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Tag: Fredrik Lindstrom

  • Medal Matches the Rifle: Johannes Bø Captures 20 k Olympic Gold; Scott Gow 14th

    Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø celebrates his first Olympic medal — gold — in the men’s 20 k individual on Thursday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

    FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Madshus USA, Concept2, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible.

    ***

    Johannes Thingnes Bø came into these Olympics as a definite favorite, right up there with Martin Fourcade. But PyeongChang quickly humbled the 24-year-old Norwegian, just as it did Fourcade, in the first race of the 2018 Winter Games. There, in the men’s 10-kilometer sprint, Fourcade finished eighth, missing three out of five in his first shooting stage, and Bø had the same problem with prone — missing three then shooting another penalty in standing — to end up 31st. It was the kind of result no one saw coming after those two had taken first or second in every non-relay World Cup race this season (except for one, the sprint that Bø’s older brother Tarjei Bø won on Dec. 2 in Östersund, Sweden).

    The men’s second biathlon race of the Games, the 15 k pursuit, saw Fourcade back to his winning ways while Johannes Bø finished 21st.

    “We both [knew] before the Olympics that it will not be only a fight between us, because we know the shooting range [here] is challenging,” Fourcade said when asked about Bø in a press conference after the pursuit. “I thought that at our best level, we could be difficult to beat but the wind and the Olympic situation will bring many opportunities for outsiders to take competition… It’s not a competition about Johannes today. It’s biathlon.”

    Three days later in the men’s 20 k individual race on Thursday, Bø overcame any doubts and won his first Olympic medal in his second Games. It was gold, and he had achieved it with a time that stood up against 85 others in the men’s field. Even with two penalties that added two minutes to his final time (there are no penalty laps in the individual-format race), Bø finished the 20 k in 48:03.8 minutes and he posted the fastest overall course time of 43:11.4 in the process.

    Despite his two previous races in PyeongChang, Bø — the overall World Cup leader in the 20 k individual — explained in a post-race press conference on Thursday that he never got down on himself.

    Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø racing to first in the men’s 20 k individual on Thursday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. The gold was his first Olympic medal in his second Winter Games. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)

    “After the two done races, I just let my shoulders down, and I knew there were still two great opportunities for me, individual and mass start,” he said. “Two races I have won before this season, so I knew that there still was a chance even if the sprint and pursuit was my favorite before the Olympics. So I always had the belief that I could do it. And you only need one chance, so if I missed out today there would still be a chance on the mass start, and I always believed that I could make it.”

    He started Thursday’s individual race in bib 9 and was one of several of the top contenders who chose an early start because of more favorable conditions earlier in the day. It was the warmest race day yet at the Alpensia biathlon venue, and perhaps most importantly, less windy than it had been. At least that was the case early in the 20 k; the wind picked up as the race wore on.

    Bø took the attention away from himself early in the race after missing one in the first prone stage — his third shot. That put him in seventh at the time and ultimately 52nd overall. From that point on, Bø quietly worked his way back into contention, cleaning the next two stages, then missing shot in the last standing stage. But because of his speediness out on the course, he still left the range in first.

    In the finishing stretch, Bø nearly took himself out as his pole tip nicked his left ski. But he stayed upright, recollected himself and continued charging to the line. There, he finished 1:22.1 minutes clear of the previous race leader, Sweden’s Fredrik Lindström.

    “I put my pole right down on my ski,” Bø told NRK after, according to a translation. “Two to three [centimeters] to the left and I would’ve put the pole on the inside of the ski, but it would’ve went well anyway, but you never know.”

    As the rest of the starters embarked on the five-loop course and navigated the four shooting stages, it became evident that no one was going to touch Bø. He sat inside the leader’s cubicle at the venue, which had a small couch and TV to watch the rest of the race, along with a race-leader camera documenting his every move. He wasn’t glued to the screen by any means. It was probably hard for him to watch.

    France’s Martin Fourcade (23) follows Sweden’s Fredrik Lindström (1) during the men’s 20 k individual at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Fourcade went on to place fifth while Lindström placed eighth. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

    Initially, Fourcade came closest to him, finishing 42.4 seconds off his time in second place. The Frenchman had been on track for his second-straight gold after cleaning the first three stages of Thursday’s race, but he missed his last two shots to slip to second behind Bø. And he couldn’t beat the Norwegian on the last loop; despite skiing the second-fastest final loop and second-fastest overall course time, Fourcade was still second to Bø, who was the fastest on both.

    “That was like a gift,” Bø said at the press conference of Fourcade’s uncharacteristic late misses. “Even if he only had missed one of the two last [shots] he would have been the winner. But, you know, someone will miss one in the first shooting and one in the last, and others make two mistakes on the last shooting, so you just have to see for the total. And we both had two mistakes today and I was a little bit faster than him and that saved my result.”

    Austria’s Dominik Landertinger racing to bronze in the men’s 20 k individual at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

    Fourcade as the 23rd starter was later bumped off the podium by Austria’s Dominik Landertinger (bib 38) and Sweden’s Sebastien Samuelsson (bib 51), respectively. While Landertinger hung on for the medals, Samuelsson missed his second-consecutive Olympic medal in fourth place (+29.1), 14.9 seconds behind Landertinger.

    While Landertinger had shot a perfect 20-for-20 and Samuelsson was one off that mark with a single penalty (0+0+1+0), the 57th starter, Slovenia’s Jakov Fak finished ahead of them both and just 5.5 seconds behind Bø for the silver medal. Like Landertinger, who earned bronze (+14.2), Fak was one of just three men who cleaned all four stages on Thursday. (Ukraine’s Artem Tyshchenko, who finished 29th, was the other.)

    Once Fak finished, Bø could finally exhale and celebrate. He had done it.

    “After the first shooting, I still believed that a medal could be won, could be possible, but after the last standing I thought I missed out on the podium,” Bø reflected at the press conference.

    “I’m glad I fought through the final lap even with two misses,” he told NRK. “Because I thought the medals wouldn’t be possible, but I felt good, and I had no problems with changing gears out in the course. And thank God I did, because I ended up with the gold in the end.”

    Bø’s previous Olympic best was fourth in the men’s relay at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He is a three-time world champion and won three golds at biathlon Junior World Championships, two of which came in relays in 2012 and 2013. Between that time of transitioning from the junior ranks to the World Cup in 2013, Bø became best known as the young and hard-charging biathlete with the gold-painted rifle. He later painted it pink, before going back to gold in the leadup to PyeongChang.

    “I had a pink rifle for two years and I wanted to change it before the Olympics,” Bø said at the press conference. “The first season I came into the World Cup I had a golden rifle.”

    The men’s 20 k individual podium at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, with Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø (c) in first, Slovenia’s Jakov Fak (l) in second, and Austria’s Dominik Landertinger (r) in third. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

    After stepping back outside and into the stadium, Bø began to tear up. He finally connected with his brother Tarjei, who had finished 13th with two penalties, and they embraced in a special moment.

    “It’s a great feeling,” Bø said of what it’s like to be an Olympic champion. “To describe with one word is just ‘amazing’. It’s every nice words you can find.”

    For Fak, 30, who missed all but two World Cup races last season because of health issues, he said the silver medal was a “dream come true.” Earlier this season, he placed second in two World Cup pursuits.

    “At the last Olympics in Sochi, I was sick before the Olympic Games,” Fak said at the press conference. “I fought until the last race to get some medals and my best result was fourth place in the mass start, so I missed it and it was a big struggle for me, the last two seasons were very hard. I was sick all the time. Last season I had only two starts on the World Cup and it would be better if I didn’t even have them. I had really a lot of problems and to come back into the whole season was a very big victory for me.”

    Slovenia’s Jakov Fak pushing for silver in the men’s 20 k individual at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

    After different illnesses plagued him last year — “I would train for two weeks and another sickness would come,” he recalled — Fak considered hanging up his rifle and quitting the sport. But his coach encouraged him to stick with it.

    “We made a good plan. It was not to be on the highest level on the World Cup, but just to come back,” Fak explained. “And everything that I’ve done this season, the podiums, are just a big bonus for me.”

    Landertinger, 29, earned his second Olympic bronze after helping Austria to third in the men’s relay in Sochi. He also has a relay silver from 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, but Thursday marked his first individual Olympic medal.

    In September, he had back surgery to repair a herniated disc, and he didn’t start his World Cup season until early last month.

    “I am really overwhelmed,” Landertinger told Austrian broadcaster ORF, according to a translation. “The last year was extremely tough. During the last races I already was a little bit despaired, and now the bronze medal, that is crazy. On the course I again did not feel good today, but I fought and put out everything I could. There were a lot of beautiful moments in my career, this medal was the most difficult one. Today I had to do it with the shooting, and that worked out.”

    Fourcade ended up fifth on the day (+42.4), Switzerland’s Benjamin Weger placed sixth (+48.6) with one penalty, the Czech Republic’s Michal Krčmář finished seventh (+1:15.5) with one miss, and Lindström was eighth (+1:22.1) with one penalty as well.

    Scott Gow’s Career-Best 14th

    In his first Olympics, Canada’s Scott Gow raced to 14th (+2:02.5) for his best Olympic result by nearly 50 places after finishing 61st in the PyeongChang sprint. Gow cleaned three-consecutive stages then missed his first shot on the final standing (0+0+0+1) to slip out of the top 10. Regardless, 14th was still better than his career-best World Cup result after he had finished 16th in two races this season.

    Canada’s Scott Gow racing to 14th in the men’s 20 k individual on Thursday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. It was his career best at the World Cup and world-championships level. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

    “I was very happy with it,” Gow said of his result in a post-race interview with FasterSkier. “A little disappointed to miss that one standing shot, especially when everything was going quite well in the range. Skiing was pretty good, and so overall I am very happy.”

    Without having spoken with his coach yet, Gow wasn’t exactly sure where his lone miss went wrong, but he guessed it was a close one.

    “I have a feeling that I missed it just high,” the 27 year old said. “That’s usually where I miss in standing, especially when it feels good. If it feels like it was good, if it feels like it was hit, I probably missed it just high.”

    With weaker and less variable wind than in previous biathlon races this week, Gow said that presented a new challenge.

    “When it’s this calm, relatively as calm, everyone can shoot well,” he observed. “So that puts a little extra pressure and emphasis on myself to shoot well. So going into today I knew that would be have to the focus, to hit targets, because even if my skiing is a little off I can make up for it with a really good shooting. And that was what was going through my head the last few days preparing for this.”

    Looking ahead to the remaining races in PyeongChang, Gow said the hardest ones were over.

    “Now it’s the relays,” he said. “And my body feels like it’s in fairly good shape. I was happy with my skiing today, and again, my shooting was much better today and it has been good all week. So as long as I can maintain a good training mode and a good training rhythm, I think it will be good, and I am optimistic.”

    Canada’s Brendan Green racing to 22nd in the men’s 20 k individual at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

    Canada had three in the top 30 with Brendan Green in 22nd (+2:26.6), with a single miss in the last stage (0+0+0+1), and Christian Gow in 26th (+2:57.2), with two penalties (1+0+0+1). For 24-year-old Christian Gow in his first Olympics, it was a big improvement from 62nd in the sprint.

    “I think I kind of reset after the sprint. It was not even close to what I wanted,” Christian, Scott’s younger brother, told FasterSkier after. “But I guess what I realized kind of internalizing that race is that I am not defined by one race that I had. Of course of all the times that you want to perform is the Olympic Games. It was a bit of a bummer, and I looked at it as a chance to refocus for the races to come, obviously including this one.

    “I was very happy with my effort,” Christian said before he knew his final result. “I felt like I had good energy on skis and was able to push the whole time, and more than anything I am just happy with what I did out there today.”

    Canada’s Christian Gow racing to 26th in the men’s 20 k individual on Thursday for his best result at his first Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

    Green, 31, was also pleased with his performance after placing 82nd in the sprint four days ago.

    “I was a little worried going into today after the sprint. I mean, the sprint you had the wind, but I also had a pretty rough day on the skis as well,” he told FasterSkier. “So I was a little bit worried as to how today would play out, but I did a good race prep yesterday. I didn’t have a ton of guys to ski with today, but there were always people kind of within sight … I just tried to keep a pace that I could maintain and really focus on the shooting range.

    “I think I was really able to capitalize on these less-windy conditions that we finally had today,” Green said. “And to get away with one miss, that’s a good day for sure.”

    American Tim Burke en route to 41st in the men’s 20 k individual at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

    In his fourth Olympics, Tim Burke was the top American in 41st (+4:01.9), a result he wasn’t happy with, after shooting four penalties (1+1+0+2).

    “The strategy is always the same: it’s just to execute the game plan, and tonight I struggled with that on the range,” he told FasterSkier after. “I felt like I was decent on the skis, not great but not bad. … I felt like I tried to follow through with my plan, and some days it’s easier than others. And today it didn’t work out.”

    Sean Doherty followed in 44th (+4:21.8) with three penalties (2+0+1+0).

    “Prone has continued to have a few gremlins in it for me,” the 22-year-old two-time Olympian said. “I worked on it the last couple days in training, but I mean, today was less wind and I was looking forward to that, so I still have just a couple things to work out with it. Standing was great, felt super solid, skied well. You know, those two out of three categories went well, so prone is just continuing to plague me. It’s unfortunate.”

    Lowell Bailey, the defending world champion in the 20 k individual, finished 51st (+4:53.0) after missing his first two shots of the day in the first prone then incurring two additional penalties (2+1+0+1). The four penalties added four minutes to his time.

