Roar. Susan Dunklee captures an IBU World Championship silver in the 7.5 k sprint in Antholz, Italy. (Photo: NordicFocus)
On Friday in Antholz, Italy Susan Dunklee of the US Biathlon team captured second place in the 7.5-kilometer sprint at the 2020 IBU World Championships. The event was won by Norway’s Marta Olsbu Roeiseland in 21:13.1 while shooting 0+1 on the range. Dunklee shot clean and was 6.8 seconds back. The Czech Republic’s Lucie Charvatova was third (+21.3; 1+0).
At thirty-four-years-old, this was Dunklee’s best result of the season. Prior to her second place on Friday, Dunklee’s top 2019-2020 result was a 10th place in Ruhpolding, Germany’s 10 k pursuit. As we learned in a February 3, story in FasterSkier, Dunklee has the temperament to be patient when her performances do not align with what she believes is her best. In her 11 years on the national team she has been both resilient and able to pounce for hardware in high-pressure situations.
Dunklee during the ski portion of her silver medal performance at the 2020 IBU World Championships. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Dunklee’s ski speed Friday kept her in top-10 contention early on — she was the 34th starter. She had the fourth fastest split after her first 2.5 k loop and shooting bout. After her second lap and five shots on the range, she was leading the interval start event. Dunklee was able to knock down targets, harness her patience, and not bleed too much time shooting. She spent 54.2 seconds and 49.8 seconds for her “range time”, respectively, during her two bouts. Those times were 9.1 seconds slower than the fastest shooter in prone and 8.0 seconds slower than the top range time in standing.
However, patience kept her in it. On a day when winds played games with shooting accuracy, taking slightly more time on the range, getting settled prior to pulling the trigger paid dividends for Dunklee. Of the top-nine athletes overall, Dunklee was the only competitor to shoot clean.
“Before the start, I was standing in the start pen watching a lot of the top athletes and noticed a lot of misses. So I knew there was potential for a good result if I could hold it together on the shooting range. So that was my focus, just follow my shooting plan,” Dunkee said in a post-race press conference.
Roeiseland captured gold from Dunklee’s grasp on the final ski loop as she outpaced the American by 19.7 seconds on the lap to move ahead into first.
“Have you ever pushed so hard on the last loop? You looked like you might collapse in the last meters,” Dunklee was asked by a reporter during the press conference.
”Yeah I thought I might too,” replied Dunklee. “I was struggling to keep my balance. I was getting splits that whole last loop and I knew I had a bit of a cushion of time going into it. I think I really lost a lot over the field in that last kilometer, but I gave it everything I had and that’s all I can do. It was a good battle.”
IBU 7.5 k sprint podium at the 2020 IBU World Championships. Susan Dunklee (USA) second, Marte Olsbu Roeiseland (NOR) first, and Lucie Charvatova (CZE), (l-r). (Photo: NordicFocus)
Sunny skies at the 2019 IBU World Cup women’s 7.5 k sprint in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: biathlonworld.com screenshot)
The IBU World Cup resides in Oslo this week. The women began the racing with the 7.5-kilometer sprint on Thursday.
The podium rundown goes like this: Slovakia’s Kuzmina Anastasiya shot 1+0 to win in 19:56.2, Germany’s Franziska Preuss placed second (+21.2, 0+0), with Paulina Fialkova of Slovakia in third (+25.1, 0+0).
This was Kuzmina’s fifth win at Holmenkollen and secured her the IBU sprint overall title.
Canada’s Emma Lunder was the top North American in ninth place. Lunder clean both shooting bouts and was 49.0 seconds behind the winning time. This was a career best individual result for Lunder on the IBU World Cup.
Germany’s Denise Herrmann after winning the first IBU World Cup race of her career on Friday in the women’s 7.5 k sprint in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: IBU/biathlonworld)
Just over a year and half ago, Germany’s Denise Herrmann took a giant leap and diverged from her career as a World Cup cross-country skier to take up biathlon. She did so at the age of 27, after having been the second-ranked sprinter in the world at the end of 2013/2014 and earning a bronze medal in the women’s relay at the 2014 Olympics. She narrowly missed another Olympic medal, placing fourth in the classic team sprint with Stefanie Böhler. A year later, Herrmann was fourth again in the 2015 World Championships freestyle team sprint with a different teammate, Nicole Fessel.
After all that, she wanted something different, something new.
“I owe a lot to cross-country skiing, it was a great time with many highlights, but now I want to face new goals,” Herrmann stated at the time. “The switch to a new discipline will be a big challenge, I am aware of that, but I am confident that I can do it with diligence, courage, and determination!”
After bouncing between the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Cup and IBU World Cup last season, Herrmann started this season on the big stage at the first World Cup in Östersund, Sweden. And in her 12th World Cup start as a biathlete, she achieved her first individual win.
“It all begins with dreaming about it,” she told German broadcaster ZDF, according to a translation, when asked if she expected to win at this stage of her career. “But I knew I am currently in a good ski shape and when it works out in the shooting I could probably hang with the top. But to then execute that in competition, in the World Cup and on the big stage here, I was hoping for that, but that I was able to make that a reality makes me all the more happy.”
The women’s 7.5 k sprint podium on Friday in Östersund, Sweden, with Germany’s Denise Herrmann in first, France’s Justine Braisaz in second, and Ukraine’s Yuliia Dzhima in third. (Photo: IBU/biathlonworld)
Herrmann, 28, won the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint on Friday in 19:54.8 minutes after shooting 9-for-10 (0+1). She finished 15.2 seconds ahead of France’s Justine Braisaz in second and was 19.6 seconds clear of Ukraine’s Yuliia Dzhima in third.
Both Braisaz and Dzhima were among 22 women (out of 103 finishers) that cleaned the two-stage race on a cold, essentially windless evening. Norway’s Synnøve Solemdal, who finished fourth (+24.3) to claim the World Cup Total Score leader’s bib, also cleaned, as did Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi in fifth (+24.5).
Coming off a win in the IBU Cup sprint last week in Sjusjøen, Norway, Herrmann started 24th and was up to second place by the time she cleared all five targets in the first prone shooting stage. Her lone standing miss, which was just above the target, set her back to fifth place as she embarked on her final loop, but with the fastest last loop and fastest overall course time, Herrmann took the win from Braizaz, an early starter in bib 10. Dzhima started 11th.
“My goal was to start out with a clean prone stage, and then skiing into the standing stage I thought, ‘Oh, with bib 24 you could also go on lane position 24 on the range today. That might be a good omen,’ ” Herrmann reflected. “Of course you still try to leave no target black, but one was still left standing for me. That can be improved in the days to come.”
Earlier in the week, Herrmann started her season by placing 23rd in the women’s 15 k individual. Asked during an official training session what her chances were of making Germany’s Olympic team, she said she needed to focus on qualifying for the World Cup team first.
“One of my former coaches said, ‘Positions four and five are a cause for debate, but not one or two,’ ” she told ZDF on Friday. “So I said to myself, ‘Let’s lock this thing up today.’ That it already would work out like this today, I wasn’t expecting that. It’s incredible. I’m totally happy.”
Julia Ransom (Biathlon Canada) racing to a career-best ninth in the women’s 15 k individual on Wednesday at the IBU World Cup opener in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: Biathlon Canada/NordicFocus)
Of the 22 women that cleaned Friday’s race, Julia Ransom of Biathlon Canada was one of them. Ransom started the week with a career-best ninth place in the 15 k, after shooting 20-for-20, and finished 29th in the sprint, 1.16.9 minutes behind Herrmann. In two races, Ransom is 30-for-30 on the range without a miss.
“Wednesday’s result was of course motivating, but also hasn’t changed any way I approach racing,” Ransom explained in an email on Friday. “At the end of the day, I race because I love it and it’s fun to compete. That being said, it’s even more fun to find yourself a little higher on the results page. Today I was just hoping to keep relaxed and focused and enjoy the day, whatever result that translated to.”
Ransom’s overall shooting time ranked 36th, up from 53rd in Wednesday’s 15 k.
“My shooting times were perhaps a little more ‘normal’ today because there was less consequence for a miss,” she explained. “Getting into the groove of racing also helps relax into my normal pace.
“Overall I am really happy with my race. It was an incredibly fast field out there today and I am proud of how everything went,” she added. “I can’t wait to start the pursuit. Opportunity awaits!!”
Three Canadian women finished in the sprint’s top 60 to qualify for Sunday’s 10 k pursuit, with Rosanna Crawford placing 46th (+1:41.6) with a single prone penalty (1+0) and Megan Bankes in 60th (+2:10.9) with one standing miss (0+1).
For Bankes, 20, 60th marks her career best in her third World Cup start, and Sunday’s race will be her first World Cup pursuit. Last season, she won the 12.5 k individual race at IBU Junior World Championships. At Biathlon Canada’s team trials early last month, Bankes was one of two additional women selected to Canada’s World Cup team for the first trimester of racing.
“I was super stoked to have solid results at trials and make the world cup team, and then prepare for racing in Europe,” the 20-year-old Bankes wrote in an email. “We’ve been in Oestersund for a week now, and I feel like I’m on European time now. Now I’m working on getting back into the swing of full time racing, which for me has been the main goal of this week.
“It’s definitely hard to know what to expect coming into the first races of the season, but I’ve been really happy with my skiing and my shooting consistency, so I was just excited to come here and give it my best,” she continued. “I’m pleased with my race today, hitting 9/10 and I felt that I skied much better than the Individual. I just decided I would start hard and hold on, which worked pretty well. On the World Cup everyone is so fast, so perfect shooting is pretty much necessary, and skiing crazy fast yourself! I’m really excited for the pursuit, planning on just skiing fast, hitting targets, and enjoying the experience. If I make up some positions that would be fantastic!”
While Herrmann will start Sunday’s pursuit first with a 15-second head start on Braisaz in second, Ransom will head out 1:17 minutes back in 29th, Crawford 1:42 back in 46th, and Bankes 2:11 back in 60th.
Canada’s fourth woman in the sprint, Emma Lunder finished 93rd (+3:07.5) with three penalties (1+2). US Biathlon started three on Friday, with Clare Egan placing 75th (+2:32.2) with three misses (1+2), Susan Dunklee 79th with five penalties (2+3), and Emily Dreissigacker 89th (+3:01.2) with two misses (0+2).
Earlier this week, US Biathlon announced in a press release that its fourth woman, Kelsey Dickinson, would be returning to the U.S. to compete at the IBU Cup Team Trials at Mt. Itasca in Minnesota from Dec.15-19. Because she did not meet the IBU’s World Cup Qualification Point requirement at the first IBU Cup in Sjusjøen, she will need to qualify for US Biathlon’s IBU Cup team.
The men’s 10 k sprint starts Saturday at 8:45 a.m. EST.
The women’s IBU World Cup sprint podium on Saturday in Östersund, Sweden. (From left to right) Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen in second, France’s Marie Dorin Habert in first, and Czech Republic’s Gabriela Koukalova (formerly Soukalova) in third. (Photo: IBU)
When eliminating all external variables, often the most consistent athletes come out on top in biathlon.
After a wind lottery strongly influenced the individual race of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup opening week in Östersund, Sweden on Wednesday, by Saturday the race course presented itself in near-perfect weather conditions with no wind, temperatures just below freezing point, freshly fallen snow from the prior night covering up most of the icy patches, and only a little fog moving in from the lake below.
And thus three athletes who already dominated last season’s IBU World Cup standings also claimed the positions on the podium in the women’s 7.5-kilomter sprint on Saturday.
With two clean shooting performances, France’s Marie Dorin Habert celebrated her next World Cup win in a time of 20:09.7 minutes. She only struggled a bit on her final shot trying to find the target for several seconds, with the TV broadcast showing her coach visibly relieved when she finally hit the shot.
“I am very happy about today’s race,” Habert said during the post-race press conference. “I was just thinking ‘speed, speed, speed, full speed’!”
France’s Marie Dorin Habert en route to winning the women’s IBU World Cup sprint on Saturday in Östersund, Sweden, the first sprint of the season. (Photo: IBU)
“Shooting was perfect, too,” she added. “I had to fight a lot of things in the standing shoot[ing]. It was a hard shoot for me, a lot of tension. I am very happy to stay focused and just on the target.”
Starting later than Habert, Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen came closest to preventing the victory despite a miss in the standing stage (0+1) by skiing the second-fastest course time (+11.4). If her shape holds up, the Finn also plans to compete in cross-country skiing at her “home” World Championships in Lahti later this season, as she already did in Val di Fiemme in 2013 and at several national championships.
“Today the weather changed, so it was not so difficult anymore,” Mäkäräinen commented on her improved shooting performance during the press conference. “I changed my rifle stock in the spring, and have had some difficulties to get used to it in the wind. But I like it a lot in prone shooting and today I felt very comfortable, and that gave me a good start to the race. In standing I had one mistake, but I have to be happy with it.”
“I did not expect to be in the top three with one penalty,” she added. “I thought the race is quite tight. A lot of girls now ski fast. So I thought in these conditions I should shoot clean. I was happy when the coaches were telling me [out on the course] that I was still fighting for the top three.”
Behind her, the defending overall World Cup champion Gabriela Koukalová, of the Czech Republic (formerly Soukalová, before her marriage to Czech badminton Olympian Petr Koukal this summer) made up for her seven misses in the individual race earlier this week by shooting clean this time to claim the third place (+19.9). She had left the range for the final lap just 4.9 seconds behind Habert, but was unable to keep up on the course.
“It is always very nice to be in top five,” Koukalová said during the press conference.
“I didn’t have any expectations before. A lot of people were asking me about my ambitions for this season. But I don’t want to be under pressure, so I didn’t expect [anything]…I am very happy about today’s result, it’s many times better than the last race.”
Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier, who had started the race wearing the “yellow bib” of the World Cup leader for the first time in her career (and as the first German athlete since Magdalena Neuner), finished fourth, just six seconds off the podium (+25.7). She was in a great position to pass even Habert coming into the final stage in first place, but missed the very last shot of her competition forcing her to ski through the penalty lap.
“I don’t have to hide today with the third-best course time,” Dahlmeier told German TV broadcaster ARD after the race. “Today there were outstanding conditions on the shooting range. I knew that you would likely need the zero [misses] for the podium … For that last shot I also stood firm, but I maybe was back out on the course again with my head already. That was the problem. I would have had to keep my concentration high. That happens.”
Thus the same women who had placed at the top in last season’s IBU World Cup standings also started out strong for this year’s season. Only Italy’s Dorothea Wierer who was third in the overall was missing from the usual suspects, finishing 19th after two misses in the standing stage (0+2, +1:16.0)
Four North Americans Qualify for Pursuit
Susan Dunklee achieved the best result for a North American biathlete in the women’s sprint on Saturday, finishing in 27th, 1:29.9 back from Habert, with two penalty laps (1+1). Dunklee also posted the 26th best course time.
“My experience on the shooting range felt more routine today and there was nothing notable about my misses,” Dunklee wrote in an email. “I am very happy with my shooting speed. Right now my ski speed isn’t quite there yet – I’m in ‘training shape’ rather than ‘race shape’ but that is typical for me in the early season and it will change with more race starts.”
“Absolutely no wind today. Colder. Light fog came in partway through the race but not thick enough to obscure targets,” Dunklee explained. “Fresh snow that slowed the tracks down. Still some icy patches to watch out for underneath, but a huge improvement compared to the day of the individual.”
Julia Ransom led the Canadians in 38th place (+1:54.1) thanks to a clean shooting performance (0+0), one of 13 athletes to achieve that on Saturday. But her overall course time, which ranked 70th, kept her from the top 30.
US Biathlon’s Clare Egan placed 44th (+2:04.1) after incurring two penalties in her standing shooting that let her fall behind a top 30 position which she had achieved in her prone shooting (0+2).
Her teammate Joanne Reid also missed two shots in standing after a clean prone stage and placed 53rd (0+2, +2:21.2). On Wednesday, she scored her first World Cup points in the individual race to start out her second season (and first full one) on the World Cup team.
Biathlon Canada’s Rosanna Crawford finished 64th with one miss in each shooting stage (1+1, +2:40.3). Her teammate Megan Tandy was 78th (0+2, +3:09.1) and Sarah Beaudry placed 97th (2+0, +3:54.2) among 103 starters.
The times back to the winner from Saturday’s sprint will carry over into the pursuit race on Sunday.
“I think it will be a very good fight with all the girls tomorrow,” Habert predicted during the press conference. “I will try to be focused on my race. But I like the pursuit and mass start because you are not alone.”
For the Americans, Dunklee also looks forward to that race: “All three of our women qualified for tomorrow’s pursuit and we are thrilled!”
