. Racing will be live streamed on Eurovision Sports and live updates can be found on the IBU App. Spectator resources are available at usbiathlon.org/spectator-resources.