    Afterwards, Bailey was beside himself.

    “I think shock is really the only way to describe it, completely shocked to miss those two,” he told FasterSkier. “I’ve never started an individual [race] like that. I felt really good about the shooting going into this, I had a game plan, I really felt like I had everything — I had a good plan, it just didn’t work out.

    American Lowell Bailey gets up off the mat and ready to head back onto the course after a shooting stage in the men’s 20 k individual at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, where he finished 51st. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

    “I knew the shooting conditions were more to my liking today and I felt really good about my training leading into it, especially on the shooting range, I felt like this was the race I had a good chance to do well in,” he continued. “The wind got me. It was just enough to push me out on the right side. The wind’s tricky here, sometimes it doesn’t register as strong as it actually is, so missing two shots right off the bat, that’s just a really tough way to start the race.”

    At that point, he said he had two options.

    “You can decide to give it your best because you’re representing your country or you can throw in the towel,” Bailey said. “And I think if there’s one thing I can take away from this race it’s that I never gave up.”

    The fourth American finisher, Leif Nordgren placed 64th (+6:27.3) with five penalties (1+1+3+0). Canada’s Nathan Smith ended the race in 81st (+8:11.9) with five misses as well (0+1+4+0).

    “I think it was a shooting race today,” Smith noted. “That was my focus. I felt comfortable taking it a little bit easier on the tracks. Unfortunately my third shooting, my second prone, was a disaster. I don’t know what happened. Other than that, my shooting was excellent. I’ll have to ask [coach Matthias Ahrens]. I was adjusting and I don’t know, [the targets] wouldn’t go down that time.”

    Moving forward, Smith said he would take it easy in the days leading up to the relay next week. The mixed relay (2 women, 2 men per team) is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 20 and the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay — the last biathlon race of the Games — is next Friday, Feb. 23.

    No North Americans qualified for the 30-athlete mass start, with the men’s 15 k mass start taking place on Sunday.

    Results

  • Friday Rundown: Ruhpolding Men’s Relay

    Friday Rundown: Ruhpolding Men’s Relay

    The Norwegian men’s relay after winning the 4 x 7.5 k on Friday at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany, with Lars Helge Birkeland (l), Tarjei Bø (far r), Emil Hegle Svendsen (second from r), and Johannes Thingnes Bø (second from l). It was their second win of the season (after winning with Ole Einar Bjørndalen, Henrik L’Abée-Lund, and Erlend Bjøntegaard, and Birkeland in the first men’s relay of the 2017/2018 season in Hochfilzen, Austria. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)

    IBU World Cup (Ruhpolding, Germany): Men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay

    Less than a week after Sweden won the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in Oberhof, Germany, with an up-and-coming group, Norway posted its second win (in three relays) this season, with an all-star lineup on Friday in Ruhpolding, Germany.

    Lars Helge Birkeland, Tarjei Bø, Emil Hegle Svendsen, and Johannes Thingnes Bø took the lead during Johannes Bø’s anchor leg and ultimately the win in 1:13:11.1 hours, 24.9 seconds ahead of France in second and 53.4 seconds ahead of Russia in third.

    On a bluebird day with no wind in the range, according to an International Biathlon Union (IBU) press release, the Norwegians avoided the penalty lap and used seven spares to clean. First-leg skier Birkeland put them in second with near-perfect shooting (0+0, 0+1), just 0.4 seconds behind Germany’s Erik Lesser, who cleaned without any spares, in first. (Birkeland was also on the Norwegian team that won the first relay of the season in Hochfilzen, Austria.)

    Norway remained in second during Tarjei Bø’s second leg, in which he had to use three spares to clean prone (0+3, 0+0). He tagged Svendsen in second, 0.6 seconds behind Italy, which had risen to first thanks to Lukas Hofer’s fast skiing and solid shooting (0+0, 0+2).

    Svendsen slipped slightly to third place by the final exchange despite only needing one spare to clean (0+0, 0+1), but was still just a second out of first at the tag. France had moved into first place with a predictably strong third leg from Martin Fourcade (0+0, 0+0), in which he brought the team from seventh to first place, just ahead of Italy’s Dominik Windisch and Norway’s Svendsen.

    Johannes Bø skied the third-fastest anchor leg and cleaned prone and used two spares in standing (0+0, 0+2) to overtake France’s Antonin Guigonnat and Italy’s Thierry Chenal, who slipped to second and seventh, respectively, by the finish.

    Guigonnat shot well, requiring just one spare (0+1, 0+0), but finished nearly 25 seconds after Bø for second place. Russia reached the podium with Anton Shipulin picking off two places, after being tagged in fifth.

    In all, France had zero penalties and six spares, with Simon Desthieux, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Fourcade, and Guigonnat, and Russia used a total of just four spares and had no penalties with Alexey Volkov, Maxim Tsvetkov, Anton Babikov, and Shipulin.

    Germany finished fourth (+1:26.5) with zero penalties and 10 spares, with Lesser, Benedikt Doll, Arnd Peiffer and Simon Schempp. After Doll dropped to fifth on the second leg, they skied in fourth on the last two legs.

    Austria took fifth (+1:39.8) with zero penalties and six spares, with David Komatz, Simon Eder, Daniel Mesotitsch, and Dominik Landertinger. Sweden followed in sixth (+1:50.6) with zero penalties, six spares and three of the same men who won last Sunday’s relay (Sebastian Samuelsson, Martin Ponsiluoma and Fredrik Lindström) with new member Torstein Stenersen. Italy finished seventh (+1:58.5) with one penalty and 11 spares.

    Of 26 teams in the relay, Canada placed 14th (+3:22.3) with one penalty and 10 spares, and the U.S. finished 24th (+16:21.6) with eight penalties (four of which stemmed from cross-firing) and 13 spares.

    Notably, the U.S. had been fourth and just 3 seconds out of first after Lowell Bailey’s first leg, which he cleaned without any spares (0+0, 0+0). Leif Nordgren then dropped to 22nd with a penalty in each of his shooting stages (1+3, 1+3) and the 25th-ranked second-leg time. Tim Burke as the team’s third leg had to ski two penalty laps as well (0+2, 2+3), and anchor Sean Doherty was penalized for cross-firing in his last standing stage (0+1, 4+1), according to a US Biathlon press release, and the team was hit with four additional penalties.

    “We have a solid team and I know we didn’t show our true potential today,” Bailey said, according to the release. “But the most important relay is still to come. We’ll just have to wait until then.”

    “I was happy to put together a good race on the track and in the range,” he said. “The first lap was a bit of a roller derby with no easy way to get to the front. I was fortunate to clean without extra rounds because this allowed me to leapfrog up to the lead pack exiting the range. I tried to keep an even pace for loop two and I thought I would be able to hang in second or third, but no one wanted to pass so I had to lead for most of the loop.

    “I had struggled in standing in the previous race so I wanted to get back to taking good shots in standing,” he added. “Although I didn’t shoot as quickly as some of the other guys, I felt good about the stage and the fact that I didn’t have to use extras. It was a fight to catch the lead group on the last loop, but fortunately I had some help from [Italy’s Thomas] Bormolini (of Italy) and we worked together to get back in contact with the lead group.”

    Canada finished 14th with Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Macx Davies, and Brendan Green. On the opening leg, Christian Gow put them in 11th with clean prone shooting and just one spare needed to clean standing (0+0, 0+1), but they slipped one spot to 12th with a penalty on Scott Gow’s second leg (0+0, 1+3). Davies then dropped two more places to 14th despite avoiding the penalty lap (0+3, 0+1), and Green held that position to the finish (0+1, 0+1).

    The women’s 4 x 6 k relay will be held Saturday in Ruhpolding, with Canada starting Emma Lunder, Julia Ransom, Sarah Beaudry, and Rosanna Crawford. For the U.S., it will be Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, Emily Dreissigacker, and Joanne Reid. Watch it live on the Olympic Channel at 8:30 a.m. EST.

    Results

  • Sunday Rundown: U.S. Nationals; Tour de Ski Finale; Oberhof Relays

    Sunday Rundown: U.S. Nationals; Tour de Ski Finale; Oberhof Relays

    APU’s Tyler Kornfield (126) leads APU’s Eric Packer (118) and DU’s Eivind Romberg Kvaale (124) to the line in the men’s 30 k classic mass start at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships on Sunday in Anchorage, Alaska. Kornfield, Packer, and Kvaale finished first, second and third, respectively. Kris Freeman (10, second from left) was fourth overall and the third American.

    U.S. Cross Country Championships (Anchorage, Alaska): 20/30 k classic mass starts

    Men’s report

    Women’s report

    Sweden’s Hedda Bångman denied Caitlin Patterson of her first outright victory of the week at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships, but Patterson as the first American racked up her third-straight national title in the women’s 20-kilometer classic mass start at Kincaid Park on Sunday in Anchorage, Alaska.

    The top-three Americans in the women’s 20 k classic mass start on Sunday at 2018 U.S. nationals in Anchorage, Alaska, with Caitlin Patterson (1) of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) in first, Rosie Frankowski of APU (l) in second, and Kaitlynn Miller (r) of CRGP in third.

    Bångman, a 22-year-old freshman at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), pulled off a 15.9-second win in the mass start, crossing the line in 1:00:55.3 hours. Patterson, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), finished second, but was the top American in the event for the third time this week, and Rosie Frankowski, of Alaska Pacific University (APU), notched third (second American), 19.6 seconds back.

    Rounding out the top 10 was Jessica Yeaton, who trains with APU and races for Australia, in fourth (+44.1), Kaitlynn Miller (CGRP) as the third American in fifth overall (+1:13.5), Alayna Sonnesyn of the University of Vermont (UVM) in sixth (+1:25.3), Chelsea Holmes (APU) in seventh (+1:55.4), Norwegian CU skiers Christina Rolandson and Anne Siri Lervik in eighth (+1:55.7) and ninth (+1:56.1), respectively, and Erika Flowers of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team in 10th (+2:14.6).

    The men’s 30 k classic mass start was incredibly close, with APU’s Tyler Kornfield taking his first-ever distance national title (he was the 2012 classic sprint national champion) in 1:21:43.6. He edged his teammate Eric Packer by 0.7 seconds at the line, and Eivind Romberg Kvaale, a sophomore at the University of Denver (DU), finished 1 seconds back in third.

    Kris Freeman (Caldwell Sport) was just off the overall podium in fourth (+1.6), but was the third American. Another DU skier, Dag Frode Trollebø, also from Norway, finished fifth (+2.0), and APU had three in the top six with David Norris in sixth (+2.5). Noah Hoffman (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) finished seventh (+2.6), Scott Patterson (APU) eighth (+3.6), and Craftsbury’s Adam Martin and Ben Lustgarten followed in  ninth (+14.7) and 10th (+14.9), respectively. With Brian Gregg (CXC/LNR/Team Gregg) in 11th (+16.1), the men’s top 11 were separated by less than 17 seconds.

    Results: Women | Men

    ***

    IBU World Cup (Oberhof, Germany): Men’s and women’s relays

    Racers on the range during the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay on a foggy Sunday at the IBU World Cup in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)

    The Swedish men’s team and French women won the second relays of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup season on Sunday, with Sweden winning the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay by 1:10.8 over Italy, and France besting Germany by 32.4 seconds.

    Notably, most of the top teams didn’t start all of their “A” teamers.

    In the men’s race, Sweden’s Martin Ponsiluoma, Jesper Nelin, Sebastian Samuelsson, and Fredrik Lindström combined for their first win together — and the first win for most of the members on the team.

    “It is a dream when you are a kid to compete in a World Cup,” Samuelsson said, according to an IBU press release. “To have a win is really amazing!”

    The Swedish women’s team also landed on the podium in third (+48.2).

    “What a race by the whole team,” said Lindström, who also has one non-relay World Cup win (from 2012) to his name. “It could not be better.”

    Conditions could not have been much more difficult for shooting on Sunday, with the fog that had descended early in the day for the women’s race worsening for the men’s race. When there wasn’t fog, there was wind.

    Misses were common throughout the two races, and even with racers being able to use three spares per shooting stage to clean, there were a high number of penalty laps.

    But the Swedish men kept their penalties to a minimum, with just one for the entire team and a total of nine spare rounds used among them. After Ponsiluoma came through the first exchange in sixth, Nelin skied them into third, Samuelsson picked off another place despite skiing a penalty after his standing stage to put them in second, and Lindström anchored them to first.

    “The conditions today were so special. Somehow I felt not so nervous, I was calm and had luck on my side,” Lindström said at a post-race press conference about his nearly flawless shooting (0+0; 0+1).

    “I have never [been first] before,” he added. “Not like this in a relay at least. That’s really fantastic.”

    “I had to look up to see if I was aiming the right way,” Nelin said after cleaning prone (0+0) then using two spares to clean standing (0+2). “I had no idea where I was aiming, so it was really difficult. But I hit, and it was good. Maybe these conditions fit me and I should never see anything.”

    Italy placed second with Thomas Bormolini, Lukas Hofer, Dominik Windisch, and Thierry Chenal combining for two penalties and 11 spares. Hofer had skied them up from eighth to second, and Windisch then took the lead on the third leg to put them in first at the final exchange, 1 minute ahead of Sweden. But Chenal slipped with the seventh-fastest last leg time and a penalty after standing.