Martin Fourcade of France prepares to take the podium after his win in the 10 k sprint in Sjusjøen, Norway.
SJUSJØEN, Norway — Twenty-year-old Justine Braisaz, of France, won the biathlon season opener on Saturday in Sjusjøen, 23.1 seconds in front of Norwegian Tiril Eckhoff and 36.6 second ahead of Ukrainian Juliya Dzhima. The young French woman shot down 10 out 10 targets and skated equally fast throughout the 7.5-kilometer sprint. Eckhoff missed once during prone and once standing while Dzhima missed her second shot standing.
The fourth place finisher, France’s Celia Aymonier, finished 56.3 seconds off of Braisaz’s winning time, while Norwegian Fanny Horn Birkeland was another 1.5 seconds back in fifth (+57.8).
From the start, the podium appeared to be a competition among Braisaz, Eckhoff and Dzhima.
In her finish-line interview, Braisaz said, “I am happy about the result, and even though I hit every target today, the shooting is something I have to work on because it is not my strong suit. But it was a good day.”
Before the race, Erlend Slokvik, president of the Norwegian Biathlon Association told FasterSkier that he thought Eckhoff was the likeliest candidate for the top of the podium, and throughout the race the crowd seemed to agree with him. The 26-year-old Eckhoff received loud cheers for her 8-of-10 shooting.
After the race, the finish-line interviewer asked Braisaz if she thought she’d be dangerous this season.
Tiril Eckhoff of Norway on her way through the stadium on her way to second place in the 7.5 k sprint in Sjusjøen, Norway.
“Yes I think so, I hope so,” she replied.
When asked by NRK during the post-race press conference what she thought about her victory Braisaz said, “I didn’t expect it, and I really don’t know how it happened.
“I have worked hard over the summer with my technique and shooting and it’s reassuring to be in good shape today.” she continued. “I had to focus on what I could do because Eckhoff and Dzhima were very strong.”
Asked what her goals are for the season, Braisaz said she has no specific goals, but she hopes to be “in shape for the World Championship.”
Also at the press conference, Eckhoff was asked how she felt about her race.
“I’m glad to have started the season, and I feel like I’m in good shape and that I am strong, but I may have started a little too quickly,” she said.
As for her shooting: “I’m happy about thestanding, but I used a little too much time during the prone so the focus from now on will be to systemize the shooting so I can do it faster and better,” she said.
Third-place finisher Dzhima said after the race that she was happy about being in good shape, but she wasn’t happy with 90-percent shooting.
“I’m not happy about missing one target, I wanted to hit all ten, but luckily it’s early in the season,” the 26-year-old told FasterSkier through a translator.
Fourcade Leads Five Frenchman in Top 6
In the men’s 10 k sprint, Martin Fourcade took charge from the start. The five-time World Cup overall champion hit all his targets and skated the track equally well. No other biathlete could match Fourcade’s performance and the closest was Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Bø, who finished 12.9 seconds behind him with perfect shooting.
Norwegians Thomas Fenne (bib 94) and Emil Hegle Svendsen (bib 96) on the shooting range in the 10 k sprint in Sjusjøen.
“I am happy about the result, but I am not in that good shape so today was a very good day,” Fourcade told L’equipe after the race.
And indeed it was for the French team. Five out of the top six men’s finishers were French. Fabien Claude placed third (+31.7), Quentin Fillon Maillet was fourth (+59.3), Jean-Guillaume Béatrix was fifth (+1:05.7) and Simon Desthieux was sixth (+1:07). The only miss among these five came from Desthieux, who missed once in his standing shooting.
Norwegian TV2 called the French team’s performance a “frightening shot for the Norwegian biathletes”.
In the post-race press conference, Fourcade said he was “satisfied with the result. It was not my best performance, but for November this is good.”
Asked about the performance of his team, he said, “It means a lot. It pushes me in training and I have to work really hard to stay ahead of my team, so it’s good.”
Fourcade pointed to World Championships as his goal for the season, but he’s also focused on the World Cup. “I want to be as good as possible all season,” he said.
Up until the second shooting, it looked like Johannes Bø could potentially threaten Fourcade’s place on the podium, but the final lap of skiing became too tough for Bø.
“I’m happy about the race, it was a good performance,” he told FasterSkier. “I skied well, but I feel like I can do better than I did today, but I started feeling it in the second lap and third was painful and I was happy to finish.”
Asked how he felt about his 10-for-10 shooting, he said, “I’m very happy and I feel confident about it. We’ve focused more on shooting in training this season and it seems to have paid off.”
Third-place finisher Claude, who, at 21, has never raced a World Cup but has made it to four Youth/Junior World Championships, said that he was happy about his performance.
“I am really happy and satisfied with my race, my preparations have been great and the conditions today were great so I’m really happy,” he told FasterSkier. “And zero misses is not common for me so that is something I will take with me into the season.”
His main goal for the season? To reach the World Cup, he said.
Eight-time Olympic gold medalist Ole Einar Bjørndalen finished ninth, 1:33.9 minutes behind Fourcade. After the race, the 42-year-old Norwegian told FasterSkier, “This was no super race but I shot well and I skied as fast as I had planned. The fact that I am that far behind Fourcade is not something I worry about this early in the season.”
Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen racing to a 3.1-second win in the final women’s sprint of the IBU World Cup season on Thursday in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It was her third win of the season. (Photo: IBU/Evgeniy Tumashov)
Something in the air in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, just works for Kaisa Mäkäräinen. Could be the Siberian temperatures, which reached a high of about 19 degrees Fahrenheit during race time on Thursday. Could be the time of year. Either way, the Finnish biathlete won the final IBU World Cup sprint of the season, beating overall World Cup leader Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic by 3.1 seconds in 20:42.3. Mäkäräinen won the same race — the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint in Khanty last year — and this year it marked her third World Cup victory of the season.
Mäkäräinen started 17th and after a clean prone and one miss standing, she left the range in second place, trailing Norway’s Marte Olsbu (in bib 14) by six seconds. Mäkäräinen bested the 25-year-old Norwegian by 4.8 seconds with the fastest last loop. In fact, out of 80 women in the race, Mäkäräinen was the fastest on every loop. That put her first at the finish despite a penalty, leaving Soukalova, the 38th starter who shot clean in both stages, and others to chase her down.
Overall IBU World Cup leader Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic racing to second in the women’s sprint on Thursday in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. (Photo: IBU/Evgeniy Tumashov)
Ultimately, Soukalova came up 3.1 seconds short. She left the range for the last time with a 9.8-second lead on Mäkäräinen, but tangled skis with Russia’s Svetlana Sleptsova, who was headed for the penalty loop.
“I think there was no chance to hear me because of the spectators,” Soukalova told German broadcaster ZDF afterward. “It happens sometimes, what can I do?”
Soukalova’s final loop time ranked second fastest to Mäkäräinen by 13 seconds, and she settled for second place, 1.7 seconds ahead of Olsbu. Regardless, she said that near-crash fueled her on her last loop.
“I was very sad for it, but maybe that’s the reason why I tried to go a little bit faster than usual,” Soukalova said. “So I think it’s one of the best races of my life. I am so happy for it.”
Sleptsova ended up 67th with two penalties, one in prone and another in standing.
Meanwhile, Olsbu achieved her first-ever World Cup podium in third with perfect 10-for-10 shooting.
Norway’s Marte Olsbu celebrates placing third for her first career IBU World Cup podium in the women’s sprint on Thursday in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. (Photo: IBU/Evgeniy Tumashov)
“It feels very good. I am very motivated after my relay leg in Oslo,” Olsbu said at a post-race press conference, referring to World Championships when she anchored Norway to gold in the women’s relay on March 11. “My shooting in the World Championships was not good, so I was happy about my clean shooting today.”
For Mäkäräinen, it marked her second-consecutive sprint win in Khanty and 18th career World Cup victory.
“I am a little surprised that it is possible to win the race with one penalty,” she said. “I like the competitions here in Khanty. It was great to win a medal on the last day in Oslo, I was also quite tired, but I slept until 12 o’clock. I think it was my key to victory today.”
At the last race of World Championships, the 12.5 k mass start on Sunday, March 13, Mäkäräinen placed third behind France’s Marie Dorin Habert and Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier, respectively.
Four days later, they were back at it again in the final World Cup of the season — four time zones east.
“The chilly temperatures, the 4 hour time change and the evening race schedule have all been a shock to the system,” American Susan Dunklee wrote in an email after placing 25th in Thursday’s sprint in Khanty. She finished 1:19.8 back from Mäkäräinen with two prone penalties.
“In Oslo I was in the best shape of my life and I was looking forward to these last few World Cup races as chances to chase after more top tens, maybe even a podium,” Dunklee added. “Today certainly wasn’t what I had hoped for. To be competitive in this tight field you need near perfect shooting but today I botched my prone stage and shot very slowly.”
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing to 25th in the women’s 7.5 k sprint on Thursday in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
While her overall course time ranked 10th fastest, her range time was 70th.
“I also struggled on skis the last two laps and couldn’t capitalize on a great ride behind Kaisa,” Dunklee explained. “Even with a rough start, it’s always worth fighting for every second until the finish, especially with pursuit start positions on the line. I know there are a lot of tired ladies here, both physically and mentally, so I see opportunity ahead in these last two races.”
Going into the final individual race of the season, Saturday’s pursuit, Dunklee is 13th overall in the World Cup standings — the best ranking of any U.S. female biathlete in history.
She qualified well within the pursuit’s top 60, and will be joined by Canada’s Julia Ransom, who placed 54th (+2:07) on Thursday with one standing penalty.
American Clare Egan tied Sweden’s Linn Persson for 63rd (+2:38.9) with three standing misses. Canada’s Rosanna Crawford missed two on each bout for a total of four penalties and finished 70th.
“After getting off to a promising start with perfect prone shooting and fast skiing, I tied my worst shooting performance of the year with three standing penalties and missed qualifying for the pursuit by three places,” Egan said in a US Biathlon press release. “This loss really hurts. I can only wish my teammates success now.”
The men’s 10 k sprint starts Friday at 9:15 a.m. Eastern time, and can be watched live on Eurovision with English commentary by Chad Salmela.
American Susan Dunklee (l) after achieving her best IBU World Cup finish in second place on Thursday and tying the best World Cup result by a U.S. biathlete. She finished second to Czech Gabriela Soukalova (c), and Poland’s Krystyna Guzik placed third (r) in the women’s 7.5 k sprint in Presque Isle, Maine. It was the first IBU World Cup held in the U.S. since 2011. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Gazing out at the crowd, standing on the second step of the podium on Thursday, Susan Dunklee recognized dozens of faces: family, friends, people from her home base in Craftsbury, Vt., US Biathlon board members, colleagues from the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center, not to mention her team and support staff.
It had all the makings of a local-race feel, except for the implications of a World Cup podium — and the flashing lights, silver medal and media attention that came with it.
Two days before her 30th birthday, Dunklee had the best race of her career. The 13th starter, she raced to second in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint on the first day of the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine, finishing 17.8 seconds behind Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic, the winner in 20:02.2 and overall World Cup leader.
Nearly 400 miles and a seven-hour drive from her hometown of Barton, Vt., Presque Isle is less than a half an hour away from Canada. Yet in her first U.S. World Cup, and the first World Cup in the states since it was last held in Presque Isle in 2011, Dunklee felt somewhat at home.
“To be able to have a best result on home soil and we only have a North American World Cup every five years, I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Dunklee said on the phone after the race. “It’s just phenomenal.”
In order to achieve her best World Cup result by one place (she finished third in a sprint two seasons ago in Oslo, Norway), Dunklee rekindled her joy in both the sport and Presque Isle’s course specifically, putting herself in a happy place she had been struggling to find in the last week.
“Last week was a little tough for me,” Dunklee said of the last World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. “I felt like I was going through the motions but not really feeling hungry for it.”
That changed on the final day of racing there, when she skied the first leg of the U.S. mixed relay, which went on to place fourth for the team’s best-ever finish in the event. Being within two seconds of a podium recharged her and reminded her to stay the course.
“Coming here I was like, ‘OK, there’s going to be random things that happen that are going to throw me off, but I’m just going to take the positive things that I can and use those to my advantage,’” Dunklee said.
On the team’s first training day in Maine on Tuesday, she skied the Presque Isle World Cup course for the first time. Dunklee had previously raced a NorAm there in 2009, but missed out on the 2011 Presque Isle World Cup as the team’s fifth woman at the time, when it only took four.
That was frustrating, she said, but she moved on from it — taking advantage of an opportunity instead in Ruhpolding, Germany, where she raced and previewed the course a year out from 2012 Ruhpolding World Championships. There, a year later at her first World Championships, she broke through in fifth in the 15 k individual.
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing to a career-best second on Thursday in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Memories aside, Dunklee was excited about what she saw in Presque Isle earlier this week.
“I skied the course and I’m like, wow … this is a John Morton course. This is what I grew up skiing on and this is what I’m good at,” she recalled. “This is what I’m going to thrive on. I love the ups and downs, the steep climbs, the roller-coaster flow, and that’s what really set the tone right away.”
On Thursday, it was cold in northern Maine, but busloads of schoolchildren came out for the first of four days of World Cup racing. Dunklee wasn’t in her home state, but with everyone speaking English and cheering “USA!” out on the course, it was the closest she had felt to being there.
“The community is extremely welcoming and they go out of their way to accommodate us and make us feel like home,” Dunklee explained.
She started behind Soukalova, an early leader with perfect shooting in both her prone and standing stages. No sooner had Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen in bib 6 finished and taken the lead from Czech Veronika Vitkova (the second starter) by 20 seconds, Soukalova in bib 8 charged across the finish line moments later, 24.5 seconds faster than Mäkäräinen to take hold of first place.
The day was young, but most of the top-ranked skiers were on course at the beginning of the 88-woman field. Dunklee followed Soukalova out, cleaning prone as well to take the lead by 0.8 seconds after the first shooting.
Her shooting didn’t feel automatic, Dunklee recalled. That wasn’t necessarily a good thing, but it wasn’t bad, either.
“I was very aware of each shot I was taking; it wasn’t flowing automatically like it usually does, and usually you want that automatic flow in a race,” she explained. “Instead I had all these thoughts going through my head, but what was great about today is I was able to take those thoughts and just say, ‘It’s OK that I’m distracted. I’m going to put that thought aside and go back to what I’m focused on right now in the present moment.’ ”
She had similar feelings earlier this year in Ruhpolding, where she placed sixth in the mass start. Recognizing this, she resolved to keep calm.
On the second shooting stage — standing — Dunklee cleaned again and left the range with 9.3 seconds to make up on Soukalova.
A US Biathlon staff member (l) cheers on Susan Dunklee (r) as she races to a career-best second place in the 7.5 k sprint on Thursday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
What came to mind then? “You still need to fight like hell,” she recalled. “When you’re having that sort of race, you don’t want to lose a second anywhere … I’ve just got to fight for the next seven minutes or whatever it takes.”
With 1 k remaining, she was 17.6 seconds off Soukalova’s time. Half a kilometer later, Soukalova still held her ground, 17.4 seconds ahead. By the finish, Dunklee was 17.8 seconds back in second, and she wasn’t even sure she was second — but she smiled at the cameras anyway.
“I knew I probably had one of my best races in my life and I’d done it at home and my parents were there,” she said. “I just felt really good about my performance. I was really happy.”
US Biathlon Women’s Coach Jonne Kähkönen knew she was on track for a career best.
“I knew that if she would clean the race today, she would be fighting for the podium, even if there were a few fast athletes starting behind her,” he said on the phone. “Not nervous, but just wanted to wait and see what the later starters would do.”
France’s Marie Dorin Habert presented the most immediate threat. After starting 24th and cleaning prone, Dorin Habert left the range in first, 4 seconds ahead of Dunklee. However, during her second stage, she missed one standing shot. The penalty loop put her in fourth, 25.5 seconds behind Soukalova and 16.2 seconds behind Dunklee, with one loop to go.
Meanwhile, Poland’s Krystyna Guzik had started 20th and cleaned both stages to leave the range for the last time in third, trailing Dunklee by 4.4 seconds. She couldn’t catch the American on the final loop and finished 1.3 seconds behind her in third.
“Shooting is so hard; it is not sure that every day I will shoot well,” she said in a post-race press conference. “I thought that this was a new day and do my best to shoot well and run fast. I just could not catch Susan; she was too fast on the last loop. For me, the last loop today was really hard.”
Ultimately, the three podium finishers were the only ones in the top eight to shoot clean. Soukalova had the fifth-fastest overall course time, Dunklee’s course time ranked 12th and Guzik’s 15th.
