# Biathlon World Championships 2011

The 44th Biathlon World Championships was held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from March 3–13, 2011.
There was a total of 11 competitions: sprint, pursuit, individual, mass start, and relay races for men and women, and mixed relay. All the events during this championships also counted for the 2010–11 Biathlon World Cup season.

## Championship highlights

The Championships kicked off with the Mixed relay event which is seeking to make its way onto the Olympic programme for the 2014 games in Sochi. As the first event of the programme, it was finally given importance by the different teams, with all nations fielding their best teams, in difference to earlier world cup events. The Norwegians won it, overtaking Germany on the last leg. The veteran Ole Einar Bjørndalen won his fifteenth world championship gold medal in the process and his first in the mixed relay, giving him a full set of gold medals in the six events that are currently contested.
Tarjei Bø, Martin Fourcade, Kaisa Mäkäräinen and Arnd Peiffer won their first champion titles in career. Martin Fourcade also won a full scope of medals, gold, silver and bronze at these championships.
The surprise medalists included Maxim Maximov of Russia, Tina Bachmann of Germany and Vita Semerenko of Ukraine.
Helena Ekholm literally swept the field in the individual with zero shooting and fast skiing, winning more than 2 minutes over the runner-up Bachmann and making one of the greatest 1–2 place margins in biathlon history.

## Schedule of events

The provisional schedule of the event is below. All times in UTC+5.
| Date | Time | Event |
| 3 March | 16:30 | 2 × 6 km + 2 × 7.5 km mixed relay |
| 5 March | 14:00 | Men's 10 km sprint |
| 5 March | 18:00 | Women's 7.5 km sprint |
| 6 March | 14:00 | Men's 12.5 km pursuit |
| 6 March | 16:30 | Women's 10 km pursuit |
| 8 March | 17:15 | Men's 20 km individual |
| 9 March | 17:15 | Women's 15 km individual |
| 11 March | 18:00 | Men's 4 × 7.5 km relay |
| 12 March | 16:30 | Women's 12.5 km mass start |
| 12 March | 18:30 | Men's 15 km mass start |
| 13 March | 15:00 | Women's 4 × 6 km relay |

## Medal winners
### Men

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 10 km sprint details | Arnd Peiffer Germany | 24:34.0 (0+1) | Martin Fourcade France | 24:47.0 (2+0) | Tarjei Bø Norway | 24:59.2 (1+0) |
| 12.5 km pursuit details | Martin Fourcade France | 33:02.6 (0+1+2+0) | Emil Hegle Svendsen Norway | 33:06.4 (0+0+1+1) | Tarjei Bø Norway | 33:07.8 (0+0+1+1) |
| 20 km individual details | Tarjei Bø Norway | 48:29.9 (0+0+1+0) | Maxim Maksimov Russia | 49:09.9 (0+0+0+0) | Christoph Sumann Austria | 49:15.4 (0+0+0+1) |
| 4 × 7.5 km relay details | NorwayOle Einar Bjørndalen Alexander Os Emil Hegle Svendsen Tarjei Bø | 1:16:13.9 (0+0) (0+0) (0+0) (1+3) (0+1) (0+2) (0+1) (1+3) | UkraineOlexander Bilanenko Andriy Deryzemlya Serhiy Semenov Serhiy Sednev | 1:16:41.9 (0+1) (0+2) (0+1) (0+2) (0+0) (0+1) (0+2) (0+1 | SwedenFredrik Lindström Magnus Jonsson Carl Johan Bergman Björn Ferry | 1:16:45.7 (0+1) (0+2) (0+0) (0+3) (0+2) (0+3) (0+2) (0+2) |
| 15 km mass start details | Emil Hegle Svendsen Norway | 38:42.7 (0+0+0+1) | Lukas Hofer Italy | 38:57.0 (0+0+0+1) | Tarjei Bø Norway | 39:06.0 (0+0+0+2) |