    “Being on the podium with the team is always a special feeling,” Hofer said at the press conference. “For Thierry, it’s the first year in the World Cup, and he does a really good job, not just today. I am really happy that he could close out this relay. Second place is like a win for us.”

    Norway placed third (+2:04.6) with Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, Henrik L’Abée-Lund, Lars Helge Birkeland, and Tarjei Bø. Together, they had three penalties (two from L’Abée-Lund and one from Birkeland) and 14 spares.

    “I grew up on Holmenkollen so I practiced a lot there [in fog],” L’Abée-Lund said. “But today was really really hard, I didn’t see anything in prone. Standing was OK, but prone was really difficult.”

    “It’s great to be on the podium,” Christiansen said. “Of course Norway always wants to win, but today we are very happy for our brothers in our neighbor-country Sweden.”

    The Canadian men placed 10th (+6:23.1) out of 25 teams with Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Brendan Green, and Carsen Campbell having a combined six penalties and 20 spares. Three of those penalties came on Scott Gow’s second leg, two from Campbell’s anchor leg, and one on Christian Gow’s first leg.

    After a penalty on his first prone stage (1+3), Christian cleaned standing with a spare (0+1) and tagged Scott in 11th, 53 seconds out of first. Scott then had two penalties in prone and three in standing, but managed to improve to eighth given how much everyone else was struggling with the shooting as well. Green kept them in eighth with two clean stages (0+2, 0+3), and Campbell, in his first World Cup relay, cleaned prone (0+2) but had two standing penalties (2+3) to put the team in 10th at the finish.

    In an interview with German broadcaster ARD halfway through the race, Canadian coach Matthias Ahrens called the range conditions, which ranged from thick fog to unpredictable wind, “very hard to assess.”

    “… To be honest, the good thing was that conditions were very bad,” he later added. “So regarding visibility, almost everyone was on the range at the same time [with the same irregular conditions]. They had to wait very long, and of course had bad conditions to shoot, but much of the field was there at the same time.”

    The French women’s team, of Anais Bescond, Anais Chevalier, Celia Aymonier, and Justine Braisaz, celebrate their relay victory on Sunday at the IBU World Cup in Oberhof, Germany. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)

    In the women’s race, with better shooting visibility, France’s Anais Bescond, Anais Chevalier, Celia Aymonier, and Justine Braisaz took the win in 1:12.42.4, with one penalty and 10 spares. After Bescond put them in first through the first exchange, 6 seconds ahead of Italy in second, Chevalier had to ski a penalty loop after prone but cleaned standings (1+3, 0+0) and tagged off in second, 23 seconds behind Italy, now in first.

    One loop later, France was back in first thanks to Aymonier, who cleaned with just two spares (0+0, 0+2), and they extended their lead from 0.8 seconds at the last exchange to 32 seconds at the finish with Braisaz, who shot 0+1, 0+3, and skied the fastest anchor leg.

    “I know that it’s always good for Justine to start in the first position, so I really wanted to pass the relay to her in that,” Aymonier said in a press conference after.

    “I was nervous, too,” Braisaz said. “That kind of shooting turned my mind upside down, actually. The crowd was very loud, and … I wasn’t very focused on what I did. It was a bit foggy, too, so that made it harder. But finally it was a French day, maybe.”

    “In my mind the whole team is really strong, and really able to get the first place,” Bescond said. “After years and years and years behind Germany’s team we finally did it. So just Oberhof spirit I think.”

    Germany placed second with Vanessa Hinz, Denise Herrmann, Franziska Preuss, and Maren Hammerschmidt. They combined for two penalties and 13 spares; with a penalty on Hinz’s first leg and one more on Hammerschmidt’s last shooting. After being tagged in 14th, Herrmann skied them into fourth, 40 seconds out of first, and Preuss elevated them to second, which Hammerschmidt held onto.

    “I was struggling a little bit in the prone shooting,” Herrmann said. “But the skiing was good today, and also the standing [shooting]. I tried to go fast on the track and catch some girls.”

    Sweden, with Linn Persson, Anna Magnusson, Elisabeth Högberg, and Mona Brorsson, avoided the penalty loop and used eight spares to reach the podium for the first time in six seasons. In sixth place at the first exchange, they slipped one place to seventh on the second leg, but Högberg raced them up to fourth with near-perfect shooting (0+0, 0+1) with one leg to go. Brorsson then anchored them to third with clean shooting (0+2, 0+1) and the third-fastest last leg.

    “It’s just super nice for us! I am super happy,” Magnusson said. “We were very emotional at the finish.”

    When Brorsson was asked if she believe she could fight for the podium, she responded, “Not really. But I said to Linn, ‘Maybe it is our day today. Please let it be our day today.’ ”

    The Canadian women finished 14th (+6:37.5), out of 20 teams, with two penalties and 13 spares. Sarah Beaudry initially put them in 15th after shooting 0+1, 0+2, then Julia Ransom had a standing penalty (0+2, 1+3) to slip one place to 16th. Megan Tandy picked off three places with clean shooting (0+0, 0+2) and tagged Emma Lunder in 13th, and Lunder had a penalty in prone but cleaned standing (1+3, 0+0) to finish in 14th.

    Results: Men | Women

    ***

    Tour de Ski Stage 7 (Alpe Cermis, Val di Fiemme, Italy): 9 k freestyle climb 

    Women’s report

    Men’s report

    The men’s overall 2018 Tour de Ski podium atop Alpe Cermis after the final Stage 7 hill climb: with Switzerland’s Dario Cologna (c) in first, Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby (l) in second and Canada’s Alex Harvey (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)

    Dario Cologna of Switzerland added a fourth Tour de Ski (TdS) title to his list of accolades on Sunday, winning the 2018 edition of the race in dominant fashion, with a 1:26.5-minute win over Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby. And Canada’s Alex Harvey scored his first TdS overall podium in third.

    The 31-year-old Cologna started the 9-kilometer freestyle pursuit up Alpe Cermis 1:15 ahead of Kazakhstan’s Alexey Poltoranin in second. Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov, slated to start third, did not start due to a back injury. Thus Harvey was the third man off the start line, 1:23 behind Cologna.

    (Sweden’s Marcus Hellner, 13th after Saturday’s Stage 6, also did not start the Tour’s final stage.)

    Early on, Cologna started putting time into his competitors, extending his lead on Poltoranin to 1:20.5 and Harvey to 1:24 at 1.8 k.

    By 4 k, however, Harvey had used his speedy skiing on the flatter portions of the race leading up to the climb to catch Poltoranin, and the two clocked through that checkpoint 1:19.4 behind Cologna. Behind them, Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov skied just ahead of Sundby, another 21 seconds and 22 seconds back, respectively, in fifth and sixth.

    While Harvey clawed back a few more seconds on Cologna, he was still 1:17.8 back at 6.2 k, with Poltoranin just 0.7 seconds behind him in third.

    Harvey remained in second until around 8.5 k; with just a half kilometer to go, Sundby had caught both Poltoranin and Harvey, passing them both. Sundby held that position and finished second, 1:26.5 behind Cologna, who won in 28:52.1.

    Harvey stayed strong for third (+1:30.6) while Poltoranin dropped off the Canadian’s pace in the final half kilometer and finished fourth (+1:41.7). Norway’s Hans Christer Holund placed fifth (+2:17.8), Bolshunov lost a spot to finish sixth (+3:09.7), France’s Jean-Marc Gaillard finished seventh (+3:16.7), Sweden’s Daniel Rickardsson eighth (+3:20.8), and Russia’s Alexey Chervotkin and Andrey Larkov took ninth (+3:33.5) and 10th (+3:37.8), respectively.

    France’s Maurice Manificat, known for his strength in freestyle hill climbs and pursuit races, rose from 14th to 11th (+3:45.7) with the second fastest time of day, 12.8 seconds slower than Sundby as the time of day winner in 28:36.4. Cologna’s time was fourth fastest (+15.7), behind Russian U23 skier Denis Spitsov in third (+14.3) (Spitsov started 20th and finished 13th). Holund’s time ranked fifth (+20.6) and Harvey’s time was sixth fastest (+23.6) of the 43 men that finished the race.

    The lone American man to complete this year’s Tour, Paddy Caldwell (U.S. Ski Team) skied the 22nd fastest time of day for 38th overall (+11:54.8).

    Heidi Weng (center) celebrates her second Tour de Ski victory, with teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg second and the U.S. Ski Team’s Jessie Diggins third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)

    In the women’s hill climb that kicked off the day, Heidi Weng raced to her second consecutive TdS title. The Norwegian started the day within two seconds of teammate Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, and the two skied together for the flat section of the nine-kilometer stage of the competition. But when the climbing got steep on Alpe Cermis, Weng left her teammate behind and eventually racked up a 48.5-second win.

    The battle for third was less predictable. Jessie Diggins of the United States started the day in fourth, but made up the ten seconds to third-place Krista Pärmäkoski of Finland in the first few kilometers. The pair climbed together for a while before Diggins attacked. Pärmäkoski tired on the final sections of the Alpe Cermis and Diggins took the podium in definitive style, 2:23.2 behind Weng and 24 seconds ahead of Pärmäkoski. It’s the first overall Tour de Ski podium for Diggins or any American athlete.

    Teresa Stadlober of Austria finished fifth (+3:09.4), Kerttu Niskanen of Finland sixth (+4:17.0), Russia’s Anastasia Sedova seventh (+4:49.6), and Switzerland’s Nathalie von Siebenthal eighth (+4:56.1).

    Sadie Bjornsen started eighth and slipped one spot to finish ninth (+6:15.0), giving the U.S. two top-ten finishers in the Tour de Ski for the first time. Liz Stephen finished 16th (+8:25.8) and Rosie Brennan 24th (+10:59.6).

    En route to her win, Weng notched the fastest time of the day on the 9 k stage. Stadlober’s time was second, Diggins third, Østberg fourth, and Stephen fifth.

    32 women finished this year’s edition of the Tour de Ski.

    Results:

    Men’s Stage 7 | Men’s time of day | Men’s Tour de Ski overall standings (final)

    Women’s Stage 7 | Women’s time of day | Women’s Tour de Ski overall standings (final)

  • Tarjei Bø Wins First IBU World Cup Since 2013; Scott Gow Tallies Career-Best 16th

    Tarjei Bø Wins First IBU World Cup Since 2013; Scott Gow Tallies Career-Best 16th

    Norway’s Tarjei Bø celebrates his victory in the men’s 10 k sprint at the 2017/2018 IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden, his first win in four years. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)

    Biathlon Canada’s World Cup Team at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Östersund, Sweden, had a number of things to be happy about on Saturday afternoon as the first men’s 10-kilometer sprint race of the new season wrapped up.

    Christian Gow was already smiling at the cameras as he stood in the starting-gate booth. Beginning the sprint as the very first starter in a large field of 108 athletes from 30 nations, Gow soon would have every reason to smile, as all alone on the range he shot clean in both his prone and standing stages under the watchful eyes of the spectators and his coach Matthias Ahrens, who watched through the lens of his spyglass. Gow kept himself ahead of the field and was the first athlete across the line after avoiding being passed.

    “I enjoyed starting with bib 1 more than I expected,” Gow wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “I found that there are some extra elements that you don’t really consider when you start in the middle of the pack. The biggest differences are not having any information on splits for the first loop and that shooting on the range with no other athletes is kind of eerie. It is normally such a busy place, so to have it all to yourself and the entire crowd focused solely on you can add extra pressure. I am really happy with how I managed that today.”

    Biathlon Canada’s Christian Gow shooting clean in the standing stage of the men’s 10 k sprint at the 2017/2018 IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden, on his way to a career-best sprint result. (Screenshot: ZDF)

    He had to wait for a long time for the other starters to finish the race so he could know where his time stood. In the end, it was good enough for 26th place, 58.1 seconds back from the winner, Norway’s Tarjei Bø, in a very tight race at the top.

    “I knew that the entire field was still to come, but that I had done my job so all I needed to do at that point was wait,” Gow wrote. “I am quite happy with my placing. With my time back from the leader being under one minute, I was hoping for a top 20, but am very satisfied anyways. Finishing in the top 30 is awesome, I have been on the cusp a half-dozen times, but only within it once before.”

    Last season, in the World Championships pursuit in Hochfilzen, Austria, Gow finished 23rd.

    Starting a few minutes behind him in bib 24, his older brother Scott also cleaned both stages and skied a little faster, initially crossing the line in fifth..

    “It was almost frustrating having to wait so long to finally see the full results,” Scott Gow wrote in an email. “I knew I had a good day, but I also felt like a lot of skiers were finishing in front me as the race wore on.”

    In the end, a few more athletes finished with better times, and he got pushed back to 16th. Even so, 16th was a personal-best World Cup result for Gow, improving on a 17th place in an individual race in Antholz, Italy, and an 18th place in a sprint in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, both during the 2016/2017 season.

    “Any finish in the top 30 and especially top 20 is very good for us,” Gow said of his team. “Today’s results helps increase my Olympic qualification which is a nice boost in confidence as the race season gets underway.”

    With a top 16, Gow jumped a rank in Biathlon Canada’s Olympic criteria standards; he’s now halfway to Priority 2 (along with teammate Julia Ransom, who placed ninth earlier this week). Both need another top 16 to fulfill that second priority.

    “It had rained a bit this afternoon and during our zero,” Scott Gow explained of Saturday’s conditions. “The rain made the track very fast and hard-packed, and the downhills were particularly tricky. The course also held up really well from start to finish so definitely fair conditions in that respect.”