Overall World Cup leader Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic racing to a 17.8-second win (over American Susan Dunklee) in the women’s sprint on Thursday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Phot: Fischer/NordicFocus)
“I have to say everything was perfect,” Soukalova said in the press conference. “I started to feel a little tired after the long trip from Canada, but I started to feel good after the start. … We had good service, good skis today so I am very satisfied with this result.”
Dorin Habert crossed the line in fourth, 20.5 seconds behind Soukalova and 1.4 behind Guzik, bumping Mäkäräinen, with a single standing miss, into fifth.
The top five would stand, and Dunklee would tie the best result by a U.S. biathlete (male or female) joining the ranks of Joan Smith (1994) and Anna Sonnerup (1991).
Current men’s team member, Tim Burke placed second in two World Cup races in 2009/2010 and earned silver at 2013 World Championships. Before him, Josh Thompson also took silver at 1987 World Championships.
“What a great day for @USBiathlon with 6 athletes in the top 30 and @SusanDunklee on the podium! #homecourseadvantage!”Burke tweeted on Thursday, after he, Sean Doherty and Lowell Bailey placed in the top 20 in the men’s sprint. Dunklee, Hannah Dreissigacker and Clare Egan finished in the top 32 of the women’s race.
“Today Susan cemented her place as a world class biathlete,” US Biathlon President and CEO Max Cobb wrote in an email. “It was a historic performance, matching the best World Cup finish by an American.”
“You spend years and years working on this, trying to perfect things,” Dunklee explained. “And at first progress is pretty good, you make big gains pretty fast, and then to get that last one percent or so of performance, it just takes so much more work.”
You need that 1 percent, she added.
“There’s times where you work your way at something for months and you just don’t make progress on it or you even go backwards because you’re trying so hard, she continued. “I don’t know, somehow things came together and I’m just amazed. It’s exciting.”
‘A Culmination of a Whole Lot of Effort’
What is it about progress, or maybe more specifically about biathlon, in which someone like Dunklee can turn a last-place finish in Canmore’s mass start, complete with a “dirty” stage (five missed targets), around less than a week later with a silver-medal performance?
“We’ve talked about this actually a couple of times over the season,” Kähkönen said of Dunklee’s ability to overcome adversity and less-than-desirable results. “It’s been a little up and down. We’ve been trying to track down in the training log if we can find some reasoning behind it and be able to narrow it down better in the future as well. But now it looks like everything is on track in terms of the physical training.”
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing to a career-best and historic second place in the women’s sprint at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
In the last World Cup before World Championships in Oslo in early March, Dunklee said the timing of this result was “perfect.”
“I think Susan, ever since last week, she was able to put distractions on the side and focus on what matters,” Kähkönen said.
“In order to have my best performances in biathlon or anything in life, to be a person that takes joy out of life … I really have to find what I love about it,” Dunklee explained. “… I think that hunger is honestly my most valuable asset as an athlete.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the races in Presque Isle, Dunklee had fewer than 24 hours to absorb what she’d done on Thursday and prepare for Friday’s pursuit. At 1:10 p.m. Eastern time, Soukalova will start the 10 k pursuit first. Dunklee will head out 18 seconds later in second, and Guzik 1 second after Dunklee in third. Dorin Habert will follow, 3 seconds after Dunklee.
“I’ve got the best setup I’ve ever had before going into a pursuit,” Dunklee explained. “Starting pretty close behind the leader, and that’s another wonderful opportunity to have a great result. I’m going to enjoy tonight and celebrate a bit, but at the same time I’m going to try to wind down a bit, have a little Susan-time to myself and get some good sleep tonight because I really want to see what I can do tomorrow.”
Asked about the task of refocusing after a result like Thursday’s, Kähkönen said that’s the key to consistent top results.
“With this schedule, we just don’t have the luxury of getting stuck on the current or especially the past,” he said. “You just need to stay focused on what’s coming up next.”
But Thursday was a pretty incredible day to be part of US Biathlon, in the same state (albeit 270 miles away) as its headquarters in New Gloucester, Maine.
“It’s unbelievable,” Kähkönen said. “Just to be able to grab the podium on the home soil, home World Cup, even if it’s not the hometown, but there’s a lot of friends and family and fans that are great support. The local community is just awesome, so it means the world to us.”
“It’s not just my success,” Dunklee stated. “It’s a culmination of a whole lot of effort over lots of years by this whole group of people who care a lot about our team.”
Dreissigacker 27th, Egan 32nd, Kocher 42nd
Joining Dunklee in the pursuit will be two other U.S. women and one Canadian. Dunklee’s teammate on the national team as well as Craftsbury Green Racing Project, Hannah Dreissigacker placed 27th for her fourth-best sprint result, finishing 1:33.7 behind Soukalova with a single prone penalty.
Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon) racing to 27th in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup on Thursday in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
“I was really happy to clean standing — I am normally a better prone shooter than standing, but I knew that I had to clean standing if I wanted to really do well,” Dreissigacker, the 41st starter, wrote in an email. “I’m very happy that I was able to concentrate for all of the shots and make it happen.
“It felt really special to have my family here, and so many other Americans out there cheering for us,” she wrote. “I actually started just after I heard on the loud speaker that Susan had cleaned. So then she came around the building and headed out on her last lap just a bit behind me. That was a fun lap — I was excited for her, and also all of the staff and fans were out there cheering so hard for her and I could tell that she was gaining on me, and also that she was probably going to podium. I felt like we were doing that lap together, though she only caught me at the very end.”
Also for the U.S., Clare Egan finished 32nd (+1:38.5) with one standing penalty. The 56th starter, Egan looked to be in contention for a top 20 after cleaning prone, but slipped into 28th after standing.
Clare Egan (US Biathlon) racing to 32nd, her second-best IBU World Cup result, in the women’s 7.5 k sprint on Thursday in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
“I was thankful to clean prone because it put a little less pressure on the standing, which is the harder discipline for me,” Egan wrote in an email. “I was very shaky in standing and I had to stop and reset my position after missing my 3rd shot, but that worked and I hit the last two.
“This is my 2nd best result ever and by far my best result since World Cup 1,” she explained. “My ski speed took a major hit in December but I am now recovered to where I think I should be so that is a huge relief. I had a top-30 ski time today and 90% shooting so that is an almost perfect day.”
Originally from Cape Elizabeth, Maine (and a teammate of Dunklee and Dreissigacker at Craftsbury), Egan described the experience of racing in her home state.
“My parents, my teammates’ families, and some USOC staff and USBA board members are here,” she wrote. “I heard my name all along the course from voices both familiar and unknown– and that was a first.”
Friday will be Egan’s second time racing a World Cup pursuit.
Maddie Phaneuf (US Biathlon) on her way to 65th in the second individual IBU World Cup of her career on Thursday in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
The fourth U.S. woman, 20-year-old Maddie Phaneuf, in her second individual World Cup race, placed 65th (for her best result by 28 places) with a clean prone and two standing penalties.
“My goal was to shoot well and ski strong … which I didn’t feel I reached fully,” Phaneuf wrote. “I felt pretty good on the skis, but not nearly as strong as I was in Romania.”
“My result-goal was to make the Pursuit, which I just missed,” she wrote of Thursday’s World Cup race, in which she needed a top 60 to advance to the pursuit. “But I’m still happy with the result and know that I have the potential to achieve more.”
On behalf of her team, Dreissigacker noted, “Our skis were phenomenal today. Our wax techs definitely deserve a share of the credit for the great day that we had as a team.”
The top Canadian, Zina Kocher placed 42nd (+2:02.0) with three misses (2+1). Overall, she had the 20th-fastest course time.
“I was focused on having consistent solid performances this week in order to qualify for World Champs,” Kocher wrote in an email. “Knowing that it is a trials situation though does bring a bit more nerves into the equation.
“I had thought I had focused on attacking from the start, however looking at the breakdown in ski speeds, looks more like I went out for a casual ski lap 1, & lap 3 an explosion went off,” she wrote of her course times, which ranked 54th on the first loop, then 46th on the second, and finally, third on the last loop. “I’d say I’m happy with 3rd fastest last lap but will work on a more aggressive warm up for the next sprint or relay I do to make sure I’m starting out a bit quicker!”
Also for Canada, Emma Lunder placed 68th with two penalties (1+1), Audrey Vaillancourt was 80th with four misses (2+2) and Erin Yungblut 87th in her World Cup debut, also with four penalties (1+3).
Note: In the men’s 10 k sprint, Sean Doherty led the U.S. in 13th (0+1), Lowell Bailey was 15th (0+1) and Tim Burke 20th (1+1).
“The men were just really consistent,” Kähkönen said. “Everybody close together and just the whole field for the top athletes, so it puts them into a very good place looking ahead for tomorrow’s pursuit race. Hopefully Susan’s podium will give them another push.”
Stay tuned for a separate report on the men’s race.
Watch the men’s and women’s pursuits live on Eurovision (Friday at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. EDT)
Susan Dunklee with her parents Judy (l) and Stan (r) after Dunklee tied the best-ever U.S. result in an IBU World Cup in second in the women’s sprint in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Dunklee celebrates a career-best second place in the women’s sprint at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Dunklee celebrates a career-best second place in the women’s sprint at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine, in February. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Megan Bankes racing to 26th in the women’s 6 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Canada’s Adam Runnalls as well as photos of the American men.
The snow is melting in Cheile Gradistei, Romania, and it’s melting fast as organizers work to cover parts of the track with manmade snow, but the Canadians seem to be handling it just fine.
For the second-straight youth race at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championships, three Canadians landed in the top 21 and one more was within the top 30 on Friday. Teo Sanchez recorded his second top 20 in as many races so far, placing 17th in the men’s 7.5-kilometer sprint on Friday after taking 13th in Wednesday’s 12.5 k individual.
“I was feeling ready for it, but still nervous,” Sanchez, 18, of Wakefield, Quebec, wrote in an email about Friday’s race — his second ever at a world championships.
After a clean prone, he finished out the sprint with one penalty in the standing stage. His goal coming into the race had been perfect 10-for-10 shooting, and he ended up 9-for-10, still “as a whole, good,” he wrote.
“Unfortunately my legs were shaking a bit during my standing shooting and that caused me to miss my second last standing target,” Sanchez explained. “I felt really strong skiing but I need to loosen up a bit and get my technique more together.
“I think 17th in the world is a pretty good result,” he added. “I think it will put me in a good place for the pursuit [on Sunday] as I’ll have lots of people to ski with while I’m racing. Pursuits are my strongest race format, I love the chasing and being chased. My goal will be to match my shooting score in the individual [18/20], and to transition between techniques as smoothly as possible.”
In the men’s race, Adam Runnalls, who placed 17th on Wednesday, finished 21st in Friday’s sprint with two standing misses. Coming into these championships, Runnalls explained he had not hit more than 70 percent of his targets in any race.
“80% shooting has always been a bench mark for me. I gives me some where to set my sights (literally) when shooting other than just wanting to shoot clean,” Runnalls wrote in an email, after his second-straight race shooting 80 percent. “Today though I feel that 80% was a little disappointing. Having shot clean in the prone I wanted to shoot a little better in the standing because I felt that another clean shooting was not out if reach I was just not able to get it.
“I fell apart mentally in my standing shooting predicting the outcome before I began shooting,” he continued. “As I was skiing and before the first shot all I could think was clean, clean, clean and that’s where it all went wrong. So 80% was not a bad shooting for the day just a bit disappointing.”
Friday’s sprint marked his second top 21 in his debut world championships.
“I felt really good about my result today just barley missing the top 20,” Runnalls wrote. “When I came across the line I was in the 7th position and was slowly dropping down into the high teens. As I was watching my placing drop all I could think about was what would have happened if I had kept a clear head and hit one more target. But all and all I was happy with the result.”
“Teo and Adam … proved that biathlon is a complex sport and that you need good skiing and shooting combined together in order to do well,” Canadian trip leader Richard Boruta wrote in an email. “I know that Teo is pretty good shot and he is showing this here as well, Adam has been good skier in a last year or two, but he will need to improve especially his standing shooting if he wants to become a really successful biathlete. I think they perform at a level where they are comfortable with and chances are that their Pursuit performance will be also close to those results.”
The youth men’s podium (and top six) at the flower ceremony on Friday at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania: 1. Russia’s Igor Malinovskii (11), 2. Norway’s Endre Strømsheim (77), 3. Russia’s Viacheslav Maleev (81), 4. Norway’s Aleksander Andersen (48), 5. France’s Morgan Lamure (12), 6. Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson (5). (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
On Friday, Sanchez finished 2:20.4 behind the winner, Russia’s Igor Malinovskii, who tallied his first youth worlds victory (and podium) in 20:32.9, despite one prone miss (1+0). Runnalls finished 2:43.1 back.
Norway’s Endre Strømsheim claimed second, 26.3 seconds back, after cleaning all his targets for his first world championships podium as well. Just over a second later, another Russian, Viacheslav Maleev took the third spot on the podium (+27.4) with one miss in each stage (1+1).
Norway’s Aleksander Fjeld Andersen was 17.2 seconds away from his second-straight podium, placing fourth, 44.6 seconds behind Malinovskii.
Moser Climbs to Career-Best 19th
In the youth women’s 6 k sprint, Canada’s Nadia Moser shot 9-for-10 to take 19th, 1:32 behind the winner, for her best result at worlds by nearly 30 places. She finished 47th in Wednesday’s individual with eight penalties. On Friday, the 18-year-old Canmore resident missed one in prone and cleaned standing.
“Nadia has been showing really strong training performances lately and it has been just matter of time before she will gain the confidence to show the same in an important race,” Boruta reflected. “She felt good skiing and also her skis were quite fast and combined with solid shooting performance it has all helped to achieve first great result.”
“I felt good skiing and … I always strive for strong shooting,” Moser said in a Biathlon Canada press release. “The course was hard and the conditions were challenging because some parts of the downhills were icy. Overall, I’m happy with how I competed and looking forward to the pursuit race.”
After placing 19th on Wednesday with seven penalties, another Canadian, Megan Bankes finished 26th in the sprint with five misses — two in prone and three in standing. Her course time was fifth fastest out of 91 women on Friday.
“Having good skiing Wednesday definitely gave me confidence to see what I am capable of this week, and I have been stoked with my skiing performances in both races,” Bankes wrote in an email. “I certainly need to work on my shooting in the races, but I am confident in my training and know that everything will come together.”
The youth women’s sprint podium (and top six) at the flower ceremony on Friday at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania: 1. Norway’s Karoline Erdal (2), 2. Norway’s Emilie Kalkenberg (72), 3. Ukraine’s Anna Kryvonos (26), 4. Czech Republic’s Marketa Davidova (4), 5. France’s Lou Laurent Jeanmonnot (51), 6. Kazakhstan’s Arina Pantova (38). (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
She finished 2:14.8 behind the winner, Norway’s Karoline Erdal, who started in bib 2 and held off all challengers to take the victory in 18:17.7.
Norway dominated the top two with Emilie Aagheim Kalkenberg in second (+28.5), andUkraine’s Anna Kryvonos four seconds behind in third (+32.4) after a downhill crash on the final loop cost her more than 20 seconds and second place, according to an IBU press release.
Six seconds out of third, Marketa Davidova of the Czech Republic missed her second-consecutive podium (after placing third on Wednesday) in fourth with two misses (0+2).
All three podium finishers cleaned prone and missed one in standing (0+1). Just two women in the top 20 cleaned both stages: Austria’s Tamara Steinar, who finished eighth, and Kazakhstan’s Yevgeniya Krassikova in 16th.
“It was hard, but it is really nice to finish first,” Erdal said in the post-race press conference. “I am really happy with the shooting. It was a good race and I am really satisfied. I don’t know yet what I am going to do in pursuit. I am starting first so I just need to do my own race and focus on my work.”
According to Bankes, the course in Cheile Gradistei — a mountain resort about 3,000 feet above sea level — “is pretty hard, but quite fun to race on, with a couple steep uphills and some technical downhills,” she explained. “The snow conditions have been pretty good as the organizers have worked very hard to insure there is adequate snow, with some warmer temperatures.”
Also for Canada, Emily Dickson placed 41st (+2:48.7) with two standing penalties. India McIsaac was 54th (+3:27.8) with five misses (1+4). In the men’s race, Zachari Bolduc also had five misses (2+3) and finished 65th. Lucas Boudreau was 76th with three penalties (1+2).
Brendan Cyr was the top American in 46th, finishing 3:39.5 behind the men’s winner with three penalties, all of which came in standing (0+3). Cody Johnson placed 50th in the same race (+3:47.5) with two misses (1+1), Peter Carroll was 69th with four misses (2+2), and Vaclav Cervenka was 72nd with five misses (2+3).
