U.S.A. Biathlon
ÖSTERSUND, Sweden (December 1, 2012) - Changing winds
made for challenging conditions at today's IBU World Cup 10K Sprint
in Östersund. Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) had an impressive race,
finishing 18th with a time of 26:02, shooting clean in prone, but with
two penalties in standing. Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY)
finished 30th today with a time of 26:02.5 and two penalities in standing.
Jean Philippe Leguellec (CAN) won his first career
World Cup today with a time of 25:10.4 and clean shooting, 18 seconds ahead of
Alexis Boeuf (FRA) 2nd (25:28.5/0+1) and Chrsitoph Sumann (AUT) finishing 3rd
(25:35.2/0+1).
"Today was a solid race for me," said Burke.
"I am feeling better and better with each day, so I am really looking
forward to the Pursuit tomorrow. The times stayed really close today so
everything is possible tomorrow with a good race."
"Things went better for me today," said
Bailey. "I skied a bit faster and was able to just squeak into the Top-30.
I struggled in standing and had to spend about thirty seconds longer than I
normally would. The wind came up and I decided to wait for it to weaken
before I took my first shots. Unfortunately, that was over thirty seconds and I
left the shooting point with two penalties and an additional 30 seconds of
standing around that really didn't help much! On the other hand, there
were a lot of penalties today as the wind was fickle and changing, sometimes
blowing really hard, sometimes calm. That's the nature of the sport though. The
Pursuit will be really tight tomorrow with about ten people starting within
five seconds of me. It's going to be a good race!"
"Tim and Lowell did a great job running and
handling the very difficult conditions on the range," said USBA High
Performance Director Bernd Eisenbichler. "We are very happy with their
performances. Lots of misses at the range today, as winds were changing
all the time. For Leif, the same thing! He is on his way back!"
Leif Nordgren (Marine, MN) finished 54th
(27:15.9/2+0), Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK) was 75th
(28:05.5/0+3), and Russell Currier (Stockholm, ME) finished
80th (28:10.4/2+2). Extended Sprint results are available here.
Burke, Bailey and Nordgren will start in tomorrow's
12.5k Pursuit beginning at 6:30 am (EST). Tomorrow's start list and results
will be posted here.
Dunklee posts top finish (43rd) for Team USA in
Women's 7.5k Sprint
Susan Dunklee (Barton, VT) posted a time of 23:25.5 with four penalties in today's 7.5k Sprint. With strong skiing today, Dunklee qualified for tomorrow's 10k Pursuit, beginning at 8:30am (EST). Tomorrow's start list and results will be posted here.
"I felt more like my normal self in the race tonight; I stood on the start line and thought to myself this is what I am good at and this is what I like to do," said Dunklee. "I was having fun with the challenge of racing. The highlight was sticking with Tora Berger for the entire second loop. The shooting will come at some point too. I am looking forward to tomorrow."
Tora Berger (NOR) had her second World Cup win of the week today with a time of 21:34 (0+1), Olena Pidhrushna (UKR) was 2nd (21:50.9/0+1), and Olga Vilukhina (RUS) was 3rd (21:53.4/0+1).
Sara Studebaker (Boise, ID) finished
81st (24:39/0+3), Annelies Cook (Saranac Lake, NY) was 90th
(25:17.6/2+4), and Lanny Barnes (Durango, CO) placed 98th (26:23.8/2+2).
Extended results from today's 7.5K Sprint are available here.