    Aside from the eventual winner, another athlete helped by that was teammate Nathan Smith. Starting very late in bib 103, he also managed to hit all 10 targets ultimately finished 24th (+54.3) between the Gow brothers.

    While not close to his career-best results in the top five, most of which he achieved in 2014/2015, it was another step up for Smith, who placed 37th in the 20 k individual race on Thursday and missed most of the last season to illness.

    “I expect to feel better this weekend in the sprint but will have to be realistic considering the cold and being ‘rusty’ after not racing last year, other than a few races,” he had predicted in an email after the individual on Thursday.

    The fourth Canadian, Brendan Green finished 55th with two penalties (1+1), still also qualifying for the pursuit of the best 60 starters on Sunday.

    Bailey Leads Five Americans in 22nd

    US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey also shot clean on Saturday, finishing 22nd and 49.8 seconds back from the winner, and six seconds ahead of Canada’s Smith.

    ”I’m happy with the race, especially after coming off of a cold this past week,” Bailey wrote in an email. “Our performance goals are to steadily progress with the season. I think this is a good step in the right direction.”

    Last season, Bailey had achieved his career best in a sprint with a second place in the World Cup test event for the Olympic courses in PyeongChang, South Korea. Those races will be his main focus this season.

    “The conditions on the track were MUCH faster than the Individual, which proved one of the slowest conditions I’ve encountered in my career!” Bailey explained. “The range was a bit tricky, with shifting winds, and I had at least one prone shot that was on the edge of the target.”

    The other starters for US Biathlon struggled a bit more on the range today. Tim Burke placed 52nd, 1:42.3 back with three penalties (3+0), joining Bailey in the pursuit on Sunday.

    “As seems to be the case in this race each year, the field is incredibly tight for tomorrow’s pursuit. It will be an exciting race,” Bailey stated in a US Biathlon press release.

    Leif Nordgren finished 66th with two penalties (1+1), Sean Doherty was 82nd with three penalties (2+1), and Paul Schommer was 94th with four penalties (1+3).

    While the three Canadians and Bailey shot clean, the men at the top of the field incurred at least one penalty and thus had to rely on their ski speed in this race.

    Another Day, Another Bø Brother

    Norway’s Tarjei Bø lunges across the finish line in the men’s 10 k sprint at the 2017/2018 IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden, to claim the victory just 0.7 seconds ahead of France’s Martin Fourcade. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld.com)

    On Thursday in the men’s 20 k individual race, France’s Martin Fourcade was beaten by Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø, gapped by over two minutes in a dominating performance. On Saturday afternoon, Johannes missed too many targets to challenge Fourcade again, ultimately finishing 11th (+34.4 with three penalties).

    But starting towards the back of the field in bib 94 when Fourcade had already ended his race, Bø’s older brother Tarjei snatched another victory away from Fourcade, who had already looked like the winner of the day after making up a deficit to two other athletes with one of his trademark furious final laps.

    This time he was beaten by mere inches.

    Still 7 seconds ahead of Fourcade when Bø left the range, after he also had to ski once through the penalty loop, Bø’s lead dwindled on the final lap. At the next split time, only a 3.1-second advantage remained, with 400 meters to go it was even down to 0.9 seconds heading into a downhill corkscrew into the arena.

    “You can never trust those guys giving you the times,” Bø later joked about his coaches frantically yelling splits during the press conference. “Because they want to push you, so even if they say it’s one second you can also be behind.”

    Pushing all out on the finish stretch, Bø lunged and crashed across the line in a time of 22:40.6 minutes, which was 0.7 seconds ahead of Fourcade’s time, causing the spectators in the ski arena of Östersund to erupt in a big roar.

    “I was totally blacked out, to be honest,” Bø said at the press conference. “I had this incredible fight with Martin. Already when I warmed up I saw his last 500 meters, so I knew I had to just keep on pushing. It was such a relief after I woke up from the dead there, to see that I was number one… It’s always a mental game when you fight against such great athletes as Martin.”

    It was Tarjei Bø’s first World Cup victory since the 2013 season, a sprint win at home in Oslo, Norway.

    “It was a really tough time,” the 29-year-old Bø recounted the last few seasons of his career. “In 2016 I felt I sort of came back into the top. … I was going somewhere again. But then last season was a new punch in the face … I missed so much training. This season I tried not to push so hard in the summer to keep this flow in the training and not get stopped by all these sickness problems again. This win is definitely a relief after so many years with struggles.”

    “It was quite a good biathlon competition until Tarjei came to the finish,” Fourcade said with a laugh at the press conference. “Of course I am a bit disappointed because I hoped for the victory for a long time … But that’s biathlon, and I am happy for him to be back on the top of the podium … I think I lost many times with less than one second, so I am used to that, but I am used to the opposite as well, so I will not cry.”

    “Finally, I can say that I am equal with [my brother] Johannes again,” Bø added. “Fighting with Martin, who also has a brother [Simon Fourcade]… And when the younger brother becomes better than you, it’s so nice to beat them every once in a while.”

    Germany’s Erik Lesser finished third, just 3.7 seconds back, after he also incurred one penalty lap in his standing stage, in his case with his last shot of the race. Lesser skied the 10th-ranked course time of the day, but was especially buoyed by his blazing-fast speed on the shooting range.

    Lesser triggered the first shot in prone after only about eight seconds, almost twice as fast as some athletes use to take their position, and completed the stage roughly ten seconds faster than the two other podium finishers. His range time overall ranked as the best and shooting time as the second-best of the day, just 0.6 seconds behind Italy’s Dominik Windisch (however, Windisch also missed four targets to finish 62nd).

    “Not 100% satisfied, I didn’t do my job on the final shot,” Lesser told German broadcaster ZDF while the race was still going on. “Though I’d rather miss the final than the first shot… But on the course it was top. In prone everything worked out, and I think the shooting time was again where I’d like it to be.”

    “I am very happy that I won my first podium in a sprint competition, I never was on a podium [in that] before so right now I am very happy about this,” he later added at the press conference.

    Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen had to settle for fourth place (+13.3), but could be seen walking out of the mixed zone smiling as Bø approached the finish to push him off the podium, and Lesser’s teammate Simon Schempp placed fifth (+15.0), both of which each had one standing penalty.

    Switzerland’s Mario Dolder with a career-best sixth place (+16.0) and Sweden’s Fredrik Lindström in seventh position (+16.7) shot clean, but could not match the course times of the podium finishers on Saturday. Out of the entire field, nine athletes shot clean. Four of them were North Americans.

    The race week in Östersund concludes on Sunday with pursuits for both the women and men.

    “The level is incredible, I think 30 athletes within one minute,” Fourcade said in the press conference. “I don’t know if I have already seen that in a pursuit, so tomorrow will be a great fight.”

    Results | Pursuit start list

  • Saturday Rundown: Quebec City, Oslo and Lillehammer (Updated x4)

    Saturday Rundown: Quebec City, Oslo and Lillehammer (Updated x4)

    The men’s 15 k classic mass start podium on Saturday at World Cup Finals in Quebec City, with Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (c) in first and Niklas Dyrhaug (l) in second, and Russia’s Alexander Bessmertnykh (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross-Country/Twitter)

    FIS Cross-Country World Cup Finals (Quebec City): 10/15 k classic mass starts

    During Saturday’s 15-kilometer classic mass start at World Cup Finals, Canada’s Alex Harvey was in it until the end. But so were Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Niklas Dyrhaug, and Russia’s Alexander Bessmertnykh, to name a few.

    Sitting in second with a few hundred meters to go, Harvey was primed to make his move on Dyrhaug, who was leading at the time. But then came 20-year-old Klæbo, the season-long Sprint World Cup champion, who proved to have more left in the tank than anyone else and passed them both to lead into the finishing straight.

    Klæbo took the victory — his first in a World Cup distance race — on a bluebird day under a beating sun in 35:23.7 minutes, 0.6 seconds ahead of Dyrhaug. Bessmertnykh followed another 0.2 seconds back in third (+0.8) just ahead of Harvey in fourth (+1.2).

    Norway’s Sjur Røthe took fifth (+1.7), Switzerland’s Dario Cologna placed sixth (+1.9), and Norway’s Pål Golberg was seventh (+2.5), half a second ahead of another Norwegian Didrik Tønseth in eighth (+3.0). The top nine were within 3.7 seconds of first, with Russia’s Andrey Larkov in ninth.

    Devon Kershaw was the second Canadian in the points on Saturday in 28th (+1:08.4), after breaking a pole and working his way back up from outside the top 60.

    Erik Bjornsen led the U.S. men in 31st (+1:16.8), about a second ahead of Canada’s Graeme Killick in 32nd (+1:17.7).

    Also for the U.S., Matt Gelso finished 37th, Andy Newell 45th, Scott Patterson 46th, Noah Hoffman 48th, Ben Lustgarten 49th, David Norris 50th, Simi Hamilton 54th, Paddy Caldwell 59th, Jack Hegman 62nd, Cole Morgan 64th, and Brian Gregg 69th.

    For Canada, Bob Thompson finished 55th, Knute Johnsgaard 57th, Len Valjas 61st, Russell Kennedy 63rd, Evan Palmer-Charrette 65th, Andy Shields 66th, Jess Cockney 67th, Brian McKeever 68th, Joey Foster 70th, Gareth Williams 72nd, Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier 74th, and Julien Locke 75th.

    The women’s 10 k classic mass start podium on Saturday at World Cup Finals in Quebec City, with Norway’s Marit Bjørgen (c) in first, Norway’s Heidi Weng (l) in second and Finland’s Krista Parmakoski (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross-Country/Twitter)

    In the women’s 10 k classic mass start earlier in the day, Norway’s Marit Bjørgen racked up her seventh victory of the season after leading a pack of two other Norwegians and Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski and holding them off to the finish.

    Bjørgen put a few meters into the foursome as she entered the finishing stretch and held her lead across the line in 24:23.6 minutes. Norway’s Heidi Weng finished 0.6 seconds back in second to lock up the Distance World Cup title, in addition to the Overall World Cup title she secured on Friday.

    Pärmäkoski finished 2.9 seconds after Bjørgen in third, and Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg missed the podium in fourth (+7.8).

    Behind them, Germany’s Nicole Fessel outlasted a large chase pack to place fifth (+18.6), just ahead of Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla in sixth (+19.9) and Anna Haag in seventh (+19.1).

    Sadie Bjornsen of the U.S. Ski Team led the North American women in 15th (+29.9) after skiing at the back of that chase pack in the final stretches of the race. Also for the U.S., Jessie Diggins placed 27th (+1:06.9) and Sophie Caldwell 38th (+1:56.0).

    Canada was led by Emily Nishikawa in 37th (+1:51.7). Behind her, Cendrine Browne finished 41st (+2:28.2), Dahria Beatty was 53rd, Annika Richardson 54th, Katherine Stewart-Jones 56th, Frederique Vezina 59th, Annika Hicks 60th, Sophie Carrier-Laforte 61st, Andrea Dupont 62nd, Katherine Weaver 63rd, Alannah MacLean 64th, Sadie White 66th, Lisle Compton 67th, Mia Serratore 68th, and Laura Leclair 69th.

    For the U.S. Caitlin Patterson finished 44th, Liz Guiney 45th, Kaitlynn Miller 47th, Chelsea Holmes 48th, Rosie Brennan 50th, Julia Kern 52nd, Erika Flowers 55th, Becca Rorabaugh 57th, and Jennie Bender 58th.

    One day left in the 2016/2017 World Cup season remains, with the women’s and men’s 10/15 k freestyle pursuits on Sunday in Quebec City.

    Results: Men | Women

    World Cup Finals standings (Day 2 of 3): Men | Women

    ***

    Finland’s Mari Laukkanen pointing to the sky in honor of her late shooting coach, after she won the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit on Saturday at the 2017 IBU World Cup in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU)

    IBU World Cup (Oslo, Norway): Women’s and men’s pursuits

    Less than 24 hours after winning her first IBU World Cup on Friday in the women’s 7.5 k sprint, Finland’s Mari Laukkanen immediately capitalized on her ideal position with a start-to-finish victory in Saturday’s 10 k pursuit that was never in doubt, cleaning the first three shooting stages before incurring one penalty in her final standing shooting (0+0+0+1) to cross the line in a time of 29:33.3 minutes.

    In addition to experiencing the most successful weekend of her biathlon career by far, it was an emotional day for the 29-year-old Finn due to a personal reason. Laukkanen spread her arms like wings skiing down the homestretch with a commanding lead, pointing repeatedly to the sky and a black ribbon she wore around her right upper arm, before kneeling in the snow in the finish for a few seconds. With those gestures, she reportedly wanted to commemorate her shooting coach Asko Nuutinen, who passed away Friday after suffering a heart attack during the World Cup in Kontiolahti, Finland, a week ago. He was 60 years old.

    “It’s been a really emotional day for me. We have heard really really sad news that last night we lost our longtime shooting coach,” Laukkanen told reporters with a trembling voice in the press conference. “After this it was more or less only about working for him. Working as he has asked me to do for years and years. So I wasn’t thinking about losing or winning today, I was only thinking about him. And I feel really big pleasure that I was able to come to the finish like this, that I can own the victory for him.”

    “I knew it will be difficult after the first victory in my career took me so long,” she added. “And to do it again immediately with good shooting. But as I said I didn’t think about winning or losing today, just doing my work.”

    Finishing 26.5 seconds after her, the Czech Republic’s Gabriela Koukalová reached the finish, moving up from her fourth place starting position with a clean shooting performance (0+0+0+0).