In the women’s race, Amanda Kautzer led the U.S. in 52nd (+3:24.2) with three penalties (1+2), Claire Waichler was 58th (+3:45.6) with five misses (2+3), Chloe Levins 65th with five misses, and Ariana Woods 76th with five penalties as well (1+4).
Megan Bankes (l) racing to 26th in the women’s 6 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. Norway’s Kristina Skjevdal (behind in bib 32) placed 13th. (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
Megan Bankes racing to 26th in the women’s 6 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
54th in the women’s 6 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
Claire Waichler (l) trails Anastasiia Rasskazova during the women’s 6 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. Waichler went on to place 58th while Rasskazova finished 25th. (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
Chloe Levins racing to 65th in the women’s 6 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
Brendan Cyr on his way to 46th in the men’s 7.5 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus/Facebook)
Cody Johnson racing to 50th in the men’s 7.5 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
Cody Johnson racing to 50th in the men’s 7.5 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
Peter Carroll (USA) racing to 69th in the men’s 7.5 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)
Vaclav Cervenka (r) en route to 72nd in the men’s 7.5 k sprint at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus/Facebook)
Russian Olga Podchufarova hit 10 out of 10 targets in Thursday’s 7.5-kilometer sprint in Antholz, Italy, to take her first World Cup win. (Photo: IBU/Rene Miko)
Olga Podchufarova stood atop the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup podium on Thursday in Antholz, Italy, for the first time in her career. The 23-year-old Russian biathlete shot clean in the 7.5-kilometer sprint to claim her first-ever win in 21:01.9, saying that it was something that she has been looking for all season.
“I understood [this year] that I became stronger, not only physically, but mentally,” she said in an English interview with Eurosport. “And I understood that I was ready for better results than previous year.”
The 17th starter, she established a pace and finishing time no one else could match. Overall, her course time ranked ninth, and she was one of five women in the top 20 (and two in the top three) to shoot clean. For Podchufarova, it was her second-career IBU World Cup podium; earlier this season she placed third in the mass start in Pokljuka, Slovenia.
After starting immediately behind her in bib 18, Italy’s Dorothea Wierer took second in front of an enthusiastic crowd, finishing 8 seconds off Podchufarova’s time with one miss in standing. She was happy with her performance, saying that racing in Italy is stressful due to increased press coverage and pressure.
“Of course it hurts when you make one [penalty] … I was good on skis today…,” Wierer said in a post-race interview, implying that she knew that that one penalty was what kept her from the top spot on the podium. “I was also happy that I missed only one because I was shaking so much in standing. I am happy with this,” she concluded with a laugh.
The third spot on the podium went to another Russian, Ekaterina Yurlova (+22.1), who started 40th and shot clean to land in the top three. She bumped France’s Anais Bescond, in bib 23, to fourth (+24.7), after Bescond had a single prone penalty. When a Eurosport announcer asked Bescond if she was the “queen of fourth place” after her third fourth-place finish this year, she laughingly agreed, noting that fourth is “better than fifth, or 30th, or 60th.”
Canada’s Rosanna Crawford was the top North American in 33rd (+1:24.6) after cleaning prone but missing one in standing. American Susan Dunklee was not far behind in 37th (+1:30.1) with one miss in each stage. Neither of the two women were very pleased with their results:
“Even though I train and live at altitude, I don’t seem to be able to race at it very well!” Crawford wrote in an email, referring to Antholz’ relatively high elevation of 1600 meters (5200 feet). “I’ve always had a hard time with ski speed here and today was no exception. My first two laps were ok, but I lost a lot of time on my final 2.5km loop.”
Russian Olga Podchufarova celebrates her win in Thursday’s IBU World Cup 7.5-kilometer sprint in Antholz, Italy. (Photo: IBU/Rene Miko)
“I love racing here,” Dunklee wrote in an email. “It’s a place where I have often done well. I usually start to come alive towards the end of the trimester when everyone else is starting to struggle, but today I was the one struggling. My skiing felt extremely flat and I couldn’t hold my normal pace.”
“It was a nice sunny Italian day,” Crawford added. “No wind and fair conditions. It’s a hard course here with not a lot of rest, you always have to be working.
“Shooting has been solid this year and I was confident going into the race,” she continued. “I took a couple extra breaths before my first prone shot but still was able to hit them relatively quickly. Girls really slow down it seems here, because of the altitude, but I practiced the range entry quite a few times in the two days leading into the race and was confident I could keep my normal range rhythm. My standing miss was disappointing, I just hadn’t quite moved onto the target when I pulled the trigger.”
“Antholz brought out its best today: sunshine, hard packed conditions, and an animated crowd of spectators,” Dunklee concluded. “I’m going to put this one behind me and enjoy the challenge of pack racing in the pursuit.”
The top-60 finishers in Thursday’s sprint qualify for the pursuit on Saturday. Crawford and Dunklee will be joined in that race by Canadian Julia Ransom, who finished in 46th (+1:47.2) on Thursday, who shot 9-for-10 with one standing penalty.
Also in Thursday’s sprint, Canadian Zina Kocher finished 66th (+2:29.0) with three penalties (2+1), American Clare Egan was 67th (+2:31.8) after a clean prone but three standing penalties, Canadian Megan Tandy in 72nd (+2:49.1) with three misses as well (1+2). Also for the U.S., Joanne Reid, in her second World Cup weekend, placed 74th (+2:51.1) with three standing misses (0+3) and Annelies Cook in 75th (+2:51.4) shot 70 percent as well (2+1).
Clare Egan (US Biathlon) racing to a career-best 16th in the women’s 7.5 k sprint on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Clare Egan had been hoping for a top 60 in the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup sprint on Saturday. That’s what she needed to qualify for Sunday’s pursuit in Östersund, Sweden.
To meet that goal, she aimed to push herself out of her comfort zone in the 7.5 k sprint, she wrote in an email after the race. The newest member of U.S. women’s World Cup team, she also wanted to stay “calm and confident” while shooting. Two days ago, Egan shot 17-for-20 in a four-stage race to place 44th in the 15 k individual. That was her second-best finish on the World Cup.
Imagine how she felt after placing 16th for a career best on Saturday.
“I knew that with clean shooting I would do well,” Egan reflected.
It had been raining, hailing and snowing before their race, she explained, but all of that stopped before the first woman started. The men had to deal with more unfortunate elements in the earlier race, and just one of the 100-plus men in the field cleaned: 22-year-old Canadian Macx Davies.
“It was stable weather throughout [our] race, clear and light wind,” Egan wrote. “I think the track got a bit faster as it got skied-in so that was to my advantage as a late starter.”
She started 90th, giving her enough time to “chill out in the cafeteria and eat cookies,” she wrote. Once on course, she quickly found that she had “excellent skis,” as proven by a downhill approach to the stadium followed by a flat 300-meter stretch into the range.
“I coasted almost the entire way to the shooting point, which definitely helped my shooting,” she explained.
Clare Egan (US Biathlon) after Saturday’s 7.5 k sprint in Östersund, Sweden. She cleaned and ended up 16th for a career best. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Egan cleaned prone to put herself in 27th, then standing to rank 15th with one lap to go. She finished 15th and was ultimately bumped one place to 16th, 1:05.3 behind race winner Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic and 0.1 second behind Sweden’s Elisabeth Högberg in 15th.
“I saw on the big screen that that I was around 10th leaving the range for the last lap, and then all of our staff members were out on the course screaming for me,” Egan wrote. “Unfortunately it was once of these situations where the first coach told me I was 2 seconds out of the top-10, the second coach told me I was 2 seconds out of 12th, then 2 seconds out of 14th, and so on, so I was just trying to get to the finish line as quickly as possible.
“I had the 40th-fastest ski time today, which is much better than my 59th rank from Thursday’s individual, and I hope to continue on that trajectory as I get into race shape,” she added.
Last January, Egan shot a perfect 10-for-10 in an IBU Cup sprint in Ridnaun, Italy, which qualified her for her first World Cup. While she was proud of that shooting result, she explained Saturday’s 16th was “sweet in a different way because this is a much higher level.”
She also had to consider the training she’s been through to get to the World Cup this season. Egan explained she “narrowly qualified” for the World Cup team this fall, “so I am relieved to be outperforming my summer self. I don’t want to get hung up on the meaning of one result, because biathlon is very volatile, but it gives me confidence that the work I am doing is good and that I am on the right track,” she wrote.
After performing well enough at two sets of team trials in August and October, Egan was named the World Cup team in early November. Asked what she had hoped for in terms of results her first season starting on the World Cup, she wrote, “Not these ones!!!”
“I want to use the head-to-head competition to push my ski speed, and then be really diligent about sticking to my own routine on the range,” Egan wrote of her goal for Sunday. “If I do those two things I will be happy with my race. And I want to enjoy the opportunity to ski with some extremely fast women.”
Annelies Cook (US Biathlon) racing to 25th in the 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Along with Egan, Annelies Cook qualified for the pursuit for the U.S. in 25th. She finished 1:23.6 behind the winner with a single standing miss for the fourth-best result of her career.
“It was super fun to perform in the way that I expect from myself,” Cook wrote in an email. “My goals today were to let go of the Individual race and not let that shooting haunt me.”
She placed 91st in the 15 k individual on Thursday, with nine one-minute penalties.
“I am just happier to be skiing better than I have in the last two years,” Cook wrote on Saturday. “And after I missed standing, I just wanted to be able to dig deep and allow myself to hurt and see where that would get me. I finished in 18th and I knew that I would most likely move back a bit, but I figured it might be good enough to be a top 30 at the end of the day.”
She’ll start 1:24 back in the pursuit with three others: Norway’s Marte Olsbu, who placed 26th on Saturday, Canada’s Zina Kocher in 27th, and France’s Coline Varcin in 28th.
Kocher and Canadian teammate Rosanna Crawford finished in the top 30, with Crawford leading the way in 22nd with two misses (1+1). Kocher cleaned prone and missed one standing.
“With 1 miss, I had hoped to be within the top 20 or better but I am still happy with the result because I gave everything I had today,” Kocher wrote. “It’s only the 1st week & it’s always been my pattern that I need a few races to pick up the speed. After what I went through last year, this start to the season feels amazing.”
On Thursday, she placed 98th in the 15 k with nine penalties.
“I’m stoked to be back on the World Cup,” Kocher wrote. “I’m feeling stronger & mentally in a way better head space that last year. … I am only focusing one day at a time and will find out on Sunday whether I continue to the WC2 [World Cup 2], or to the IBU Cup.”
Crawford placed 13th in the 15 k, and last year at the same venue, she was 12th in the sprint.
“I know the ski speed isn’t the same right now, so I was hoping to stay in the top 20,” Crawford wrote. “I am a bit disappointed with this result, I think more because I got to see how unlucky the men had it … So with our conditions I expected a lot more, but any day you have a top 30 is a pretty good day.
“It’s amazing to see how things have changed for me in the sport,” she added. “This is what you want, to keep striving for that perfect race and to always be challenging yourself.”
She noted that it was a tight sprint, with just 2 minutes and 20 seconds separating the top 60. Also qualifying for Canada was Julia Ransom in 32nd (+1:37.7), with one prone miss, and Megan Tandy in 46th (+2:00; 1+1).
“Skiing felt great!” Ransom wrote, after posting her career best by 20 places. “I love this course because you get the hard work done in the beginning and then get to play all the way back to the range.
“Making world cup points feels like a door has been opened to the top 30,” she added. “I would love to walk through that door tomorrow, but ultimately I just want to have a solid race to be proud of.”
American Susan Dunklee started early and led early on in the sprint after a clean prone, but missed four standing to end up 64th (+2:25.5). Hannah Dreissigacker placed 91st (+3:57) with five misses (3+2).
Jessie Diggins of the U.S. Ski Team won both races in last weekend in Gällivare, Sweden, leading a 1-2 U.S. women’s finish in the classic sprint with teammate Sophie Caldwell on Saturday, and sharing the podium with Caitlin Gregg, who was third in the 10 k skate on Sunday. (Photo: USSA/Stefan Nieminen)
A win is a win: especially when it’s north of the Arctic Circle in chilly conditions and in the first races of the season.
Jessie Diggins started 2015/2016 off with back-to-back wins at the International Ski Federation (FIS) races in Gällivare, Sweden, topping the podium in both the classic sprint and 10-kilometer freestyle.
Above all, the U.S. Ski Team member said the races were confidence boosting and a good way to take inventory on “what else needs to be improved, as well as a good reminder of warmups, race routines, and testing skis.”
On Day 1 of the cross-country races in Gällivare, Diggins and her teammate Sophie Caldwell captured first and second, respectively, in the classic sprint.
“I want to walk up to the start line of a classic race with that same confidence in myself that I have at the start of every skate race,” Diggins said after Saturday’s sprint.
“I don’t care if it’s a World Cup or a local club race. Having three of the six podiums was just a lot of fun,” U.S. women’s coach Matt Whitcomb said on Saturday, after Andy Newell finished second in the men’s sprint.
On Sunday, two American women again reached the podium, with Diggins in first and Caitlin Gregg in third. In the men’s 15 k freestyle, Canada had two in the top four, with Alex Harvey in second and Devon Kershaw in fourth.
“That … was probably my best individual-start skate race in 1.5 years,” Kershaw remarked.
Norway’s Petter Northug racing to a 10 k classic win on Nov. 20 in Bruksvallarna, Sweden. He did so in a custom suit with the Swedish colors. (Photo: AdaMedia Med Mera/@adamedmera)
About 900 kilometers south in Bruksvallarna, Sweden, Petter Northug ruffled feathers on Day 1 of the three-day FIS race series. He won Friday’s 10 k classic by 36 seconds while wearing a Swedish-national-team-like suit. Meanwhile, Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla won the women’s 5 k classic by 25 seconds.
The next day, Kalla won again — this time by 36 seconds in the 10 k freestyle. Led by Niklas Dyrhaug, the Norwegian men swept the Bruksvallarna 15 k skate podium.
Finally on Sunday, Stina Nilsson put the kibosh on Kalla’s streak as the 22-year-old Nilsson won the women’s skate sprint. Kalla placed second, and in the men’s sprint, Norway’s Havard Solås Taugbøl, 22, won by 0.09 seconds over Sweden’s Karl-Johan Westberg.
For the first time, the US Biathlon team logged some pre-World Cup race starts, traveling to Sjusjøen, Norway, to do so. In Saturday’s sprint, the American men all finished in the top 30. Tim Burke led them in 13th.
“Today was definitely a solid team performance,” Burke explained. “Our entire men’s team is at a very high level…”
At one point, American Susan Dunklee ranked first in the women’s sprint after cleaning the first stage, but missed four in standing and ended up 21st.
“My ski shape feels a little sharper than it usually does in November,” she wrote.
Less than four seconds back, her teammate Annelies Cook was 25th. Canadian Megan Tandy (formerly Heinicke) was 23rd with 90-percent shooting. Italy’s Dorothea Wierer won the race with clean shooting.
In Sunday’s mass start, the lone American competing, Leif Nordgren finished 19th with six penalties on a windy day. Tandy placed 40th in the women’s race with seven penalties.
“I was disappointed for sure since it was such a good opportunity against tough competition, but considering the conditions, I’ll get over it quick!” Nordgren wrote.
The men’s sprint winner from the day before, Germany’s Simon Schempp won the mass start as well, by fewer than six seconds over Norwegian Alexander Os of Team Feskslo — or fish guts.
Ukraine’s Juliya Dzhyma cleaned the final stage to win the women’s mass start.
Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon) achieved a career-best 14th in the last sprint of the season in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. She is pictured at IBU World Championships on March 13 in the women’s relay. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
When Hannah Dreissigacker looks back at this season, she’ll probably remember Russia over Finland — that is, the last IBU World Cup races of the season in Khanty-Mansiysk over World Championships in Kontiolahti.
Or at least that’s where one of her fondest memories will stem from. After more than a week of headaches and insomnia at World Championships in Finland, the 28-year-old US Biathlon A-teamer rebounded to place 14th in Friday’s 7.5-kilometer sprint in Khanty-Mansiysk.
It was the best result of her career, topping her previous best of 16th in the World Cup sprint last month in Oslo, Norway.
“I have to admit I was very pleasantly surprised by today’s race in lots of ways,” Dreissigacker wrote in an email on Friday. “I had a pretty frustrating World Champs in Kontiolahti, with lots of bad shooting and then I was having trouble with insomnia and headaches by the end of my time there, and it had me feeling pretty down.”