### Women

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 7.5 km sprint details | Magdalena Neuner Germany | 20:31.2 (0+0) | Kaisa Mäkäräinen Finland | 20:43.4 (0+0) | Anastasiya Kuzmina Slovakia | 21:11.2 (0+1) |
| 10 km pursuit details | Kaisa Mäkäräinen Finland | 30:00.1 (0+0+0+0) | Magdalena Neuner Germany | 30:21.7 (0+0+0+2) | Helena Ekholm Sweden | 31:43.7 (0+0+0+0) |
| 15 km individual details | Helena Ekholm Sweden | 47:08.3 (0+0+0+0) | Tina Bachmann Germany | 49:24.1 (0+2+0+0) | Vita Semerenko Ukraine | 50:00.4 (1+0+0+2) |
| 4 × 6 km relay details | GermanyAndrea Henkel Miriam Gössner Tina Bachmann Magdalena Neuner | 1:13:31.1 (0+2) (0+1) (0+2) (2+3) (0+2) (0+2) (0+1) (0+0) | FranceAnaïs Bescond Marie-Laure Brunet Sophie Boilley Marie Dorin | 1:14:18.3 (0+2) (0+1) (0+0) (0+0) (0+3) (0+2) (0+1) (0+0) | BelarusNadezhda Skardino Darya Domracheva Nadzeya Pisarava Liudmila Kalinchik | 1:15:18.5 (0+0) (0+1) (0+1) (0+0) (0+0) (0+0) (0+1) (1+3) |
| 12.5 km mass start details | Magdalena Neuner Germany | 36:48.5 (0+1+2+1) | Darya Domracheva Belarus | 36:53.3 (2+1+0+0) | Tora Berger Norway | 37:02.5 (2+1+0+0) |

### Mixed

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 2 × 6 + 2 × 7.5 km W+M relay details | NorwayTora Berger Ann Kristin Flatland Ole Einar Bjørndalen Tarjei Bø | 1:14:22.5 (0+1) (0+0) (0+1) (0+1) (0+2) (0+1) (0+0) (0+1) | GermanyAndrea Henkel Magdalena Neuner Arnd Peiffer Michael Greis | 1:14:45.4 (0+2) (0+0) (0+0) (0+0) (0+1) (0+2) (0+2) (0+1) | FranceMarie-Laure Brunet Marie Dorin Alexis Bœuf Martin Fourcade | 1:15:38.7 (0+2) (0+2) (0+0) (0+3) (0+0) (0+1) (0+0) (0+0) |

## Medal table
### Top nations

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Germany (GER) | 4 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
| 2 | Norway (NOR) | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| 3 | France (FRA) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 4 | Finland (FIN) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | Sweden (SWE) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 | Russia (RUS) | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 7 | Belarus (BLR) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 8 | Ukraine (UKR) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 | Austria (AUT) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Italy (ITA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Slovakia (SVK) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (11 entries) | Totals (11 entries) | 11 | 11 | 11 | 33 |

### Top athletes

All athletes with two or more medals.
| Rank | Biathlete | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Magdalena Neuner (GER) | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| 2 | Tarjei Bø (NOR) | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| 3 | Emil Hegle Svendsen (NOR) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 4 | Ole Einar Bjørndalen (NOR) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | Martin Fourcade (FRA) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | Andrea Henkel (GER) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 | Arnd Peiffer (GER) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 | Kaisa Mäkäräinen (FIN) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 | Tina Bachmann (GER) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | Helena Ekholm (SWE) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 10 | Tora Berger (NOR) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 | Evgeny Ustyugov (RUS) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 12 | Maxim Maksimov (RUS) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 14 | Darya Domracheva (BLR) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 14 | Marie Dorin (FRA) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 14 | Marie-Laure Brunet (FRA) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |

## Participating countries

40 nations competed.
* Andorra
* Armenia
* Australia
* Austria
* Belarus
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Bulgaria
* Canada
* China
* Croatia
* Czech Republic
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Great Britain
* Greenland
* Hungary
* Italy
* Japan
* Kazakhstan
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Macedonia
* Moldova
* New Zealand
* Norway
* Poland
* Romania
* Russia
* Serbia
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* South Korea
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Turkey
* Ukraine
* United States