    “I wanted to miss all targets yesterday because I was so tired I didn’t even want to race,” Koukalová confided in the press conference. “It’s difficult to concentrate, three World Cups after the main goal of the season [the World Championships] is too much. Last year it was many times easier… I tried to catch her, but about one kilometer before the finish I saw her far away so I was happy I didn’t have to fight with anyone and was just enjoying the last meters.”

    Despite four penalties (1+1+0+2), France’s Justine Braisaz defended the third place on the podium against a three-person chase group on the last loop (+1:01.4), falling back only one position after having finished the sprint in second.

    “I did not expect such a good place today during the race,” Braisaz commented in the press conference. “Because in the last shooting I completely [failed]. I really wanted to have a clean shooting today, and I did not succeed. So I am happy and surprised, too.”

    Her teammate Anais Bescond who had started the pursuit in third place fell back to 22nd position (+2:53.5) with seven penalties.

    Slovenia’s Teja Gregorin finished fourth with one penalty (+1:08.2), Austria’s Lisa Theresa Hauser shot clean as the only athlete aside from Koukalova on her way to move up from 22nd to fifth place (+1:12.5), while Norway’s Marte Olsbu finished sixth like in the sprint despite three penalties (+1:15.9).

    Unlike in Friday’s sprint race where Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier had still given up a seemingly commanding lead in the sprint World Cup discipline standings to Koukalova, she held onto her lead in the pursuit standings on Saturday, moving up from the 31st starting position to ninth place with a penalty in each of her standing shootings (0+0+1+1, +1:53.8). A 22nd place would have been sufficient to win the “small crystal globe” award in the pursuit. Laukkanen’s teammate Kaisa Mäkäräinen finished 8th  with two penalties in the standing stages (+1:51.2), and thereby claimed the third place in the World Cup pursuit ranking.

    “I knew that I didn’t need to have a perfect race today, just a good one, but that’s always easier said than done,” Dahlmeier told broadcaster ARD after the race. “I am incredibly happy that it worked out and that I could secure myself another small globe… It’s a bit of a weird feeling, standing at the start gate in the middle of the field and the clock ticks and ticks as one athlete after another skis out on the course. And you can only observe how far they have gone and have to wait and be patient, and not make a false start. But then the snow burns, then the chase begins!”

    US Biathlon’s Susan Dunklee experienced an uncharacteristically problematic day on the shooting range and fell back to 37th place (+4:00.2), after starting seventh and less than a minute behind Laukkanen. Dunklee had three misses between two prone stages and seven more in her standing shootings (2+1+4+3) therefore having to ski more than an additional kilometer in the penalty lap.

    “It is a testament to her fighting spirit that she notched the fourth-fastest ski time — one of her best ranks of the season — and never gave up despite suffering a biathlon blowout on the range,” teammate Clare Egan said of Dunklee, according to a US Biathlon press release. “Bad races happen to the best and Susan is no exception, but not everyone fights through till the end no matter what.”

    Egan herself started the pursuit in 34th position and initally was able to make up ground, but then fell back slightly to 41st place (+4:13.9) with four penalties (0+2+0+2).

    “I am satisfied with my race even though the result was not what I was hoping for, and that’s how I would summarize my entire season as well,” Egan said after the final race of her season. “I’ve made a good step forward but my competitors also work hard all summer and we seem to improve at a similar rate.”

    Canada Biathlon’s Julia Ransom moved up to 47th place (+5:04.8) with three penalties (1+0+1+1), after starting in 52nd position.

    [UPDATED] Later on Saturday in the last men’s 12.5 k pursuit of the season, the three best athletes of the season fought throughout the race exchanging in the lead, before they stood next to each other on the range for the final shooting to decide the winner.

    Russia’s Anton Shipulin managed to shoot clean with his elaborate rifle stock in the design of a red dragon, proudly waving to the cameras as he left the arena while his two competitors had to ski into the penalty lap. France’s Martin Fourcade – who had already secured himself the overall World Cup Total Score title as well as the award for the pursuit discipline – was left to duke it out against Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø, the winner of Friday’s sprint.

    On the last big climb before the Holmenkollen arena, Fourcade accelerated with a series of explosive jump-skate steps to decisively gap Bø. He even got fairly close to Shipulin on the finish stretch, who had slowed down a bit to grab a Russian flag before skiing over the line in a time of 32:11.9 minutes with one penalty (0+0+1+0), 5.7 seconds ahead of Fourcade who had incurred two penalties (1+0+0+1). While Fourcade shook hands with Shipulin, Bø came into the finish in third place, 21.6 seconds back and also with two penalties (1+0+0+1).

    “It was a crazy race, but I am happy that I managed to finish first,” Shipulin said in the press conference through a translator. “Tough conditions on the shooting range, I had to really work to concentrate on my shooting. On the last loop I was all alone until I saw Martin chasing me, then I got a little bit scared but I managed to [keep him behind].”

    It was Shipulin’s second win of the season, for which he credited his recently improved shooting performance.

    “It was a really exciting competition with Johannes and Anton,” Fourcade agreed with his rival. “I expected to fight with them for the victory on the last loop, but then Anton was simply stronger in the last shooting. My strategy was to be focused on my technique and skills and not on the results, like I did too often in the past few weeks focusing on records and not the victory.”

    Asked about his blazing attack on the final climb, Fourcade added: “Of course I train for that, but I think a lot of athletes do. I talked to Johannes, it was my revenge for the [2016] World Champs where he did exactly the same to me on the last uphill. But I know how it is, it can be different already tomorrow.”

    “I am happy with a new podium of course,” Bø said in the press conference. “I was not at my best in the skiing today. But I still managed to shoot 18 out of 20. As Martin said it was [annoying] that we did not shoot zero [misses] and could not fight with Anton in the finish, but it was quite interesting and fun to stand there in the last shooting … I expected Martin’s attack the second he did it, but I had no energy to fight with him. That was quite strong.”

    Sweden’s Fredrik Lindström placed fourth with no penalties (+44.7), and was the only man in the field who managed to shoot clean in all four stages.

    “For the podium, I was never really close“, Lindström told the IBU in a post-race interview. “But it was a great day anyway. Four times zero [misses], and especially in the standing stages that makes you climb a lot in the standings. Super happy with my performance.”

    US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey, who had to start closer to the back of the field in 44th position, almost two minutes behind the leaders based on his sprint result, managed to move up 21 spots in the race despite three penalties (2+0+1+0).

    “I’m happy with the race, considering it started out pretty rough with the first two misses,” Bailey told US Biathlon after placing 23rd (+2:23.3). “I just read the wind wrong and didn’t correct enough. After that, I tried to keep my head in the race and make the best of it. I was happy with my skiing and glad to clean the last stage; this brought me up nine spots and I was able to gain another in the last loop. Now, it’s just one race to go. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

    Shooting quickly, Bailey recorded the ninth-ranked range time of the day and the ninth-fastest last loop.

    His teammate Sean Doherty started 35th but fell back after having to ski six times through the penalty lap (1+3+1+1) to finish 46th (+4:05.6).

    For Sunday’s mass starts as the final races of the 2016/2017 IBU World Cup season, the only qualified North American starters will be Dunklee (currently in 10th position in the World Cup Total Score standings) and Bailey (currently in eighth).

    The women’s season award in the mass start discipline once more will be decided between Germany’s Dahlmeier and Czech Republic’s Koukalova, while Germany’s Simon Schempp will try to defend his narrow lead on Fourcade. But during Saturday’s final loop, the French star did consider saving energy for the final competition.

    “No,” he simply quipped when asked about this in the press conference. “Of course the mass start is important tomorrow because it will decide about the [mass start] crystal globe. But I think today the pursuit was also really important, and you fight for victory and being one of the best athletes. You can’t be satisfied with only a third place when you can claim a second, and I think all athletes in my position would do the same.”

    Results: Women | Men

    ***

    Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby after winning the Norwegian 54 k classic Birkebeinerrennet, part of the Ski Classics series, on Saturday in Lillehammer, Norway. (Photo: Ski Classics)

    54 k Birkebeinerrennet (Rena to Lillehammer, Norway): Part of the Ski Classics series

    [UPDATED] Not even a snowmobile clipping him and sending him tumbling 20 k before the finish could keep Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby from winning the Birkebeinerrennet on Saturday in Norway. Representing Team United Bakeries, Sundby set a high pace from the start and broke the group down to three by 9 k, with Petter Eliassen of Team LeasePlan and Simen Østensen of Team BN Bank sticking with him until about 30 k in the 54 k marathon.

    With about 20 k to go, Sundby collided with a Ski Classics TV production crew snowmobile while trying to double pole in the snowmobile’s tracks. He was OK and went on to win by 48 seconds over Eliassen in second, and smiled about the incident after the finish.

    “It came in with tremendous speed and mowed me down,” Sundby told NRK, according to a loose translation.

    Ski Classics CEO David Nilsson told NRK he didn’t know exactly how that happened and emphasized that it was unacceptable.

    “We always put safety first, but it is a difficult balancing act with the snowmobile at high speed to get TV pictures,” he said, according to a loose translation. “The skiers often ski in the [snowmobile] track and here it happened and somehow the driver missed it.”

    While Sundby pulled out the win in 2:20:53.5 hours, Eliassen took second and Østensen followed another 3.5 seconds later for third place.

    In the women’s race, Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk (Team Santander) pulled out a 4 minute and 15 second win over Sweden’s Britta Johansson Norgren (Lager 157 Ski Team). Japan’s Masako Ishida (Team United Bakeries) was another 48.6 seconds back in third.

    “I’m really happy to win this race,” Kowalczyk said, according to a Ski Classics press release. “Everything went well and the cheering on the course was amazing. I will do the rest of the races in Visma Ski Classics, but this victory was the most important for me. Of course, I want to win again in Årefjällsloppet like I did last year, but to win here in front of this audience means so much to me.”

    Tord Asle Gjerdalen, who finished fourth in the men’s race, and Johansson Norgren continue to lead the overall Ski Classics standings with three races to go. The next stop is the Årefjällsloppet in Sweden on March 25.

    “It was a great race and we kept a high tempo up all the way,” Sundby said, according to the press release. “I was able to use uphills for my advantage and get a gap. I had good skis, the conditions were perfect, and to win here was one of my goals for the season. I have the Norwegian Championships in two weeks, and I haven’t counted out the option of going to Finland for the Visma Ski Classics finale.”

    Results

  • Fourcade ‘From Another Planet’; Bailey 13th in First IBU World Cup Sprint

    Fourcade ‘From Another Planet’; Bailey 13th in First IBU World Cup Sprint

    France’s Martin Fourcade shooting in standing, on his way to winning the men’s first IBU World Cup sprint of the season on Saturday in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: IBU)
    France’s Martin Fourcade shooting in standing, on his way to winning the men’s first IBU World Cup sprint of the season on Saturday in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: IBU)

    Just like in the women’s sprint earlier on Saturday, drastically improved wind conditions compared to earlier in the week at the International Biathlon Union’s (IBU) World Cup in Östersund, Sweden, required the athletes to shoot extremely well if they wanted to have a place on the podium in the men’s 10-kilometer sprint on Saturday.

    France’s Martin Fourcade again did it the best, shooting clean in the two stages and skiing just as fast as all week to cross the line in a time of 23:31.9 minutes, adding his 51st victory to his records right after he achieved the big milestone of 50 wins in the individual race on Wednesday.

    Despite starting early in bib 11, Fourcade knew no other athlete was likely to beat him in his current race shape when he manages to shoot no penalties, celebrating with both arms raised high as he crossed the line. And he immediately set his sight on another goal: winning three races in a row, four if you count his win in the single mixed relay.

    “It is much harder than it looks on TV,” Fourcade told German broadcaster ARD when asked about his frequent victories. “I don’t have a secret. It is very difficult for my body and for my mind. … I don’t want anybody to understand it the wrong way, but yesterday I knew I will win today … I didn’t dream it, I wasn’t sure. But I had to win. The last six years I always won two races here in Östersund. Maybe I can win the third race [this year]. But it will be tough. I have no more energy left. I am feeling empty.”

    “Conditions today were very different [from the individual race],” he later explained during the IBU press conference. “It was much more difficult for the athletes to reach a good speed. … But my shoot[ing] today was perfect, and it wasn’t in the individual, so I am a bit more satisfied today. … I try not to think about my opponents during competition. I am really focused on what I have to do. Today was a big battle against myself, and I am satisfied that I won.”

    Germany’s Arnd Peiffer had posted the first significant lead. Then he was replaced at the top by Fourcade, and still had to wait in the finish pen for his teammate Benedikt Doll, who had missed a shot in the standing stage but was faster than Peiffer on the course. In the end, Doll crossed the line a mere 0.5 seconds behind him.

    The men's sprint podium at the IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden. From left to right: Sweden’s Fredrik Lindström in second, France’s Martin Fourcade in first, and Germany’s Arnd Peiffer in third. (Photo: IBU)
    The men’s sprint podium at the IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden. From left to right: Sweden’s Fredrik Lindström in second, France’s Martin Fourcade in first, and Germany’s Arnd Peiffer in third. (Photo: IBU)

    When the race already looked like the podium was divided between those three, Sweden’s Fredrik Lindström became another athlete to shoot clean and ski fast (0+0). He went out on the final lap in third place, coming onto the finish stretch to huge cheers from the home crowd audience in Östersund when he still managed to beat Peiffer by two seconds for second place (+41.5), bumping Peiffer to third (0+0, +43.6).