At World Championships, Dreissigacker placed 61st in the sprint, narrowly missing the top-60 cutoff required for the pursuit, and finished 67th in the 15 k individual.
“Here in Khanty Mansiysk I’ve been sleeping better and pleasantly surprised by the weather (it’s not freezing cold), the food (there are good vegetables!), and the place in general (it’s a weird place, but weird is also interesting),” she explained. “I’ve still been having headaches, but I’ve been trying to reset my approach to just be confident and enjoy the last races of the season.”
She started 40th on an unusually warm, 40-degree Celsius evening with what an IBU press release described as a “stiff breeze” in the range.
With one miss in her first shooting, Dreissigacker left prone in 43rd overall, 47.6 seconds behind the German race leader at the time, Laura Dahlmeier, who started just ahead of her in bib 39.
One loop later, the American jumped into 14th with a perfect standing stage.
“I felt OK skiing but not really great, and prone was OK, but I’m definitely most happy about my standing shooting,” Dreissigacker wrote. “I had a little bit of wind and had to take a few extra breaths and really fight for those targets, and that made it feel extra good to hit them!”
She headed out on her last loop feeling energized and excited by her shooting, but not quite expecting 14th place.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting it to be a new personal best…but I guess that the whole field struggled with shooting today so it worked out well!” she wrote.
Dreissigacker finished 1:26.4 behind winner Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland, who started 36th and made up more than 12 seconds on her final loop to win by 14.2 seconds in 19:49.1. Mäkäräinen cleaned prone and missed one standing — just like Dahlmeier — and Dahlmeier lost her lead after the second shooting, trailing Mäkäräinen by 1.7 seconds with 2.5 k to go.
The women’s 7.5 k sprint podium at the final IBU World Cup of the 2014/2015 season in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. From left to right: Runner-up Laura Dahlmeier of Germany, winner Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland, and Darya Domracheva of Belarus in third. (Photo: IBU/Evgeny Tumashov)
The German finished second, 1.3 seconds ahead of Darya Domracheva of Belarus, who overcame two penalties (one in each stage) to place third (+15.5). The overall World Cup leader who is now just nine points ahead of Mäkäräinen, Domracheva skied the second-fastest course time overall, after Mäkäräinen.
“I am happy to be back on the podium and to be back in Khanty-Mansiysk,” Domracheva told the IBU. “Like everyone, the holidays are coming and that is something nice to look forward to.”
Mäkäräinen explained that she experienced more wind in prone than standing, but felt a shakiness in her legs for the second time this season during her second stage.
“Still, I am happy to be back on the podium,” Mäkäräinen told the IBU. “My legs were really gone after the World Championships … the physiotherapist did a lot of work on them this week. Last night I finally felt like I could go today.”
For Dahlmeier, 21, it was her sixth podium of the year.
“My results are better than I expected earlier in the season; I had hoped for one or two podiums this year,” she said. “All of these last races have been really almost perfect … I hope to have more good races for the next two days.”
In Saturday’s 10 k pursuit, Mäkäräinen will head out first, 14 seconds ahead of Dahlmeier. Domracheva will start 16 seconds back in third, and Dreissigacker will follow 1:26 back in 14th.
“I’m just going to try to keep my confident approach to shooting, and have fun out there!” Dreissigacker wrote.
U.S. Women Secure Nation Cup Top 15
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing to 26th in the IBU World Cup 7.5 k sprint on Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Of the two American women competing in Khanty-Mansiysk, both she and Susan Dunklee qualified for the pursuit. Dunklee placed 26th on Friday, 1:49.4 after Mäkäräinen, with four penalties: one prone and three standing. The 11th starter, Dunklee made up four places on her final loop and clocked the fifth-fastest course time overall.
“I probably sound like a broken record after last week — my ski shape feels phenomenal right now and would put me in a very high position if I were to shoot well,” Dunklee said in a US Biathlon press release. “Unfortunately, the standing got the best of me this time.”
With a top-15 finish in the Nation Cup, the U.S. women earned four quota spots for next year’s IBU World Championships, according to the release.
“Today’s sprint was our last opportunity to score team Nation Cup points and we had a close battle going for the top 15,” Dunklee explained. “We fought for every place. I am so proud of Hannah putting together her career-best result today and we sealed 15th.”
Dunklee will start Saturday’s pursuit 1:49 back with Russia’s Daria Virolaynen, who finished 0.5 seconds ahead of her in 25th.
Canada’s lone starter, Rosanna Crawford placed 28th (+1:54.7) with three penalties: one prone and two standing. She started 21st and rose four places from 32nd to 28th overall during her last loop. Crawford’s range time ranked seventh.
The women’s podium in Saturday’s 7.5 k sprint at the 2015 IBU World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. (From l-r) Weronika Nowakowska-Ziemniak of Poland (2nd), Marie Dorin Habert of France (1st), and Valj Semereko of Ukraine (3rd). (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)
KONTIOLAHTI, Finland – While many men complained of the blustery Finnish weather in Saturday’s 2015 IBU World Championships sprint, they would soon become thankful for their race conditions after the start of the women’s sprint. Just half an hour before the start of the race — a 7.5-kilometer sprint — the wind strengthened and was joined heavy snow, making for blizzard-like conditions on the second day of competition in Finland.
While the weather did its best to subdue the competitors, it was Marie Dorin Habert of France who landed on top of the podium. She earned her first-ever World Championships gold in addition to a first-career victory after cleaning prone and missing one shot in standing to notch a time of 22.16.8. Behind her was Weronika Nowakowska-Ziemniak of Poland, the only competitor to clean both prone and standing. The Polish biathlete, whose silver medal is the first podium of her career, finished 9.6 seconds back. Rounding out the podium was Valj Semereko of Ukraine, who missed one in standing to cross the line 19.7 seconds behind Harbert.
Saturday began with numerous expectations, the most popular of which was a predicted showdown between hometown-favorite Kaisa Mäkäräinen and overall IBU World Cup leader Darya Domracheva of Belarus. Mäkäräinen, who started with bib 6, battled the worst of the weather and faced a slow course that had barely been skied-in ahead of her. When she reached the first shooting stage, the 32 year old had posted the fastest course time on the first loop. But her lead would soon be gone as the Finnish skier missed three shots to the audible shock of the crowd. Mäkäräinen eventually missed two more shots in standing to finish 35th.
Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland was a favorite in the 7.5 k sprint but ultimately finished 35th.
Next up was Dormacheva in bib 10. The Belarusian had a promising start after missing one shot in prone and skiing the fourth-fastest course time, but eventually succumbed to the conditions in standing where she missed four of five shots to ultimately finish 25th.
With the two favorites out of contention, an opportunity was presented to the rest of the field. Semerenko, in bib 4, had already finished and posted the time to beat after notching the fastest range and shooting times of the day. Habert, in bib 16, wasn’t far behind Domracheva and chased the Belarusian. In the process, she posted the fastest cumulative time in the first lap. Her second and third laps were the second and third fastest of the day — enough to move her past Semerenko.
Meanwhile, Nowakowska-Ziemniak was three starters behind the Frenchwoman. Where she failed to match Habert in course time she overcame in range speed, earning the seventh overall ranked time on the day. After she cleaned the second round of shooting, the Pole worked to make full use of her advantage. In the end, however, it wasn’t enough to overcome Habert.
According to Habert, she knew before the race that a podium was likely but never expected to take her first individual gold in the 7.5 k sprint.
“I didn’t expect it was possible for me” she said in a press conference. “I wanted to be on the podium, but to win I think that it’s too hard for me, but it was done so it was nice.”
Habert explained that she didn’t mind the conditions, but acknowledged that her favorable view of the strong wind and blowing snow was likely due to her victory.
“It was hard conditionsn but it’s right for me so I’m happy for these hard conditions,” she said. “It was hard on the track because of the snow and shooting range because of the wind, but today it was nice for me.”
Valj Semereko of Ukraine racing to bronze in Saturday’s 7.5 k sprint at teh 2015 IBU World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)
The French biathlete gave birth in September. While she trained during her pregnancy, Habert said that she was uncertain as to how she was able to come back for such a successful season.
“Maybe I’m stronger before,” she explained. “I don’t have an answer of this progress, but I’m happy I’ve progressed.”
In second place, Nowakowska-Ziemniak said that she believed the 2015 World Championships would be her last prior to her podium. With Saturday’s silver medal, however, the Polish biathlete said that the joy of being on the podium might convince her to stay in the sport longer.
“I didn’t win, but I’m sure that I am the most happy person today here,” she said in a press conference. “It’s an amazing moment here in my career.”
Two of Nowakowska-Ziemniak’s teammates also finished in the top 10, with Krystyna Guzik in fifth and Magdalena Gwizdon in seventh. The bronze medalist explained that although the Polish women faced a hard season where results failed to live up to expectations, she was proud of her teammates for performing when it mattered.
“As a team, we’ve got many problems during this season with the shape but I’m triple happy that the whole team showed today that we are really strong and we deserve to be this high in the world,” she said. “I’m very happy for myself and for my teammates also.”
The sprint’s bronze medalist, Semerenko, has been on the podium four previous times this season and said that her main objective on Saturday was to achieve a solid position for Sunday’s pursuit.
“This is indeed a very good season for me,” Semerenko said. “I’m very happy about this race although I didn’t expect to be on the podium today, but I wanted to be close for pursuit race.”
Megan Heinicke racing to 23rd in Saturday’s 7.5 k sprint in Kontiolahti, Finland at the 2015 IBU World Championships. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)
Canada’s Heinicke Skis to 23rd; North Americans Left Wanting More
The snow and wind took a hard hit on the North Americans as they battled the elements to ski and shoot to the best of their abilities.
Canada’s Megan Heinicke was ultimately the top finisher in 23rd after missing one in prone and cleaning standing. Although she had the 78th-fastest course time, Heinicke was able to notch a top-30 result with precise shooting and the 18th-fastest range time.
“I was really happy with the shooting,” Heinicke said in a post-race interview. “Standing I was really satisfied with because I waited and I took the shots in the right moment. Usually standing shooting in the wind is something I’m not super confident about, and I feel like it’s been a weakness over the last years, so I’m really satisfied with the standing today.”
Heinicke was originally slated to start World Championships on Thursday in Canada’s mixed relay, but sat out to continue recovering from illness in Germany.
“I have been sick for 17 days out of the last 30, and I have two more days of antibiotics to go so I flew in late and didn’t do the mixed relay,” she explained.
The 26 year old said she entered Saturday’s sprint with no result-oriented goals, but instead was focused on shooting well and skiing smart. She was also aided by the earlier success of her teammate Nathan Smith, who was the first Canadian male to earn a World Championships medal after placing second in the preceding 10 k sprint.
“I was getting ready for the race and I was like, ‘I’m not gonna cry, just focus on your own race,’ ” Heinicke said. “I feel like we have a few athletes that have been flirting with the podium so it’s just really, really amazing to have someone do it.”
Behind Heinicke in 32nd was teammate Rosanna Crawford. The 26 year old, who was one of the first starters in bib 5, just ahead of Mäkäräinen, dealt with the worst of the blowing snow but managed to notch the 10th-fastest split in the first loop after cleaning prone. It was in standing that Crawford ran into trouble, ultimately missing three shots and losing precious time.
“I knew it was going to be the hardest in standing,” Crawford said in an interview. “Maybe I accepted defeat before I even got to the range.”
Susan Dunklee racing to 42nd in Saturday’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Once in the penalty lap, Crawford explained that the loop was incredibly slow due to the new snow and lack of skiers ahead of her.
“The penalty loop was awful because nobody was had been skiing in it,” she said. Crawford added that while she faced an “uphill battle” in her quest to qualify for the World Championships final mass start next weekend, she is looking forward to racing again.
The next North American and top U.S. biathlete in the women’s sprint was World Cup newcomer Clare Egan. A late starter, Egan said she benefitted from the break in snowfall that occurred midway through the race. However, the break in weather wasn’t the only reason for her success. According to the former University of New Hampshire skier, the steep hills on the 2.5 k course suited her skiing and aided her in qualifying for her first World Cup-level pursuit.
“[The course] has a really big climb in it and I pushed up that climb,” Egan said. “I’ve been working a lot with our coaches since we’ve been here on how to ski the flats and I think I did a pretty good job with what we’ve been working on.”
Egan missed two shots in both prone and standing, but said that compared to her previous World Cup shooting record, Saturday’s performance was an improvement. Prior to the World Championships sprint her previous best result was 73rd in a Nove Mesto sprint earlier this season.
“I wish I would have shot a little better, but honestly, I think I missed four in standing in both the other World Cup sprints I’ve done. Today I only missed two so that was an improvement and hopefully I’ll keep improving,” she explained.
Just two places behind Egan was veteran U.S. biathlete Susan Dunklee. The 29 year old has consistently placed in the top 30 and is no stranger to the top 10. In the sprint, Dunklee explained she lost confidence in the shooting range. She missed one in prone and two in standing, and marked the 101st-ranked range time of 103 finishers.
“I’m really bummed,” Dunklee said after the race. “I spent more time on the range than maybe ever. I was one shot at a time because it was so windy and so gusty. I just kind of lost my rhythm and flow and confidence, especially in the standing.”
While Dunklee acknowledged the difficult weather was a factor in her shooting, she said it was a part of racing that every competitor had to deal with. According to Dunklee, she entered the sprint with the goal of performing at the level she’s been at in the 2015 season, but hoped for something even better.
“I did want it, maybe a little bit too badly,” she said. “That’s the curse.”
First-time World Championships competitor Julia Ransom of Canada cleaned prone to rank 13th after the first shooting but fell to 52nd position after missing three in standing. She said she was very pleased with her result, which was the best of her World Cup career.
“I’m pumped. It’s the first pursuit I’ve made on World Cup and it’s been a really big jump from IBU Cup to World Cup so I’m happy,” Ransom said.
Ransom is no stranger to Kontiolahti. In 2012, she earned a silver medal in the Junior World Championships pursuit. Although this year is her first senior World Championships, Ransom said that the experience hasn’t been too different from the World Cups she’s attended.
“It’s feeling relatively the same. Nothing too exciting, but racing at night is fun, different. We’re going to bed at midnight, waking up at 9:30 and 10,” she said. “It’s the same faces just different names.”
Finishing 61st, U.S. biathlete Hannah Dreissigacker was one spot away from qualifying for Sunday’s 10 k pursuit. Dreissigacker said that she was interested to review her shooting with her coaches, as she was surprised the wind affected her so negatively.
“It was windy so I’m sure that affected me. Normally in prone, I’m not intimidated by the wind. I take clicks and I’m confident,” she explained.
Teammate Annelies Cook finished 68th and said her skiing felt much better than it had all season. At the same time, she explained that she was disappointed in her shooting. “I felt good skiing, but I let myself down in my shooting,” she said. “I definitely struggled a lot in standing with the wind, and I made a careless mistake in prone, accidentally pulling the trigger when I didn’t mean to.”
Canadian Audrey Vaillancourt ended the day in 77th and said that while the day was bad for her, she was read to move on to the next race.
“When I came into prone it was like a tornado. Prone is not that bad normally. I don’t think I clicked enough. It was very, very hard today,” she said.
Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon) racing to 33rd in the IBU World Cup 15 k individual on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. Two days later, she shot a perfect 10-for-10 to place a career-best 16th in the 7.5 k sprint. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Spectacular doesn’t need to special, at least that’s how Hannah Dreissigacker felt about Saturday’s 7.5-kilometer sprint at Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway.
If she simply approached the second race of the three-day IBU World Cup weekend like it was any other, the 28-year-old US Biathlon member figured she had as good a shot at ever at a good day.
What she didn’t realize was coming was a career best.
“It’s a good feeling to hit all the targets,” Dreissigacker said on the phone following her 16th-place finish on Saturday. The result topped her previous best of 17th in the sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia, in mid-December, when she also shot a perfect 10-for-10.
On Saturday, Dreissigacker had a couple of special people to celebrate with; her parents and boyfriend Nils Koons arrived in time to watch her race at Holmenkollen.
“I’m really happy right now … I think happiness always helps being in a good mental place racing,” she said.
The 39th starter out of 96, Dreissigacker experienced what she considered “more consistent” conditions than Thursday’s individual and “slightly foggy, but we couldn’t see the targets in practice yesterday,” she said. “I was just happy to be able to see the targets.”
Just like every other race, she tried to make each of her trips to the range during the sprint feel like she was on autopilot. She went through her checklist: checking the wind flags, thinking about breathing, removing her poles, and getting into position quickly.
“I’ve been trying lately to just be confident shooting and shoot pretty fast, not shoot as fast as I can, but just not take much time,” Dreissigacker said. “I shoot better when I’m fast. I kind of always come back to that as something to focus on — you want to stay in a good rhythm.”