    “He deserved it, didn’t he?” Peiffer exclaimed, who had just been waiting in the mixed zone for his post-race interview with broadcaster ARD when Lindstroem came to the finish. “First of all I am happy that it worked out so well for me today. And if I stand on the podium in the end, I absolutely can’t complain.”

    (“My individual was not so good,” Peiffer added during the press conference. “So I am really satisfied about this result today. I had an early number, so I didn’t know about anything that happened and just tried to make a good race… Today I shot clean, and that’s always what we try to do.”)

    “Today was really great,” an excited Lindström commented on his race during the press conference. “The shooting was perfect. The conditions were much better than in the individual race. I don’t think I was the fastest athlete on the range, but I was really focused, I really wanted to hit them all … I had a lot of family and friends in the stands, and they helped me.”

    “Last season was a real struggle,” he added. “The last competition was my only top ten result. This year I start with two top tens, so I am really happy with the start… Our whole team has had a great start, on the women’s side and now also for me.”

    Peiffer’s teammate Doll was not so amused to still lose his seemingly secure third place to finish fourth (0+1, +44.1).

    “I’m a little annoyed, I would have liked to stand on the podium,” Doll told ARD. “It looked good for a while. The 0.5 seconds to Arnd [Peiffer] don’t hurt so much, but I would have liked to not have Fredrik [Lindström] ahead of me.”

    Austria’s Julian Eberhard finished fifth despite two penalties (1+1, +46.0), narrowly beating Fourcade by 0.7 seconds for the fastest course time.

    “Today I was at my limit and got out one-hundred percent in both my shooting and course times,” Eberhard said in a press release by the Austrian Ski Association. “Unfortunately the two misses happened, but I had to take some risk and knew that a lot was still possible. I had great skis and gave it my all on the final lap.”

    Five North American Men Qualify for Pursuit

    Lowell Bailey achieved the best result of the North Americans on Saturday. He managed to shoot clean and skied the 28th-fastest course time, ultimately finishing 13th (+58.7), 1.4 seconds out of the top 10.

    Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) racing to 13th in the first sprint of the season on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
    Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) racing to 13th in the first sprint of the season on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)

    “It was an exciting race today,” Bailey commented, according to a US Biathlon press release. “It is unbelievable how competitive this men’s field is this year. I felt good about the race today, but it wasn’t quite enough to stay in the top ten.”

    “The conditions were much better today,” he wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “Virtually no wind and a little bit of fresh snow to make the tracks a little less icy. I felt good about both the skiing and shooting today.  All in all, I’m happy with the first races and looking forward to the pursuit tomorrow.”

    About 30 seconds behind Bailey, his teammate Tim Burke placed 29th (+1:28.0) after shooting one miss in the standing position (0+1).

    In his first weekend on the World Cup circuit since the 2014/2015 season, the third starter Russell Currier placed 69th (+2:42.9) with three penalties (2+1), missing out on the top 60 qualification for the pursuit by about 20 seconds.

    Biathlon Canada’s Brendan Green led his team in 32nd (+1:39.1), incurring one penalty in the prone shooting stage (1+0).

    Scott Gow shot clean, but skied the 86th-ranked course time, putting him in 50th (+2:14.8). Similarly, Macx Davies also shot clean and skied a bit faster than Gow, but required more time on the range to land his shots, especially in the standing stage where he was the 99th-ranked athlete, ultimately finishing 52nd (0+0, +2:17.6).

    Rounding out the results for Canada, Christian Gow finished 90th (0+2, +3:29.3) and Nathan Smith 96th (1+2, +4:12.2) with the 102nd course time, far below his usual ability.

    The times back to the winner from Saturday’s sprint carry over into the pursuit race on Sunday.

    “I think it will be big action tomorrow”, Germany’s Peiffer commented during the press conference. “After Martin there is a gap and then it’s really close.”

    “Martin is from another planet, he is far ahead of us,” Lindström agreed. “But it looks like it will be a tough fight for place two and three.”

    “That’s the worst thing you can do in biathlon”, Fourcade cautioned when asked about his lead going into the pursuit race. “When you think you have a two-bullet margin, on the next shoot[ing] you miss three. … I wonder if I can win three times in a row in Östersund. I never did it. So I await the answer tomorrow.”

    “The nice thing is that the pursuit will be incredibly close at the top of the race tomorrow, and this means there will be a lot of ‘pack’ skiing, which I like,” said Bailey, who will start fewer than 10 seconds out of sixth. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s pursuit … should be a fun race.”

    Results | Pursuit start list

  • In Second-Ever Mass Start, Smith Clinches Ninth; Shipulin Causes Late Trip to Win in Pokljuka

    In Second-Ever Mass Start, Smith Clinches Ninth; Shipulin Causes Late Trip to Win in Pokljuka

    Nathan Smith of Canada finished 13th in the first Olympic race of his career.
    Nathan Smith (Biathlon Canada) racing to 13th in the first Olympic race of his career, the 10 k sprint in last season in Sochi, Russia.

    This wasn’t Nathan Smith’s first time in a mass-start rodeo. The 28-year-old Canadian biathlete, who turns 29 on Christmas, had raced a 15-kilometer mass start in his first Olympics last winter. That was his first one — and he crashed out of it in a downhill pileup in the first 500 meters.

    Sunday was going to be different — at least he’d know what to expect. Starting in the last of 10 rows in bib 30 out of 30 racers, Smith knew he was at a disadvantage from the get-go and tried not to stress over it on the first lap.

    Not long into the final IBU World Cup race in Pokljuka, Slovenia (the last one of the circuit’s first trimester), Smith watched as a few competitors crashed in front of him. Fortunately, he saw the chaos coming and had enough time to move around them.

    “I knew that if would take really strong skiing to maintain position because these are the 30 fastest in the world,” Smith reflected in an email on Monday.

    Russia's Anton Shipulin celebrates his IBU World Cup mass-start victory on Sunday in Pokljuka, Slovenia, which he won by 1.2 seconds over France's Martin Fourcade (back). (Photo: IBU/Rene Miko)
    Russia’s Anton Shipulin celebrates his IBU World Cup mass-start victory on Sunday in Pokljuka, Slovenia, which he won by 1.2 seconds over France’s Martin Fourcade (back). (Photo: IBU/Rene Miko)

    Meanwhile, two of the top men in the overall World Cup, Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen in bib 1 and France’s Martin Fourcade in bib 2, set the pace out of the start. The third-ranked man in the World Cup at the time, Russia’s Anton Shipulin went with them. All three started in the first row.

    Another Russian, Timofey Lapshin, who start in bib 29 near Smith, lost a ski on that first lap. By 2.2 k, Shipulin was leading a three-man train with Fourcade and Svendsen, and American Lowell Bailey was up to 11th, four seconds behind them. His US Biathlon teammate Tim Burke was another three seconds back in 17th, and Smith trailed by 11 seconds in 24th.

    By the first shooting stage, all 30 racers lined up in their designated lanes, and Smith headed to the farthest mat from the exit — all the way off to the left. Then he missed his first shot.

    “I’m not sure why I missed the first shot, but I had to be super, super careful after that,” he wrote.

    It worked, he added, as he knocked down the next four targets — and went on to hit 18 straight on Sunday. Smith left the range in 20th, 33.7 seconds behind Shipulin, who cleaned, followed by Austria’s Dominik Landertinger 1.9 seconds back in second, Fourcade 3.5 seconds behind in third, and another Austrian, Simon Eder 4.8 seconds back in fourth.

    The top 13 men after the first prone all cleaned, leaving Svendsen, who missed one, 21.7 seconds back in 14th.

    The two other North Americans in the race, Bailey missed one and Burke had two penalties to put them in 26 and 28th, respectively, 46 and 54 seconds behind.

    On the next lap, Fourcade took the lead, ahead of Landertinger, Shipulin, France’s Jean Guillaume Beatrix, who left the range in fifth, and Eder.

    By the time the second prone rolled around, a large group of about 10 men entered the range together. Landertinger cleaned quickly, Shipulin matched him, as did Eder, Fourcade, and Beatrix. All five left the range within 1.6 seconds of one another.

    Smith hit every target to move to 13th, 34 seconds behind.

    “Shooting was excellent after that [first stage],” he reflected. “After the second prone I knew it was gonna be a great race.”

    Bailey and Burke both cleaned to improve to 21st and 24th, respectively, both about a minute out from the lead.

    Shipulin led Fourcade, Landertinger, Beatrix, and Eder through 8.2 k, then Fourcade took charge after the third stage. He quickly cleaned his standing shots, and Beatrix, Shipulin, and Sweden’s Fredrik Lindström, who had been hovering in the top 10 with perfect shooting, did as well. Eder had one penalty, Bulgaria’s Krasimir Anev jumped to sixth with clean shooting, and Smith found himself in seventh with another flawless stage.

    “I had to reset once in the first standing but other than that there were no problems until the last few shots of the race,” Smith wrote.

    The wind picked up for the men’s afternoon race, after a mostly calm-and-bluebird week in Pokljuka. It was still sunny, with more of a headwind coming at the athletes as they shot into the range.

    Bailey also cleaned his second-straight stage to move to 19th (+1:07), and Burke had one miss to drop to 25th (+1:31).

    Beatrix led around 10.6 k into the penultimate lap, with Shipulin and Fourcade right on his heels. Lindström fell 20 seconds off the pace, followed by Eder, and Smith was another nine seconds back — up to sixth, and just ahead of Anev and Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic.

    Shipulin (3) leads Frenchmen Fourcade (l) and Beatrix (r) around 11.2 k during Sunday's 15 k mass start in Pokljuka, Slovenia.
    Shipulin (3) leads Frenchmen Fourcade (l) and Beatrix (r) around 11.2 k during Sunday’s 15 k mass start in Pokljuka, Slovenia.

    Shipulin took his turn leading at 11.2 k, followed by Beatrix and Fourcade, while Lindstroem and Eder hung together in fourth and fifth, about 13 seconds ahead of Smith.

    Shipulin led into the range for the last time, where his first miss of the day put him 8.1 seconds back in fifth behind Eder, who cleaned, and Fourcade, who missed one but shot quickly to stay within three seconds of Eder.

    Lindström finished the stage out with 20-for-20 shooting, the only man to do so, to leave the range in third, 7.2 back, and Beatrix missed one to head out fourth (+8.0), just ahead of Shipulin.

    Smith missed his final shot to drop to 11th, but left the penalty loop feeling like he had a lot left to give — 37 seconds out at the time. Less than three seconds ahead of him, Germany’s Andreas Birnbacher in eighth, France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet in ninth and Russia’s Dmitry Malyshko in 10th were within reach.

    “I really struggled to hold it together and those last three [stages],” Smith explained. “I almost felt dizzy trying to aim and concentrate from the pressure. That shot cost me a position where I could’ve been fighting in the lead pack for a medal.

    “I almost felt dizzy trying to aim and concentrate from the pressure.” — Nathan Smith (Biathlon Canada), after placing ninth in Pokljuka mass start

    “I held back behind a couple guys and waited to attack at the top of the second last climb,” Smith added. “I made a good gap on them and almost shook [Slovenia’s Jakov] Fak [who left the range in 12th], but he surged again on the next hill and got in front of me.”

    At the front of the race, French teammates Beatrix and Fourcade led side by side up a hill, and attacked together to try to drop Shipulin, Eder, and Lindström — and perhaps each other. Beatrix picked up the pace again with about a kilometer to go, and Fourcade went with him, as did Shipulin trailing off the back of the breakaway.

    Beatrix fell, apparently tripped up by Shipulin, and the Russian pounced on the opportunity to get ahead, attacking up and over the last rise to drop the field, soaring down into the stadium well ahead of Fourcade, as well as Eder and Lindström, who also passed Beatrix.

    “I would like to apologize to Jean Guillaume; sometimes these things happen in sports, but I did not mean anything and did not do it on purpose,” Shipulin told the IBU media after the race.

    Fourcade backed him up. “I think this is a part of the game,” he said. “I am 100-percent sure that Anton did not do it consciously. It kept me from battling Anton on the final stretch, but I have only to blame myself for not winning today; I missed one shot on the shooting range.”

    Shipulin took the victory in 35:16.8, while Fourcade finished 1.2 seconds back in second, and Eder outsprinted Lindström in a photo finish for third (+1.4). Beatrix took fifth (+4.8).

    “I am the guy who benefitted from the ‘wheel-banging’ in the last loop,” Eder said. “I might have been fourth! This is biathlon; I did not give up and you can see what happened!”

    Norway’s Tarjei Bø placed sixth with a single penalty on his third stage, Moravec took seventh with one miss on his second prone, and Fak edged Smith by 0.6 seconds for eighth (+29.8).

    Canada's Nathan Smith racing to ninth in Saturday's IBU World Cup 10 k sprint in Östersund, Sweden. Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus.
    Canada’s Nathan Smith racing to ninth in the IBU World Cup 10 k sprint in Östersund, Sweden, earlier this season. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

    For Smith, ninth stood as his second-best World Cup result (after tallying two eighth-place finishes in a sprint and pursuit last season) in his second-ever mass start. After finishing 30.4 seconds behind the winner, he posted the third-fastest shooting time, seventh-ranked range time and eighth-fastest course time.

    “Mass starts are a lot different than pursuits. It’s nice to get one under my belt now and I hope to do a few more this season, too,” Smith reflected. “I’m very happy with yesterday’s race and it’s a perfect way to cap off a strong trimester. It gives me extra motivation to rest up and train over the Christmas break.”

    Just a few weeks ago, Smith placed ninth in the sprint at the World Cup opener in Östersund, Sweden, and 16th in the pursuit there, after skiing in the top three.

    “I’m happy with the season so far. A bit disappointed that I missed a few medal opportunities due to last standing misses,” Smith wrote. “Skiing hasn’t been on average quite as good as last year yet, but it has been more consistent. My two best skis so far though are definitely at least as good as anything I did last year. Prone has been amazing, but standing needs to come up just a little and then I will be where I want to be.”

    He’ll spend his holidays mostly in Vernon, British Columbia, with his girlfriend, Emma Lunder, and her family. After that, Smith planned to head to Canmore for a week, then back to Oberhof, Germany.

    Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) racing to 21st with two penalties in the 15 k mass start on the last day of IBU World Cup racing in Pokljuka, Slovenia. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
    Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) racing to 21st with two penalties in the 15 k mass start on the last day of IBU World Cup racing in Pokljuka, Slovenia. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)

    In the final shooting stage of Sunday’s race, Bailey had another penalty and Burke missed three to drop to 22nd (+1:25.7) and 28th (+2:29.8), respectively. Bailey held his position to finish 22nd with two penalties, 1:34.6 behind Shipulin, while Burke moved up one spot to 27th (+2:32.3) with six misses.

    “I was actually pretty satisfied with most of my race today,” Bailey said in a US Biathlon press release. “I felt better on the ski course and the shooting was pretty decent. The only issue was early on in the first prone stage. I had some trouble with my rifle and probably lost an extra 25 seconds getting that figured out. This made it pretty hard to recover and catch the rest of the pack. Other than that, I’m satisfied with the race and looking forward to the Christmas break.”

    Fourcade regained the World Cup lead, and Shipulin moved up to second, 25 points back and just one point ahead of Svendsen — who finished 17th with four penalties on Sunday — in third overall.

    Results

    (Stay tuned for women’s mass-start report)

  • Biathlete Lindström Tops Swedish Ski Field in Bruks 15 k; Kalla Dominant in 52-Second Win

    Biathlete Lindström Tops Swedish Ski Field in Bruks 15 k; Kalla Dominant in 52-Second Win

    Frederik Lindström racing at a biathlon World Cup in 2012. Today, he raced without a rifle on his back for the first time in six years - and came out on top. Photo: Fischer/nordicfocus.com.
    Frederik Lindström racing at a biathlon World Cup in 2012. Today, he raced without a rifle on his back for the first time in six years – and came out on top. Photo: Fischer/nordicfocus.com.

    Yesterday it was 0.4 seconds, today 0.7 – Calle Halfvarsson just can’t seem to pull out a win in Bruksvallarna, though he can get darn close.

    In Saturday’s 15 k freestyle competition in the Swedish mountains, Halfvarsson was left in second place behind Fredrik Lindström, a World Championships medalist from Sweden’s biathlon team.

    “I’m not surprised that Fredrik was so fast,” Halfvarsson told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. “He was second behind me once at a junior championships in Falun. He’s really good at skating… he would not be bad to have on a relay team.”

    Lindström said that it was his first cross country race since he was a junior (in fact, his first FIS race since that 2008 championships in Falun).

    “I’m in a bit of a shock actually,” he told Swedish newspaper Expressen, according to a translation. “It felt good to race…. but yes, it feels weird.”

    Because he had no FIS points, Lindström had an early seed in the race. Some concluded must have been an advantage before the hundreds of racers skied over and degraded the snow. But Johan Olsson, yesterday’s winner in the 10 k classic, disagreed.

    “One should not take anything away from him,” he told Aftonbladet. “I have been honestly beaten today.”

    For Lindström, entering the competition was part of a deliberate strategy to prepare for this year’s biathlon season. He is in an unusual position in that Sweden’s two other stars, Olympic gold medalist Björn Ferry and two-time World Championships medalist Carl Johan Bergman, both retired at the end of last season.

    Thus Lindström, despite being only 25 years old, finds himself as the most veteran member of his team and lost valuable training and race partners.

    Tackling the ski field, he hopes, will make up for this in some sense.

    “I was keen to do my best,” he told Expressen. “What I’ve had as a goal is to take the best shooters’ help and improve my shooting, and take the best skiers to improve my skiing.”

    Yet he was humble, if teasing, when communicating with fans before the race.

    “If you have nothing planned today, then I think you should watch the ski races in Bruksvallarna,” he tweeted.

    Others were confident of his success: Ferry said that if Lindström didn’t make the top five, he’d eat his own hat.

    Daniel Richardsson finished third, +6.0, with Martin Johansson and Olsson fourth and fifth, +20.7 and +22.0, respectively. Petr Novak of the Czech Republic was the only non-Swede to break into the top ten, finishing ninth.

    Canadian Paralympic gold medalist Brian McKeever placed 45th, +2:33.

    In the women’s 10 k freestyle, Charlotte Kalla came back from a big win in the 5 k classic with another victory, this time by 52 seconds over Maria Rydqvist. Anna Haag placed third for the second day in a row; former Colorado University standout Maria Graefnings placed fifth, just 15 seconds off the podium.

    “I’m pretty confident in what I can do here,” Kalla told Aftonbladet. “But I had to work harder today. Yesterday was easier.

    Racing continues in Bruksvallarna tomorrow with classic sprints.

    Results: men & women

  • Fourcade Makes It Three Golds in Four Tries, Is King of World Championships After Hard-Fought Mass Start Victory

    Fourcade Makes It Three Golds in Four Tries, Is King of World Championships After Hard-Fought Mass Start Victory

    Martin Fourcade leading the race after the first shooting stage.

    RUHPOLDING, Germany – Martin Fourcade is a glutton for punishment.

    At every chance he got, the Frenchman would push the pace over the top of the last steep hill during today’s World Championship 15 k mass start. As the rain gently fell on the Chiemgau Arena and competitors looked more and more bedraggled, Fourcade attacked again and again, jump-skating up hill after hill, and dragging himself back from penalties that may have come from pushing too hard.

    But Fourcade is also a glutton for gold, and in the end he was rewarded with his third individual victory of the week in four races – a truly unusual feat in a sport which is decided by millimeters on the range.

    “I have always said that I didn’t fight for records, but today I know that my performance during the World Championships was big,” Fourcade said in a press conference.

    Fourcade said that he had never doubted his shape, which undoubtedly made it easier to hammer up the punishing hills loop after loop. Beginning with the very first loop, he sped up on that last hill to put a gap on the field before descending down into the stadium and onto the shooting range. That time, it worked out: Fourcade cleaned the initial prone stage and left the range in the lead.

    Birnbacher, Ole Einar Bjørndalen, Arnd Peiffer, and Fourcade in the first standing stage.

    On the second loop, Fourcade tried the same move, but this time he picked up a penalty – whether from pushing too hard or simply because conditions are difficult, is hard to say. Fourcade, who had already won two gold medals in the sprint and pursuit as well as silver in the men’s relay, fell to 14th.

    But, setting a furious pace, Fourcade pushed himself to the max one more time, gradually clawing his way through the field. An attack on that same final hill brought him back into contact with the leaders, and he was in fourth place when he pulled into the range the for his first standing bout.

    Again, Fourcade missed a shot. Andreas Birnbacher of Germany cleaned and left with a seven-second lead over Bjorn Ferry of Sweden and Jaroslav Soukup of the Czech Republic.

    This time, though, much of the field hit the penalty loop, which began to resemble a merry-go-round of colorful race suits. Even though he had two misses so, Fourcade was still very much in the race, and hit the trails 23 seconds behind Birnbacher.

    The German’s success had led to wild cheering from the 30,000 fans in attendance, and for the first part of the loop, he skied alone. But by the time the field came to the final standing stage, nobody was safe.

    Fourcade later admitted that he was intimidated by the until-then clean-shooting Birnbacher, who wore the red bib as the leader of the World Cup mass start standings.

    The chase group, led by Bergman, leaving the stadium on the final loop.

    “I didn’t think about it before, but during the competition Andreas was very strong and he could win today with zero penalties,” Fourcade said.

    For the local hero, who grew up 30 kilometers from Ruhpolding, clean shooting was not to be. Birnbacher missed a shot and was forced to hit the penalty loop. While he skied his extra 150 meters, both Ferry and Fourcade cleaned; Ferry had a slight lead on the Frenchman as they climed the first hill out of the range.

    With the prowess that Fourcade had shown both already today and throughout the championships, it seemed impossible that Ferry could hold his lead. Through the first half of the loop, though, he tucked in behind Fourcade and the two skied together.

    The pace wasn’t light, either: a group, including Birnbacher, had left the range just five seconds behind the leaders, and playing a cat-and-mouse game with one another could easily have left both Ferry and Fourcade medal-less.

    “It was not the same position that I was in with Carl Johan [Bergman] earlier this week, because there were five hungry boys trying to catch us,” Fourcade said of the final loop. “I had to push really hard to win either gold or silver. It was my only aim from the last stage, to be first or second.”

    Ferry leading Fourcade.

    The first half of the course rolled up and down, and the 6’ 6” Ferry could use his power to hang with Fourcade. But unsurprisingly, once the pair hit the course’s major climbs with a kilometer to go, Fourcade broke into the jump skate that he had used to such effect before, and Ferry could not keep up.

    “I did my best and I saw that I was a bit stronger than Bjorn on the last uphill,” Fourcade said. “But he was close to me and I never stopped pushing.”

    Ferry popped, but he didn’t fall too far behind – like Fourcade, he knew that if he slowed down even one bit, he would be swallowed by the chase pack of teammated Fredrik Lindstrom and Carl Johan Bergman, Fourcade’s brother Simon, and Birnbacher.

    That seemed like a real possibility, and although gold was locked up, the stadium full of mostly German fans nervously watched the final meters tick away, hoping that Birnbacher could win silver or at least bronze.

    Ferry, however, hung on, and coming over the top of Fourcade’s favorite hill, Lindstrom opened a small lead.

    Lindstrom, who at 22 years of age has won a single World Cup and has no other podiums, said in the press conference that he had not been expecting to find himself in the lead pack, and didn’t even realize that he was.

    “I didn’t know what position I was out on the final loop,” he admitted. “But I was coached by our trainers and heard I was in fifth place, and realized that the bronze medal was just two meters ahead of me. It was a perfect final loop for me. In the uphill I tried with all I had and it was enough to be a bronze medalist.”

    Birnbacher trailing Lindstrom to the finish line.

    Birnbacher finished a close fourth – his second wooden medal of the championships. Simon Fourcade was fifth and Bergman sixth, giving Sweden not only two on the podium but half of the top six.

    It was an amazing result for the team, which despite Bergman’s two medals earlier this week struggled in the relay and placed a dismal 16th. They are reeling, too, from the announcement that the star of their women’s team, Helena Ekholm, will retire at the end of this season.

    Today, though, the men’s team had nothing to worry about.

    For Ferry, the result was a return to the form that won him Olympic gold in Vancouver, but which had so far eluded him this season – and it was a relief.

    “I shot clean today, the shape I have this year – I know that I have to hit all the targets or else I have no chance,” Ferry said. “You see the result list and if I miss one shot then I am number ten, so it has been really tough.”

    But as thrilled as the Swedish team was, the day was clearly all about Fourcade.

    “I said before the Championships that he would be the king of the Championships,” Ferry said of the gold medalis. “I want to see him in cross country also, I think he would have a chance against Northug and the kings. He is really strong.”

    “And today he won the Swedish championship,” Lindstrom joked.

    There were no joked from the man himself, who was simply overcome by his good results.

    “It is more than I can expect in my life,” he said. “It’s only wonderful.”

    Of Note:

    – Benjamin Weger of Switzerland, currently ranked in the top ten in the overall World Cup standings, perhaps had the worst day of anyone. After missing a shot in the initial prone stage, he left the range in 25th with some ground to make up. But First he broke a ski, and a coach had to bring another out onto the course for him to clip into; then he fell and broke a pole. Trailing the 29th-place racer by a huge margin, Weger withdrew before making it to the second stage.

    – The Czechs, on the other hand, had a good day. While no individual result made huge fireworks, the team had placed three men in the field of 30, which is unusual. Jaroslav Soukup, Michal Slesingr, and Ongrej Moravec finished 11th, 12th, and 13th, within a minute of Fourcade.

    – Andriy Derezemlya of Ukraine only received a start due to the withdrawal of Jakov Fak of Slovenia. The 34-year-old four-time Olympian has been competing in World Championships since 1997; he won a World Cup in the 2004/5 season and has seven podiums to his name, but hasn’t had a great 2012. Today, though, he placed 19th.

    – Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey placed 23rd and 25th for the U.S. after missing four and five shots. Stay tuned for an interview with Bailey.

    – No Canadians qualified for the race, although JP Le Guellec was next in line after Derezemlya.

    Full results

  • Frustrated in Mass Start, American Men Regroup and Prepare for Relay

    Frustrated in Mass Start, American Men Regroup and Prepare for Relay

    Lowell Bailey finished 21st in today's 15 k mass start in Antholz, Italy. Photo: NordicFocus/USBA.

    Both Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey had their moments in Saturday’s mass start race in Antholz-Anterselva, Italy.

    After two shooting stages, Burke was in the top ten. After three, Bailey was 11th. But in the end, after four stages and 15 k of skiing, the Americans ended up in a race with each other – for 20th place.