Her range and shooting times ended up being the eighth and ninth fastest overall, respectively, and she was one of nine women in the top 20 to hit all 10 targets. Two days ago, Dreissigacker finished 33rd in the 15 k individual with flawless shooting except for one stage — her second, where she missed three.
That frustrated her somewhat, yet she knew she wasn’t far off from a perfect race.
“I knew that the clean stages were possible so I just decided to just act normal out there,” she said. “It’s funny how it can feel easy when you’re doing it because you feel like you’re doing what you always do and it works … Some days it just comes together.”
After cleaning her second-straight stage, Dreissigacker heard her coaches tel her she was in 10th, about five seconds out of sixth.
“That’s a pretty exciting split to get,” she reflected. She finished 12th and ultimately placed 16th, 1:00.1 behind winner Darya Domracheva of Belarus.
Less than 10 seconds separated her from sixth, and four others were within two seconds of Dreissigacker in 17th through 20th.
“I knew the race was really tight and in the end, I know there was like 10 places in 10 seconds right around me,” she said. “It just makes you realize those extra seconds on the skis are really important.”
Overall, her course time ranked 41st, and she explained her ski speed had improved since the beginning of the season. “I think that it can keep getting faster, hopefully for World Championships [from March 3-15], I think it will,” she said.
Crawford 1.6 Seconds Out of 10th
Canada’s Rosanna Crawford racing to fourth on Dec. 18 in the IBU World Cup 7.5 k sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia. In Saturday’s sprint in Oslo, Norway, she placed 13th. (Photo: Christian Manzoni/NordicFocus)
Canada’s Rosanna Crawford raced to 13th on Saturday with a single standing miss and the 18th-fastest course time overall. With a clean prone, she stood 15th overall after the first stage, then improved to 14th with the 13th-fastest course time on her second lap and one penalty on the second stage.
“My legs were feeling a bit heavy today, but I knew that I wanted to start hard,” Crawford wrote in an email. “I felt like I really made up time on the downhills and flats in the Thursday’s race, so I made sure to really push over the top of hills and push really hard on the rolling flats. … None of the hills on the 2.5km loop are too long, so you really can keep a good tempo going.
“I missed my first shot standing, just think I wasn’t quite ready for it, should have taken one more breath, but happy to hit the next 4,” she added.
The 20th starter, Crawford crossed the finish line in sixth, but was pushed back 13th, 54.9 seconds behind Domracheva and 1.6 seconds out of 10th (which Ukraine’s Valj Semerenko, Russia’s Daria Virolaynen, and Slovakia’s Jana Gerekova tied for). She was 1.8 seconds from ninth.
“It’s great to add another top 15 to my resume!” Crawford wrote.”I feel like things are starting to make the turn again, which is good for the confidence … I know a biathlete shouldn’t complain about 90%, but the number of times I’ve hit 9/10 is starting to get a bit annoying! Hopefully I hit that magic 100% in World Champs.”
Darya Domracheva of Belarus celebrates her her eighth IBU World Cup win of the season in Saturday’s 7.5 k sprint in Oslo, Norway, which put her on top of the overall IBU World Cup standings. (Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni)
Domracheva stole the show for the eighth time this season with clean shooting and the third-fastest course time. After starting 32nd, she was one of more than 30 women to clean prone, and after that first stage, Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff led by 1.6 seconds over Poland’s Weronika Nowakowska-Ziemnia. Domracheva remained three seconds back in fourth (after Russia’s Olga Podchufarova in third).
Another perfect stage moved Domracheva to first, 16.2 seconds ahead of Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier in second, and their order remained in tact through the finish with Domracheva sealing the win in 20:35.7.
Dahlmeier in bib 50 took second, 14.3 seconds back, for her fourth podium in the last six races, and France’s Marie Dorin Habert in bib 11 tallied her first podium since having a child this summer in third (+29.9) with one standing penalty.
For the fifth-straight race, Dorin Habert’s ski time ranked fourth after the Czech Republic’s Veronika Vitkova (who finished 21st with three penalties), Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen (who placed 24th with three misses) and Domracheva, respectively. Her French teammate, Anais Bescond finished fourth (+32.6) for her fifth top-five the season with clean shooting, according to RealBiathlon.
“I am a happy lady right now,” Domracheva told the IBU after the race, which moved her to first in the overall World Cup standings, 10 points ahead of Mäkäräinen. “I was not thinking so much about the competition, just focused on my own race and wish to hit all of the prone targets which I did today … This is a really good place for me … a really good day.”
On Thursday, Domracheva placed second in the individual, 1:18.3 behind Mäkäräinen.
Marie Dorin Habert of France racing to third with the fourth-fastest course time on Saturday in the women’s 7.5 k sprint in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni)
A year ago, Dorin Habert announced her pregnancy at Holmenkollen. “Last year, I did not expect that I would be at this level so quickly,” she told the IBU on Saturday. “I have worked hard and everything is possible now.”
Canada’s Audrey Vaillancourt cleaned her second-straight race to place 36th (+1:30) for her second-best result after a career-high 30th on Thursday.
While the confidence she built on Thursday helped, she explained in an email that a sprint is inherently different than the 15 k individual, so her strategy had to change — but some things remained the same.
“Once again I wanted to take the race step by step, and give my best for each one,” Vaillancourt wrote. “So basically not be thinking about my next shooting bout while skiing and vice-versa. Also focus on each shot separately again.”
She ended up clocking the third-fastest overall shooting time and sixth-fastest range time.
“I was feeling extremely confident, and that showed on my shooting speed,” she wrote. “I think I made up a lot of time there. When I left the range I thought : okaaaay next step GIVE IT ALL.”
On her last lap, she heard her wax technicians tell her she was in 30th. Despite finishing 36th, she said she wasn’t surprised. “There was probably 5 girls within a second around me,” she wrote. “I am very satisfied with my placing, I gave all I could and everything went as planned today.”
Canada’s third woman, Megan Heinicke placed 68th (+2:30.7) with three penalties (1+2), and Sarah Beaudry was 80th (+3:11.5) with one miss in each stage.
Annelies Cook was the second American in 65th (+2:28.8) with three misses (2+1). A day after her 29th birthday, Susan Dunklee finished 69th (+2:32.5) with four misses (3+1), and Clare Egan was 91st (+4:40.9) with six penalties (2+4).
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing to a season-best eighth in Friday’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Antholz, Italy. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
There’s something in the air, or a lack thereof, in Antholz, Italy. Maybe it’s the fact that the biathlon venue is nearly 2,000 meters, about 6,500 feet, above sea level. The combination of a lack of oxygen and its proximity to the sun and mountains seems to work wonders for some athletes.
On Friday, Susan Dunklee was one of 95 women in the IBU World Cup 7.5-kilometer sprint that found her way into the top 10 in Antholz.
The American’s eighth-place result — her season best — came a year after she placed fourth in the Antholz sprint for what was then her career best.
“Antholz has always been a wonderful place for me and a good place to recover from a mentally tough start to the year,” Dunklee explained in an email after Friday’s race, in which she finished 1:10.3 back from Belarusian winner Darya Domracheva, who posted the fastest time in 19:57.8. “I thrive with Italian sunshine, mountains, food, and snow.”
Susan Dunklee races to an eighth-place finish in the women’s sprint at the IBU World Cup in Antholz, Italy. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Before the start, Dunklee recalled what worked for her there last year, “Skiing BIG with a stretched-out efficient V2 alternate, holding back in key places on the loop to feel okay for the range, and taking several extra breaths before shooting,” she wrote. “The high elevation here is an added stress and it helps to have a plan for how to deal with it.”
The 12th starter on a bluebird afternoon, Dunklee cleaned her first shooting to leave the range in fourth, 6.2 seconds behind Domracheva, the race leader at the time. Dunklee went on to miss one shot in the middle of her standing stage, which she explained landed high.
“The follow-though looked a little off,” she reflected. “Usually the field makes extra shooting mistakes here because of the elevation, so I suspected I could have a great race with one miss.”
She was right. Dunklee headed out of the penalty loop and into her last lap still in fourth, 52 seconds behind Domracheva, who cleaned both stages. While the American held fourth position through the finish, she was later bumped four spots by Italy’s Karin Oberhofer (who placed fifth), Finnish runner-up Kaisa Mäkäräinen, Nadezhda Skardino of Belarus (who ended up seventh), Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand (who placed sixth), respectively.
With the 10th-fastest course time, Dunklee ranked 73rd on the range in terms of time spent there, which was all part of her plan. In order to shoot well, she had to hold back on both the race course and take her time shooting, she explained.
In doing so, she finished 19.9 seconds off the podium and 0.7 seconds ahead of ninth, which Germany’s Franziska Preuss and Poland’s Weronika Nowakowsak-Ziemniak tied for. Dunklee will start Saturday’s 10 k pursuit with Skardino, 1:10 behind Domracheva and 1 second ahead of Preuss and Nowakowsak-Ziemniak.
“Historically I find my stride for the season in Antholz, so I’m hopeful I can build on this like in past years,” Dunklee said of her season best. “But I know that I must continue to find the fun in each race experience if I want to sustain myself at this level.”
Domracheva Fast-and-Flawless for First
Darya Domracheva (Belarus) atop the IBU World Cup podium for the 21st time in her career after winning Friday’s 7.5 k sprint in Antholz, Italy.
An even earlier starter, Domracheva in bib 3 pushed herself to the brink with the fastest-course time and yet managed to be one of four women in the top 10 who cleaned both stages (along with Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier in third, Slovakia’s Jana Gerekova in fourth, and Skardino in seventh).
Her time wasn’t always the fastest. Later in the race, three women topped her through the first stage with clean shooting as well. Mäkäräinen was on track to give Domracheva a run, besting her time after the first shooting by 7.6 seconds. Ukraine’s Valj Semerenko ranked second after prone, 4.3 seconds behind Mäkäräinen, and Oberhofer cleaned to clock through in third, 6.6 seconds back.
Mäkäräinen remained in control heading into the stadium for the second-and-final stage, with a 6.4-second lead over Domracheva. However, she missed her first standing shot and the penalty lap cost her as she left the range in second, 20 seconds behind Domracheva.
“I missed my first in standing,” Mäkäräinen later told Domracheva as they chatted before the flower ceremony. “After that it was like fighting. It’s always bad when you miss your first.”
Domracheva nodded her head. Sometimes you missed; sometimes you didn’t. Fortunately for her, she fell into the latter category with her 21st World Cup win on Friday.
“Shooting clean this week and last week in the sprint is very good. I have not done anything different, but it is working,” Domracheva told the IBU. “I think the sun and good conditions help. It was an amazing feeling when I realized I was winning. But I did not want to celebrate too early.”
Upon finishing,sShe collapsed to her knees and awaited her fate. Mäkäräinen came within 26.9 seconds of her — the closest anyone would rival Domracheva all day. The overall IBU World Cup leader by 52 points over Domracheva, Mäkäräinen placed second, and Dahlmeier, the second starter, held on for third (+50.4) with clean shooting.
The women’s sprint podium in Antholz, Italy, with winner Darya Domracheva (c), runner-up Kaisa Mäkäräinen (l) and Laura Dahlmeier in third.
Gerekova started fifth and also nailed all 10 shots to put herself in fourth (+55.2). Oberhofer missed one standing but had the third-fastest course time (after Domracheva and Mäkäräinen, respectively) to place fifth (+57.5).
Mäkäräinen told the IBU after the race that she was “very happy” with her result after having a difficult time in three previous sprints.
“Every competition is different and maybe it is a miss by only 1 millimeter, but sometimes, the small things matter,” she said.
Leading three Germans in the top nine, Dahlmeier was especially excited for her first-career podium, jumping up and down before and during the flower ceremony.
“Today was a big surprise, but it was a perfect race,” she said. “I felt good on the tracks … Our team is very young and doing well right now; we have a very good team atmosphere.”
Domracheva will start Saturday’s pursuit with a 27-second head start on Mäkäräinen. Dahlmeier will go out third, 50 seconds back, followed by Gerekova (+55.0), Oberhofer (+58.0) and Hildebrand (+1:01) before Skardino and Dunklee.
Crawford 29th in First Race Back Since Oberhof
Four North Americans (two Americans and two Canadians) made the top 60 to qualify for the pursuit. In her first race back in 12 days, Crawford placed 29th with a single prone miss, finishing 1:48.1 behind Domracheva.
Canada’s Rosanna Crawford en route to fourth on Dec. 18 in the IBU World Cup 7.5 k sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia. (Photo: Christian Manzoni/NordicFocus)
After a cold caused her to miss the entire last World Cup stop in Ruhpolding, Germany, and kept her from training for seven days (and shooting/skiing for eight), Crawford hoped for a top 40 and perfect shooting, like her boyfriend Brendan Green had done in four-straight races. On Thursday, with a 50-for-50 shooting streak, he posted a career-best fifth.
“My goal was a top 40 to keep on making points and still looking for that illusive 100% shooting in a non-relay race!” Crawford wrote in an email. “I’ll have to get a few pointers from Brendan!
“We started things off really slow not wanting to relapse back into the cold, but the sunshine and good Italian food helped get me back to normal,” she explained. “I still have a cough that I’m sure will hang around for a while.”
“It was so exciting watching Brendan’s race yesterday! I’ve know he’s had the potential to be up at the front and to see him get his first flower ceremony was really exciting! We’ve had some great results this year from a number of athletes and it’s been great to build off one another! It’s now a battle between Brendan and I of who’s going to get the first podium!!”
The 41st starter, Crawford’s time ranked 30th before the first stage. There, she missed her first shot to drop to 61st.
“I’ve struggled with prone shooting here in the past and knew that I needed to be slow and precise to hit the target,” she wrote. “Even though we live at 1400m in Canmore it’s hard to shoot at 1600m! I missed my first shot and then took two breaths between the next four to make sure I would hit them. It was by far the slowest I’ve ever shot prone but I am happy to only had one miss!”
Crawford knocked down her remaining targets to recover to 31st after the second stage and finish 29th. Her course time ranked 34th and she her range time was 66th.
During her last lap, Crawford heard she was in 20th, about four seconds from 16th.
“The finishing stretch is pretty tough here, long and flat and I was happy to be able to have a good push to the line,” she wrote.
On Saturday, she’ll start 1:48 back with Ukraine’s Juliya Dzhyma.
“I think this will be my first pursuit here, so I’m really looking forward to it,” Crawford wrote. “With some good shooting I hope to stay in the top 30 and then I’ll have a week of training before the next world cups to hopefully get back to where I was before Christmas!”
Annelies Cook during the women’s 7.5 k sprint in Antholz, Italy. She placed 67th. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Her teammate, Megan Heinicke placed 40th in the sprint, 2:07 back from Domracheva, with one miss in prone and another in standing. Heinicke’s shooting was faster — with the 19th-fastest range time — and she posted the 36th-fastest course time.
For the U.S., Hannah Dreissigacker made the pursuit by one-tenth of a second 60th (+2:44.3), with three penalties, one prone and two standing. She had the 16th-fastest range time and was 48th fastest on course.
Also for the U.S., Annelies Cook placed 67th (+3:01.5) with two standing penalties, and Maddie Phaneuf of the Maine Winter Sports Center was 93rd (+4:13) with three misses (1+2) in her first World Cup sprint.
Canada’s Julia Ransom placed 76th (+3:19.2) with three penalties (2+1), Audrey Vaillancourt was 83rd (+3:38.3) with a single standing miss.
Megan Heinicke (Biathlon Canada) racing to 59th in the sprint at the 2014 Olympics near Sochi, Russia.
Megan Heinicke had a little something called home-course advantage working in her favor on Friday, and for that matter, on Wednesday and this Sunday as well.
The 26-year-old Canadian from Prince George, B.C., has called Ruhpolding, Germany, her home since September. Lucky for her, the fifth IBU World Cup stop of the season was there, with races Wednesday through Sunday. And on Friday, the six-year Biathlon Canada veteran qualified for her first-ever mass start after placing a career-best 11th in the 7.5-kilometer sprint.
“This was one of my strongest skiing performances ever,” Heinicke wrote in an email after Friday’s race, in which she topped her previous World Cup best by one place (she was 12th in the 15 k individual at the beginning of the season in Östersund). “I simply felt strong and there is nothing more fun than fighting hard when you feel strong.”
The 16th starter out of 98 women, she finished 52.3 seconds behind the winner after shooting 90 percent with a clean prone stage and one standing penalty.
That put her in third overall after prone, and while her standing miss set her back to 10th and she slipped one more spot to 11th on the last lap, Heinicke initially finished fifth of 16 women.
“I was well aware that starting with bib 16 meant that there were still a lot of strong girls behind me so I wasn’t disappointed to fall back a bit [in the final results],” she explained. “I was really hoping to stay in 10th, but 11th is a new personal best and I am really pleased with the result.”
Throughout the race, she heard she was in contention with top women like Darya Domracheva of Belarus (who started 14th and ended up second) and Italy’s Dorothea Wierer (who started 19th and placed ninth). She wasn’t sure what that meant or where it would put her, but she felt strong and assumed she was doing well.
Going into the race, Heinicke had hoped for a top 30, but more specifically, to “glide longer in the flat sections and be a bit more explosive with higher frequency on the few steep sections,” she wrote. “Shooting wise I had been trying out some keywords and those were all I wanted to think about on the range.”
On Wednesday, Heinicke had another first, racing to second in the opening leg of the women’s 4 x 6 relay and putting her team 25 seconds from the lead at the exchange. The Canadians ended up 11th — not quite the team-best fourth they accomplished just over a year ago — but Heinicke saw it as a stepping stone.
“I had a great relay leg this Wednesday and had also had a great relay leg in Oberhof which had me feeling determined and confident,” she wrote. “I am slowly starting to feel more confident and I have this fierce determination to shoot well which is enough to keep me focused.”
The level of support she’s received has helped her as well.
“I have had some big life changes this fall and am feeling like there is no pressure on me and I think that has been good for my head,” she explained. “I am really motivated by having several personal bests this season and I feel like the return of my self confidence is good for me. I am planning to keep racing with the same determined, task-oriented approach and who knows what can happen! I certainly wasn’t expecting these results to come this year!”
With Friday’s result, Heinicke was one of two Canadian women to qualify for Sunday’s 12.5 k mass start. Rosanna Crawford sat out Wednesday and Friday because of a cold, but is currently 12th in the overall World Cup (making the top-30 criteria) and listed to start in bib 12.
In her first-career mass start, Heinicke will start in bib 28.
“I am glad I have been able to start our relay a few times so I am not feeling too nervous about starting in the pack,” Heinicke wrote.
Also for Canada on Friday, Zina Kocher placed 48th, 2:18.8 behind the winner — Fanny Welle-Strand Horn of Norway. After starting 96th, Kocher found herself in the top 20 after a clean prone and the 23rd-fastest course time on the first lap. However, she missed three in standing, which put her back from 31st to 65th with one lap to go. Kocher posted the 13th-fastest course time overall.
Audrey Vaillancourt finished 68th (+3:13.7) with a single prone penalty, and Julia Ransom, in her second World Cup sprint, was 81st (+3:55.8) with four penalties: one prone and three standing.
Dunklee: ‘One of my best performances of the year’
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) on her way to 26th on Friday in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
US Biathlon’s Susan Dunklee led the Americans in what she considered one of her best performances of the year, in which she placed 26th, 1:44 behind Horn.
Dunklee started 30th and skied right around 30th for most of the race, cleaning prone and missing one in standing, and posted the 30th-fastest course time overall.
In an email, she explained her skiing felt “snappy,” which left her surprised with the splits she was hearing: why weren’t they better?
“There are always factors out of your control as an athlete,” Dunklee wrote. “Today we saw some tricky waxing conditions with wet snow and we didn’t nail it quite as well as we usually do.”
Skiing aside, she explained she had her best shooting day of the season, “which is a huge confidence booster going forward,” she wrote. “Plus I was happy, relaxed and focused this morning; I was just plain psyched to be racing, more so than I have been lately.”
On Sunday, Dunklee as the lone American in the women’s mass start will start in bib 23.
“I’m ready to try again in the mass start,” she wrote.
Her teammates, Annelies Cook and Hannah Dreissigacker, placed 52nd and 77th, respectively on Friday. Cook cleaned prone and missed one standing to finish 2:30.1 behind the winner, and Dreissigacker fell behind with two prone penalties and another miss in standing to end up 3:41.2 back.
Horn Surprises for First World Cup Win
While much of the attention in Friday’s sprint went to Domracheva, who started 14th and cleaned both stages despite using one spare in prone, there was also a lot riding on Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff, the 31st starter who came within 4.2 seconds of Domracheva’s time heading into the final lap.
Norway’s Fanny Welle-Strand Horn celebrates her first IBU World Cup win and podium on Friday after the 7.5 sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: IBU/Ernst Wukits)
She couldn’t quite catch her, finishing 5.9 seconds behind Domracheva, but there was another Norwegian gunning for the win — Horn, who, at 26, had never before reached the World Cup podium.
Horn started 35th, two minutes after Eckhoff, and took the lead with a clean prone. She hit all her standing targets as well to stay in control, then raced the seventh-fastest last lap to edge Domracheva’s time by 3.4 seconds in 21:07.4.
“I have been in this game for a long time, five years in the World Cup,” she told the IBU afterward. “Today, everything worked out for me — skiing, waxing and shooting — I am really happy and I am really happy that I made 10 good shots.”
Norway took two of the top three with Eckhoff in third, after Domracheva in second.
“We had amazing skis today,” Eckhoff told the IBU. “We have a really strong team and it is really fun that I am on the podium with Fanny on top.”
While Domracheva lost a few seconds loading the spare, she was glad she was able to avoid a penalty loop.
“I am happy that I shot clean. Sometimes when things like that happens, an athlete misses the shot,” she said.
She also liked the modified course: “The new course is good; there were not so many girls falling anymore,” Domracheva said.
Ukraine’s Valj Semerenko placed fourth, 21 seconds after Horn, Finland’s Mari Laukkanen — an early leader after a clean prone stage — missed one standing to place fifth (+22.7), Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand cleaned for sixth (+28.6), and overall World Cup leader Kaisa Mäkäräinen missed one on each stage but skied the second-fastest course time to place seventh (+32).
Veronika Vitkova of the Czech Republic had the fastest course time, but missed three (one prone and two standing) to finish eighth (+41.2). Wierer was ninth for Italy (+43.3), and Czech Jitka Landova placed 10th (+50.9), 1.4 seconds ahead of Heinicke.
On Sunday, Mäkäräinen, who still leads the World Cup, will start the mass start in bib 1 alongside Domracheva in bib 2 and Semerenko in bib 3.
American Susan Dunklee racing to 21st place in Friday’s 7.5 k World Cup sprint in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus.com)
Another windy day in Oberhof, Germany, for Friday’s IBU World Cup 7.5-kilometer women’s sprint race caused some of the big names to make huge errors on the range and created room for new faces on the podium.
Veronika Vitkova of the Czech Republic made it two-for-two for victories in 2015, claiming her first individual World Cup win. Coming off the Czech women’s first relay win in over a decade on Wednesday, Vitkova powered her way victory on Friday with a time of 22:40.0 even after a miss in both the prone and standing shooting. She had the second-fastest ski time of the field.
“I felt very good on the tracks but I didn’t think I would win with two mistakes,” Vitkova explained in a press conference following Friday’s sprint.
She knocked two Italians back when she crossed the finish line: Dorothea Wierer, who ended up in second place 8.8 seconds back, and Nicole Gontier, who was 19.1 seconds back. Wierer, who had the fastest opening leg in Wednesday’s relay, continued to lead the Italian team and with the result moves into second in the women’s world cup standings.
Wierer commented on the tough conditions of Oberhof: “It was really hard conditions with the wind, I was lucky because in the standing I had no wind, and I could shoot really fast and that was my luck.”
Gontier lead early, being the tenth starter of the day and hitting all 10 targets though she would be bested by 19.1 seconds.
American Hannah Dreissigacker finished 37th in the sprint with two penalties. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus.com)
“I’m really surprised because I didn’t expect it [to be on the podium], I shot really well,” Gontier explained during the press conference. “It was the first time I shot clean, and I am really happy to be here with Dorothea for my first podium.”
Her team certainly thrived in the windy conditions, putting three women in the top ten and two on the podium. Karin Oberhofer finished eighth, making them the most successful team on the day.
Overall World Cup leader Kaisa Makarainen had two mistakes in each of her two trips to the shooting range, ending her chances of another sprint victory. Another strong challenger for the overall points lead, Darya Domracheva of Belarus missed three times in the prone and again in her standing, putting her out of contention early. She had the fastest ski time on the day to nevertheless finish 18th.
The German crowds finally had something to celebrate as German native Fransiska Preuss finished fourth, 22.5 seconds back with one miss. Finland’s Mari Laukkanen surpassed her more famous teammate Makarainen to claim fifth, 23.9 seconds off the winning time. Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic, also with two mistakes, rounded out the top six, 24.8 seconds behind her teammate.
Two North American women claimed World Cup points: Americans Susan Dunklee, who finished 21st, 1:22.9 of the pace with three misses, and Hannah Dreissigacker, who placed 37th (+2:05.0) after cleaning her prone shoot and missing two targets in her final trip to the range.
Some athletes were luckier than others in terms of shooting conditions in Oberhof. After facing some difficult gusts in prone shooting, Dunklee explained in an email, “Every athlete had slightly different conditions to deal with. As an athlete, the trick is to not stress out about it because it is not something you can control.”
Dreissigacker was happy to be in the points.
“Scoring points is always good!” Dreissigacker wrote in an email. “I was very happy with my first lap and with shooting clean in prone. In standing I had a little bit of trouble, but it was windy and I was tired and so I was happy to pull myself together after two misses and hit the last two shots.”
Annelies Cook (USA) on course. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus.com)
Annelies Cook, the third American, finished 62nd (+3:24.3). She crashed on the last lap, reportedly damaging her rifle, but still finished the race.
Rosanna Crawford was again the top Canadian, placing 46th after a difficult standing shooting where she took four laps of the 150-meter penalty loop before completing her race.
“I felt decent skiing and our skis were amazing,” Crawford wrote in an email. “I was lucky in prone with consistent wind and then not so lucky in standing where it was gusting pretty hard.”
Crawford explained that after having made all of her mistakes shooting in the second trip to the range, she realized that shooting standing in the end lanes (25-30) potentially would have offered more shelter from the wind.
Fellow Canadian Megan Heinicke claimed 56th (+2:56.6), just ahead of Zina Kocher in 58th (+3:05.1); Emma Lunder finished 92nd (+5:44.4). Their teammate Julia Ransom took a major crash on her final lap having hit nine of the ten targets, breaking her ski and retiring from the race. In just the second weekend of World Cup racing in her career, Ransom was sitting in 25th place after the second shooting.
Dorothea Wierer (ITA), Veronika Vitkova (CZE) and Nicole Gontier (ITA) take the IBU biathlon World Cup podium in Oberhof, Germany. (Fischer/NordicFocus)
Canada’s Scott Gow (11) during the men’s 10 k sprint at the North American Rollerski Championships in August in Jericho, Vt.
Scott Gow’s been to the IBU World Cup, raced at 2013 World Championships and multiple — as in five — Junior World Championships. But nothing beats getting on the podium.
Gow, 24, got there on Friday in the men’s 10-kilometer sprint in Obertilliach, Austria, cleaning both stages to finish just 1.6 seconds behind French winner Baptiste Jouty and 1.3 seconds behind runner-up Florian Graf of Germany.
He led a contingent of four Canadian men, with his brother placing 17th (+55.3) with a single prone penalty, Macx Davis in 53rd (+2:29.1) with two standing misses, and Carson Campbell in 83rd with two prone and two standing penalties.
“Being able to shoot clean made it feel like a perfect day,” he wrote. “I had a good race on Wednesday that I was able to feed off a little bit skiing-wise, and I have been focusing a lot on shooting the past two weeks which all contributed to my result today.”
His focus was shooting, first and foremost.
“I was confident that my skiing was there, but I needed solid shooting if I wanted to break into the top 10 and have a chance at a medal,” Gow wrote. “I was ecstatic when I cleaned standing, and I knew I would be in the hunt.”
He had heard that he was nine seconds back in fifth, but Gow was unsure how close the top three were.
“I mean, how hard would it have been to pick up 1.6 seconds somewhere in the race?” he wrote. “Despite the tight finish I’m happy with 3rd and the renewed confidence for the next trimester.”
As to whether he had any motivation to beat his younger brother, who placed eighth on Wednesday, Gow wrote, “I’m always motivated to beat my brother, but I was happy to see him have 3 good races. He did really well in Wednesday’s sprint, so he has a lot of confidence going for him as well.”
Audrey Vaillancourt (Biathlon Canada) racing to second in the 7.2 k sprint at Canada’s IBU World Cup team trials Frozen Thunder in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Photo: Justin Brisbane)
In the women’s 7.5 k sprint, Canada’s Audrey Vaillancourt cleaned to place seventh, 20.7 seconds behind Ukrainian winner Iryna Varvynets. Wednesday’s sprint winner, Italy’s Federica Sanfilippo placed second, 4.6 seconds back with a single penalty, while Varvynets hit all her targets.
After starting her season on the World Cup, Vaillancourt, 23, placed 41st on Wednesday and 49th in Tuesday’s 15 k individual.
In an email, she explained she was mostly disappointed to be missing out on the IBU World Cup this week. She arrived in Obertilliach on Monday.
“I knew there was no point in being sad or angry all week, so I tried as best as I could to let go, put a smile on my face and focus on my races here,” Vaillancourt wrote. “Until today my races were not going so well — I had not been shooting as well as usual, and I had not had really good feeling on the skis. I wanted to do well enough to stay on the World Cup, maybe even wanted it too much. I think I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself and that probably affected my performances in the wrong way.”
But working with coach Ferréol Cannard, a former French team biathlete who’s been assisting the Canadian IBU Cup team in Europe, helped with her shooting, she explain.
“He took time with every athlete to go over their strengths and weaknesses,” Vaillancourt explained. “Right before my race, he asked me whether I had shot 10/10 before. I said yes, and he told me there was no reason not to do it today then.”
She wanted to start strong, and did so, trying to hold it through the finish. After cleaning her final stage, Vaillancourt heard her wax techs tell her she was fighting for a podium.
“… Until the last lap … I really died!” she wrote. “But I’m still glad I tried that strategy, I still made top ten after all! I really needed today’s result, not to prove anything to anyone, but just for myself. I’m very glad I finished on such a good note before Christmas.”
Vaillancourt led fellow Canadian Julia Ransom, who placed 18th, 1:01.1 behind the winner with her second-straight clean race. Zina Kocher finished 25th and Emma Lunder was 60th, both with two penalties.
IBU Cup racing in Obertilliach wraps up with the mixed relay on Saturday.
American Susan Dunklee on her way to 29th in Friday’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria. Dunklee missed one prone and one standing. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
No skiing? No sweat, according to US Biathlon’s Susan Dunklee.
Earlier this week, after leaving the first IBU World Cup venue in Östersund, Sweden, Dunklee and her team found the skiing in conditions in Hochfilzen, Austria, well — non-existent. Organizers were working on transporting snow great distances to hold the race.
“Considering how uncertain we were last week about whether these races would happen, the organizers have done a fantastic job,” Dunklee wrote on Friday. “They brought in all the necessary snow for a nice clean 2.5 km loop.”
But before that, the U.S. skiers prepped with some trail running.
“We did some running when we first arrived since the ski loop wasn’t ready yet and it was beautiful up in the mountains,” Dunklee explained in an email. “The great thing about not having natural snow is that the hiking trails are all still open so we got to explore more than usual.”
Dunklee’s an avid hiker, so that worked for her. Come Friday, when a 2.5-kilometer loop was ready to go for the women’s and men’s 7.5- and 10-k sprints, so was she.
“I feel like I already have all the pieces I need to be earning top tens,” she explained. “I am starting the season with top-end ski speed, a huge improvement from last year. I’ve been consistently hitting higher percentages of targets in practice than ever before.”
On Friday, she missed one prone and one standing for 80-percent shooting: not perfect, but something she made up for with the 11th-fastest course time. Dunklee finished 29th overall, 1:29.3 behind Finnish winner Kaisa Mäkäräinen.
“So far I have had solid results but nothing big,” Dunklee wrote. “I am a little disappointed it hasn’t come together for me yet, but the season is young.”
“I feel like I already have all the pieces I need to be earning top tens. … So far I have had solid results but nothing big.” — Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) after placing 29th in Friday’s 7.5 k sprint
Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen after winning the IBU World Cup pursuit last Sunday in Östersund, Sweden. Five days later, she repeated with a sprint victory in Hochfilzen, Austria. (Photo: IBU/NordicFocus)
For Mäkäräinen, Friday’s victory was her second straight after she topped the Östersund pursuit last Sunday. The defending IBU World Cup champion started 23rd and missed one in prone, but cleaned standing and consistently posted the fastest loop times to take the win in 20:55.6. Italy’s Karin Oberhofer cleaned for second, 10.4 seconds back, and as the 15th starter, her time remained ahead of Mäkäräinen until the last lap. But it gave Mäkäräinen a time to beat.
“I felt good on the first loop and the second loop, but I do not know where I got that power on the last loop,” Mäkäräinen told the IBU, referring to her illness earlier in the week. “My legs were feeling really tired … The sickness this week did not affect me on the shooting range, but it did on the tracks. I was not able to do my normal training all week, just a lot of slow skiing.”
She was pleased with her shooting, even with a penalty.
“I am quite happy and a bit surprised to win. My level is quite high now, so that helped me,” she said.
Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff in bib 18 was primed to take the lead from Oberhofer heading into the last stage before missing one, her only penalty of the day. She fell off the pace to place third, almost 20 seconds after Oberhofer and 29.9 seconds behind Mäkäräinen.
For Oberhofer, 29, who was fourth in the sprint at the Sochi Olympics last winter, it was her first individual podium.
“I trained a lot, hoping that maybe I might get to the podium at least once,” Oberhofer told the IBU. “In the last loop, I just concentrated on the tracks, did my best and it turned out good.”
While Dunklee will start 1:29 back from Mäkäräinen in Sunday’s 10 k pursuit, she predicted she’d have opportunities to move up with seven women starting within seven seconds ahead of her.
The women’s podium after the Hochfilzen World Cup 7.5 k sprint on Friday, with Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen (c) in first, Italy ‘s Karin Oberhofer (l) in second, and Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff in third. (Photo: IBU/Ernst Wukits)
Five seconds behind her, Canada’s Rosanna Crawford will head out 34th, 1:34 behind Mäkäräinen, based on Friday’s result.
“Today was a tough day on the skis for me,” Crawford wrote in an email. “Right from the start I just didn’t feel I had that snap I needed and it warmed up quite a bit right before start which made for suction on the skis. On my last loop I just didn’t have the same energy I had last week. But you can’t expect to be fast all the time.”
The top Canadian in 34th, Crawford cleaned prone and missed one standing. She was pleased to shoot 90 percent — especially considering it was “blustery” during zero, then calm, then windy again during the race, she explained.
“I made a pretty big correction, so I was happy that I hit them all [on the first stage],” she said. “I seem to be having a lot of one misses so far this year, but 90% is still good.”
After fresh snow arrived Thursday, Crawford described the course as packed and fast — until the sun hit it on Friday afternoon. “[Then] things really slowed down,” she wrote.
The lone Canadian woman to advance to the pursuit in the top 60 (Megan Heinicke was 61st, Sarah Beaudry placed 63rd in her World Cup debut, Audrey Vaillancourt was 66th, and Zina Kocher finished 82nd), Crawford was hoping for a top 30 in the pursuit.
“For Sunday, hopefully I will be feeling better on the skis and able to move up some positions. The goal is to stay in the points,” she wrote.
Before that, she’ll race in the women’s 4×6 k relay on Saturday morning with Heinicke, Beaudry and Vaillancourt.
“I think if we each have a good leg that a top 10 is possible,” Crawford wrote. “Right now Audrey and Megan are just getting over a cold, I’m not skiing like I would like to be and it’s Sarah Beaudry’s first World Cup, so the focus will be some good shooting on all parts.”
“You can’t expect to be fast all the time.” — Rosanna Crawford (Biathlon Canada) after placing 34th on Friday
While Heinicke missed three (1+2) to finish 2:39.2 behind the winner, Beaudry, 20, who earned her World Cup starts last weekend in Canmore, Alberta, had a single standing penalty.
“Sarah had a great day on the range today, and I am sure things slowed down a lot by the time she hit the course [after starting 94th],” Crawford explained. “It’s always really exciting to be with someone who it’s their first World Cup, they bring so much energy to the team! Sarah is a blast to have around!”
Vaillancourt also missed one (1+0) and Kocher finished with five penalties (3+2).
American Annelies Cook qualified for the pursuit in 50th (+2:04.9) with a single prone miss.
“After a rough start in Östersund, I had to reevaluate my training a bit,” she explained in an email. “Clearly, I am lacking the high-end speed and lactate tolerance that I need to have to keep up on the World Cup. It’s easy to look back and try to figure out what went wrong, but it can be hard to let it go and just focus on what you can control. So that is what I am trying to do now.”
“It’s easy to look back and try to figure out what went wrong, but it can be hard to let it go and just focus on what you can control.” — Annelies Cook (US Biathlon), 50th on Friday
Cook added that she’s been working on speed, and since placing 79th in last weekend’s sprint and missing out on the following pursuit, she did some intervals and pushed as hard as she could on Friday.
“I am glad I can race in the pursuit and get one more hard session under my belt,” she wrote. “I have to say, I was actually pretty sore today … I must be getting old! But I felt good once I started to race. But I can’t hold on to that speed for the entire race yet, which is frustrating. I was really happy to clean standing after missing prone because that is one of my demons. I told myself I had to relax and I was going to clean, luckily it worked.”
While the Americans are one woman short for the relay, Cook and Dunklee will race on Sunday.
“It’s another opportunity to push hard, to ski with other girls and to challenge myself in the shooting range. Plus, it’s fun!” Cook wrote.
The third U.S. woman, Hannah Dreissigacker placed 78th on Friday (+3:12.7) with three penalties — one prone and two standing. Last weekend, she was 81st in the Östersund sprint.
Rosanna Crawford racing to the win in the cross-country distance race on Oct. 27 at Frozen Thunder in Canmore, Alberta. She win on to win her second-consecutive race at Frozen Thunder on Thursday with a victory in the 7.5 k sprint at Canada’s IBU World Cup/IBU Cup trials. (Photo: Noel Rogers/Bow Valley Photography)
Day one of the Canadian World Cup and IBU Cup selections races took place at the Canmore Nordic Center on Thursday. The sprint race format consisted of three laps of the 3.4-kilometer Frozen Thunder loop for men, and three laps of the 2.4 k track for the women.
Cold temperatures dropping well below -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) made the tracks hard packed and squirrelly for racers. The 10.2 k men’s race started at noon due to the cool morning with women’s 7.2 k following 45 minutes later.
In the men’s race, Biathlon Canada’s Nathan Smith claimed the first victory of the season, clocking in at 26:57 minutes. Despite two misses in his last bout of shooting, Smith maintained strong ski speed to land on top of the podium. Marc-Andre Bedard of Team Quebec was just 12 seconds with perfect shooting for second. Macx Davies (Biathlon Canada) rounded out the top three another 25 seconds back, with three penalties.
“Wasn’t looking for anything else than give my best and have fun!” tweeted Bedard after the race. The former Olympian has been focusing on obstacle racing for much of the year.
The women’s race saw national-team veteran Rosanna Crawford take the win, with just one miss and the fastest time of 23:35. Emma Lunder, a new member to Biathlon Canada and the Biathlon Alberta Training Center, also had one miss and fought to stay with Crawford on her final lap for second overall, 1:08 back. Audrey Vaillancourt, another national-team member as well as an Open European Championship winner, finished in third, 9 seconds behind Lunder, with two penalties.
“Chilly morning for our first of two races up at the Nordic Center, happy to hit 9/10 when it’s hard to feel your fingers!” Crawford posted on her facebook fan page.
Racing continues Friday with another set of sprints. Crawford, Smith and Brendan Green prequalified for World Cups 1, 2 and 3, and Scott Gow prequalified for IBU Cups 2 and 3 (although he’s aiming for a World Cup spot instead).
In all, Canada has eight male and eight female quota spots, with four from each gender being tapped for the World Cup and four selected to the IBU Cup after trials. Qualifiers are expected to have shot at least 80 percent in two races this year, and come within 90 percent of the average of the podium finishers’ times at trials. The high-performance committee will review all results and select the team based on results and consistency, with a major focus on trials but also including other considerations as well.
About the author: Evan Brian Paul Girard is a student, an athlete and an adventurer. He grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan called Oxbow with a population of about 1,200. Biathlon Saskatchewan’s provincial coach Doug Sylvester introduced him to the sport at age 17. Having never cross-country skied or shot a target rifle, Girard was nearly a decade of training behind his fellow competitors, and he spent the next two years training with Biathlon Saskatchewan. In the spring of 2013, he was accepted as a member of the high-performance team, Rocky Mountain Racers, based out of the Bow Valley in Canmore. In December 2013, he competed for Canada for the first time as a biathlete at the Winter Univerisade in Trentino, Italy.
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![The women's IBU World Cup sprint podium on Saturday in Östersund, Sweden. (From left to right) Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen in second, France’s Marie Dorin Habert in first, and Czech Republic’s Gabriela Koukalova in third. (Photo: IBU)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/12/image1.jpeg")
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![American Susan Dunklee (l) after achieving her best IBU World Cup finish in second place on Thursday and tying the best World Cup result by a U.S. biathlete. She finished second to Czech Gabriela Soukalova (c), and Poland's Krystyna Guzik placed third (r) in the 7.5 k sprint in Presque Isle, Maine. It was the first IBU World Cup held in the U.S. since 2011 in Presque Isle. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/Group11022016cm23.jpg")
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![A US Biathlon staff member (l) cheers on Susan Dunklee (r) as she races to a career-best second place in the 7.5 k sprint on Thursday at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/Dunklee11022016cm32.jpg")
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![The youth men's podium (and top six) at the flower ceremony on Friday at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania: 1. Russia's Igor Malinovskii (11), 2. Norway's Endre Strømsheim (77), 3. Russia's Viacheslav Maleev (81), 4. Norway's Aleksander Andersen (48), 5. France's Morgan Lamure (12), 6. Sweden's Sebastian Samuelsson (5). (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/01/podium.jpg")
![The youth women's sprint podium (and top six) at the flower ceremony on Friday at IBU Youth World Championships in Cheile Gradistei, Romania: 1. Norway's Karoline Erdal (2), 2. Norway's Emilie Kalkenberg (72), 3. Ukraine's Anna Kryvonos (26), 4. Czech Republic's Marketa Davidova (4), 5. France's Lou Laurent Jeanmonnot (51), 6. Kazakhstan's Arina Pantova (38). (Photo: IBU YJWCH Cheile Gradistei 2016/Facebook)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/01/Sprint-youth-women.jpg")
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![Clare Egan (US Biathlon) after Saturday's 7.5 k sprint in Östersund, Sweden. She cleaned and ended up 16th for a career best. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/12/Egan05122015cm79.jpg")
![Annelies Cook (US Biathlon) racing to 25th in the 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/12/Cook05122015cm161.jpg")
![In the U.S. Ski Team's first race of the 2015/2016 season, Jessie Diggins led a 1-2 U.S. finish with teammate Sophie Caldwell finishing second. Here Diggins is shown celebrating her FIS classic sprint win on Saturday in Gällivare, Sweden. (Photo: USSA/Stefan Nieminen)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/11/Screen-Shot-2015-11-21-at-7.06.54-PM-1.png")
![Norway's Petter Northug racing to a 10 k classic win on Nov. 20 in Bruksvallarna, Sweden. He did so in a custom suit with the Swedish colors. (Photo: AdaMedia Med Mera/@adamedmera)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/11/northug-bruksvallarna.jpg")
![Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon) achieved a career-best 14th in the last sprint of the season in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. She is pictured at IBU World Championships on March 13 in the women's relay. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Dreissigacker13032015cm298_800x500.jpg")
![The women's 7.5 k sprint podium at the final IBU World Cup of the 2014/2015 season in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. From left to right: Runner-up Laura Dahlmeier of Germany, winner Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland, and Darya Domracheva of Belarus in third. (Photo: IBU/Evgeny Tumashov)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/2015-03-20_ed2ed1a0b835fd1.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing to 26th in the IBU World Cup 7.5 k sprint on Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Dunklee20032015cm23.jpg")
![The women's podium in Saturday's 7.5 k sprint at the 2015 IBU World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. (From l-r) Weronika Nowakowska-Ziemniak of Poland (2nd), Marie Dorin Habert of France (1st), and Valj Semereko of Ukraine (3rd). (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/DSC_1293.jpg")
![Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland was a heavy favorite in the 7.5 k sprint but ultimately finished 35th.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Makarainen.jpg")
![Valj Semereko of Ukraine racing to bronze in Saturday's 7.5 k sprint at teh 2015 IBU World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Semerenko07032015cm44.jpg")
![Megan Heinicke racing to 23rd in Saturday's 7.5 k sprint in Kontiolahti, Finland at the 2015 IBU World Championships. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Heinicke07032015cm99.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee racing to 42nd in Saturday's 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Dunklee07032015cm81.jpg")
![Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon) racing to 33rd in the IBU World Cup 15 k individual on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/Dreissigacker12022015cm109.jpg")
![Canada's Rosanna Crawford clocked the tenth-fastest course time on Dec. 18 to finish fourth in the 7.5 k sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia. (Photo: Christian Manzoni/NordicFocus.com)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/12/Crawford18122014cm19.jpg")
![Darya Domracheva of Belarus celebrates her victory in Saturday's 7.5 k sprint in Oslo, Norway, which put her on top of the overall IBU World Cup standings. (Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni) http://www4.biathlonworld.com/en/press_releases.html/do/detail?presse=2448](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/2015-02-14_54351ab8884a085.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![Marie Dorin Habert of France racing to third with the fourth-fastest course time on Saturday in the women's 7.5 k sprint in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/2015-02-14_3ac8936cbfafda5.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee racing to a season-best eighth in Friday's 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Antholz, Italy. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/unnamed5.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee races to an eighth-place finish in the women's sprint at the IBU World Cup in Antholz, Italy. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Dunklee23012015cm35.jpg")
![Darya Domracheva (Belarus) atop the IBU World Cup podium for the 21st time in her career after winning Friday's 7.5 k sprint in Antholz, Italy.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Domracheva.png")
![The women's sprint podium in Antholz, Italy, with winner Darya Domracheva (c), runner-up Kaisa Makarainen (l) and Laura Dahlmeier in third.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/antholz-womens-sprint-podium.png")
![Annelies Cook during the women's 7.5 k sprint in Antholz, Italy. She placed 67th. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Cook23012015cm66.jpg")
![Megan Heinicke (Biathlon Canada) racing to 59th in the 2014 Olympics sprint near Sochi, Russia.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/02/IMG_9399.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) on her way to 26th on Friday in the women's 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Dunklee16012015cm119.jpg")
![Norway's Fanny Welle-Strand Horn celebrates her first IBU World Cup win and podium on Friday after the 7.5 sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: IBU/Ernst Wukits)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/2015-01-16_a6d08b6d865bc6e.jpg_image_scaler_800x501.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee racing to 21st place in Friday's 7.5 k World Cup sprint in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus.com)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Dunklee09012015cm121.jpg")
![Veronika Vitkova (CZE) (photo: Fischer / Nordic Focus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Vitkova09012015cm23.jpg")
![Hannah Dreissigacker (USA) finished 37th in the sprint with two penalties. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus.com)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Dreissigacker09012015cm85.jpg")
![Annelies Cook (USA) on course. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus.com)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Cook09012015cm75.jpg")
![Dorothea Wierer (ITA), Veronika Vitkova (CZE) and Nicole Gontier (ITA) take the IBU biathlon World Cup podium in Oberhof, Germany. (Fischer/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Group09012015cm5.jpg")
![Men's 10 k sprint at the North American Rollerski Championships at the Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, Vt.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/08/IMG_6372.jpg")
![Audrey Vaillancourt (Biathlon Canada) racing to second in Friday's 7.2 k sprint at Frozen Thunder in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Photo: Justin Brisbane)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/11/10500568_786313368077720_5277203427842197950_n.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee on her way to 29th in Friday's 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria. Dunklee missed one prone and one standing. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/12/Dunklee12122014cm272.jpg")
![Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen after winning the IBU World Cup pursuit last Sunday in Östersund, Sweden. Five days later, she repeated with a sprint victory in Hochfilzen, Austria. (Photo: IBU/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/12/2014-12-12_76054d43f7b2281.jpg_image_scaler_683x1024.jpg")
![The women's podium after the Hochfilzen World Cup 7.5 k sprint on Friday, with Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen (c) in first, Italy 's Karin Oberhofer (l) in second, and Norway's Tiril Eckhoff in third. (Photo: IBU/Ernst Wukits)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/12/2014-12-12_216280b0e7d609f.jpg_image_scaler_589x800.jpg")
![Rosanna Crawford racing to the win in Monday's distance race at Frozen Thunder in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Noel Rogers/Bow Valley Photography)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/10/3C2C7518.jpg")