    “It was an up and down race for me today,” Bailey wrote in an e-mail to FasterSkier. “I started out with one penalty in prone, which put me back into 28th place – the level is so high in this event that even one miss in the initial stage can put you in the back of the field. However, I was able to get back into the mix with two clean stages.”

    With only one biathlete in the 30-man field shooting clean (Michal Slesingr of the Czech Republic, who finished fifth), an early error would have been possible for Bailey to overcome. Unfortunately, however, he wasn’t able to keep it at one.

    “I missed my second and last shots during [the final] bout, which was definitely a disappointment,” he wrote.

    After two trips around the penalty loop, Bailey was in 18th, but he ran out of gas and slipped several places in the final three kilometers. Those loops, he said, were not part of his plan.

    “I felt good going into the race today,” Bailey explained. “I had a gameplan for the shooting range. And it just didn’t come together for the last stage.”

    Burke following eventual podium finisher Martin Fourcade of France. Photo: NordicFocus/USBA.

    Burke had an even tougher time on the range. After cleaning both prone stages and sitting in ninth, he had a disastrous initial standing bout, missing three shots, and dropped to 24th. Then, in his second standing stage, he missed two more.

    Despite all that, he had more juice in his legs than Bailey, and turned in the second-fastest closing loop of any skier in the field. That enabled him to move up four spots and outsprint his teammate at the finish.

    Good skiing, however, was no consolation for Burke, who has watched initial top-ten splits disappear on the back of shooting errors after blundering in one standing stage after another.

    “I am very frustrated with my standing shooting,” he told FasterSkier. “I have been working so hard on my shooting, but the results only seem to get worse with this added effort.”

    After the Antholz races finish up, World Cup will take a break before resuming in Oslo in early February. Burke will be hitting the trails for a significant block of training, but he won’t be using a rifle – at least initially.

    “For the break I am going to stay right here in Antholz so that I can get two full weeks at altitude,” he explained. “I will be working on putting in some hours after having so many races in the last three weeks. I think I also might try putting the rifle away for a few days, so that I can get a little mental recovery before the next races.”

    While he wasn’t happy with today’s effort, Burke was confident that if his shooting came together, he’d be able to turn in some of the best performances of his career.

    “I am very happy with how I feel skiing now,” he said. “My form is good enough for a podium performance.”

    Bailey, too, was looking forward to moving on from the disappointment of the mass start.

    “I need to take the frustration and channel it into focus for tomorrow’s relay,” he said. “We have a great team and I’m excited to show that to the rest of the world.”

    Andreas Birnbacher of Germany won a sprint finish with Anton Shipulin of Russia and Martin Fourcade of France to take his second World Cup victory of the season.

    Fourcade and Fredrik Lindstrom of Sweden had been leading going into the final stage, but each missed a shot, allowing Birnbacher and Shipulin to catch up after cleaning the stage. The four men skied the last loop together, providing the crowd with a thrill as the sprinted into the stadium the final time.

    The Canadians did not qualify any athletes for the 30-man race.

    Full results

    Bailey skiing through the stadium. Photo: NordicFocus/USBA.
  • (Updated) Lindstrom Picks Up First Victory; With 12th Place, Burke Earns Mass Start Spot the Hard Way

    (Updated) Lindstrom Picks Up First Victory; With 12th Place, Burke Earns Mass Start Spot the Hard Way

    Russell Currier (USA) skiing to 43rd place. Photo: NordicFocus/USBA.

    The Swedish biathlon team has had to adjust to several surprise announcements in the last year. In the spring star coach Wolfgang Pichler left to lead the Russians. In the summer, 2006 Olympic gold medalist Anna Carin Zidek decided to retire. In the fall, Mattias Nilsson was forced to leave competitive sports after being diagnosed with a leaky heart valve.

    None of it was good news – but as soon as the started, the tide turned. Nilsson’s sister, Anna Maria, made the World Cup podium for the first time. Carl Johan Bergman won his first World Cup, and then won another.

    On Friday, the team had another nice surprise: 22-year-old Fredrik Lindstrom won the 10 k sprint in Antholz-Anterselva, Italy. The lanky Swede is in the midst of just his third full season on the World Cup; he has already finished in the top ten several times and turned in strong relay performances, including fourth place in both the Olympics and 2011 World Championships.

    But today was different.

    “I had a great feeling today!” he exclaimed in a press conference. “My shape was very good and I performed well on the shooting range. It was an amazing feeling.”

    Lindstrom credited his success in part to training with Bergman and Olympic gold medalist Bjorn Ferry, saying that “they challenge you every day.”

    His win came in impressive fashion. With good conditions, most of the top men cleaned the prone shooting stage, and the excitement happened in the second half of the race. While his splits had been close to the lead the whole race, in the beginning he had trailed Arnd Peiffer of Germany. Both started with late bibs, Lindstrom 75 and Peiffer 81. They each cleaned in prone, and Peiffer held an 11-second lead.

    Lindstrom cleaned standing as well and sped to the finish. It was too much for Peiffer to match, however, and the German bonked, turning in the 33rd-fastest closing lap and eventually finishing 27 seconds behind the Swede, good for fifth place.

    Second went to Evgeniy Garanichev of Russia, who did the opposite of Peiffer and moved from fourth to second after skiing the fastest closing lap in the field. Earlier this season, Garanichev was racing on the IBU Cup circuit, and despite his success in Antholz didn’t seem certain that he’d stay on the Russian “A” team.

    “I have not had a World Cup start very often because we have many good athletes on our team,” he told the press. “I am not a star. I just do my job.”

    Martin Fourcade of France finished third and took the yellow overall leader’s bib from Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway, who had a rare bad day on both the range and the trails and finished 23rd.

    Burke. Photo: NordicFocus/USBA.

    American Tim Burke continued the “up” part of his up-and-down season, placing 12th with two penalties. He had the 11th-fastest ski time, and with two penalties in standing ended up just three seconds out of the top ten.

    It’s the second 12th-place finish for Burke this season, and he has also finished 9th and 11th. Despite these performances, his bad days have been out of the World Cup points, and today’s result brought his World Cup ranking up to 30th. It also earned him a spot in Saturday’s mass start.

    The 30 positions in a mass start are divvyed up in two ways: the first 25 go to the top athletes in the World Cup rankings. Then, the final five are allotted to the next best performers in the preceding sprint.

    Burke’s teammate Lowell Bailey, who finished 36th today, made mass start through the first option. Based on top-ten performances earlier this season, he’s ranked 15th in the overall standings. Burke, however, was left to make the race the second way.

    “Earning points the hard way today in Antholz,” Burke tweeted after the race. “I would give a lot to get those last two shots back.”

    Jay Hakkinen also scored World Cup points, cleaning both shooting stages to finish 22nd.

    “It was important for me to return to solid shooting after having some standing misses in the past races, and I fought hard for every shot, especially the last one where my legs where shaking,” he told FasterSkier. “It was a bit heartbreaking to be just 5 seconds away from directly qualifying for the Mass Start, but that is biathlon.”

    Hakkinen is an alternate for the mass start. The final American, Russell Currier, placed 43rd with two penalties.

    The Canadians also put three men in the World Cup points. Jean-Phillipe Le Guellec, Scott Perras, and Brendan Green finished 27th, 29th, and 34th.

    For Le Guellec and Green, who have finished in the top ten and twenty this season, the results were run-of-the-mill; they racked up two and three penalties, respectively. But for Perras, the top-30 finish was a career best – and by far the strongest result of the season.

    “Finally is right,” he wrote in response to an e-mail from FasterSkier. “If I was to sum it up in one word that would be it.”

    In the pre-Christmas campaign, Perras had failed to break into the top 60, which was frustrating because he had made good progress the year before.

    “For one reason or another I struggled,” he said. “It was tough. there was a point when I didn’t know if I needed rest or training, but I chose training.”

    His gamble worked.

    “I came back to Europe feeling like a new man,” he said.

    In last weekend’s races in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, Perras finished in the mid-40s – an improvement, but still not what he had been hoping for. Then, he suffered another setback when his rifle stock broke. U.S. shooting coach Armin Auchentaller, however, was able to find a cabinetmaker to repair the stock, which Perras tested out in official training. Luckily, both he and the rifle are back in action.

    With multiple top-30 performances on Friday, both the U.S. and Canada could put together strong relays this weekend, although the North American squads haven’t had stellar results in team events so far this season.

    Perras and his teammates were excited – in their own way.

    “I think we are psyched for the relay, but we aren’t really a group that gets psyched,” he said. “We just enjoy the moment.”

    Full results

  • Even Without Ferry, Sweden Continues Golden Weekend with Thrilling Mixed Relay Victory

    Lowell Bailey shot clean and helped the United States to an 11th-place finish. Photo: nordicfocus.com, 2008.

    In Saturday’s World Cup sprint race, Bjorn Ferry gave habitual powerhouse Sweden its third victory of the new season, and its first in a men’s race.

    On Sunday, Sweden took win number four. After Helena Ekholm and Anna Carin Zidek, the team’s first two World Cup victors this season, left the Swedes within striking distance of the podium, Carl Johann Bergman used some last-minute heroics to take a 0.3 second win over Ukraine France and Russia.

    But if you thought that Ferry, yesterday’s winner, set him up, you’d be wrong. Ferry was slated to start today, but felt a bit off this morning.

    He was replaced instead by Fredrik Lindstrom, who used two rounds to move the Swedes from fourth place into second. At just 21 years of age and with a top individual World Cup finish of 10th place, Lindstrom probably wasn’t expected to be the hero of the day – but although Bergman got the glory of crossing the finish line first, he couldn’t have gotten there without his less-experienced teammate.

    “It was actually good for us to be a little back in the early part,” Lindstrom told IBU News. “It took away a little bit of the pressure. I was pretty relaxed when I took over.”

    By the end of Lindstrom’s leg, he was only five seconds behind the French, who had led from start to finish. But things were about to change.

    Martin Fourcade took the tag for France and proceeded to use all three spare rounds in prone. By the time he had left the range, he had dropped to fifth place. Bergman, too, used three spare rounds, and fell from second back to fourth. For a minute it looked like Lindstrom’s work had been in vain – Lukas Hofer of Italy was now in the lead, followed by Evgeny Ustyugov of Russia and Sergui Sednev of Ukraine.

    But Fourcade skied the second loop faster than anyone else, and was soon back in the lead. After cleaning the standing stage, he held a ten-second lead over Sednev, with five-second gaps back to Bergman and Ustyogov.

    And as exciting as the anchor leg had been so far, things were just getting started. Slowly but surely, the three chasers closed on Fourcade. With 1200 meters to go, he still led by two seconds. But with 700 meters to go, Bergman passed him, and looked like he would be able to hold on for the win.

    Though he had lost the lead, Fourcade still had two more skiers to hold off if he wanted to finish second. Try as he might, he couldn’t do it, and after a furious finishing sprint, Sednev nipped him at the line by exactly a second. Ustyugov was four seconds behind, unable to quite close the gap to the podium.

    It was the Swedes’ first victory in a mixed relay since 2007, when they won the World Championship. At this year’s World Championships in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, they might be favorites.

    But so too might Norway, who started their second-best team today and finished 12th. Four different Norwegians have won World Cup races so far this year, and none of them started today. Because there were no nations cup points attached to the mixed relay, the Norwegian team used the opportunity to gain their up-and-comers some experience.

    The Norwegians ended up sandwiched between two North American teams. The Americans finished eleventh and the Canadians thirteenth – and each sat our their biggest star, too, with neither Tim Burke nor Jean-Phillipe Leguellec competing today.

    “Eleventh place is quite good for us,” U.S. head coach Per Nilsson told FasterSkier. “It was a good ending of the first trimester of World Cups. The most positive today was the shooting. We were actually the best team of all today! It was nice to see after the struggle we have had, especially for the men.”

    The U.S. used only five spare rounds in eight shooting stages, and both Annelies Cook and Lowell Bailey shot clean without having to use any spares.

    It was Cook’s second World Cup start ever, and she certainly made the most of it. After receiving the tag from Sara Studebaker in 15th place, she both skied and shot well, and tagged off to Bailey in 11th.

    “The relay was really great and it was special for me to be on a relay team with someone I grew up with, like Lowell,” Cook said in an e-mail. “I haven’t cleaned that many times in my biathlon career, so it always feels good to do it, especially at a World Cup! I felt much better on my skis today and it was pretty awesome to be running away from a German on my last lap, even if she did catch me right at the finish.”

    Bailey also cleaned, and moved the team up further, into ninth. But he said that he hadn’t even been skiing his fastest.

    “I was definitely feeling the last three weeks of racing and I didn’t feel 100 % on the tracks. But I had solid shooting in the range and was able to move up a couple of spots on account of that.  Now I’m looking forward to a little down time and a chance to recover.”

    Bailey tagged off to Leif Nordgren, who was starting just his second World Cup relay. Nordgren used three spare rounds over two stages and dropped the team back into eleventh.

    He wasn’t thrilled with his performance as the anchor leg, and told FasterSkier in an e-mail that his leg “wasn’t very good.”

    “I’ve had a few stomach problems this week, nothing to write home about, but it definitely didn’t help,” he said. “I’m still pretty young, so anything less than my best day isn’t going to do me any good. I had three mistakes in shooting. With the extra rounds it was no problem, but that’s still some lost time on the range.”

    Overall, though, the team seemed very happy with their result.

    “I think it is one of the best team performances on the shooting range that I can remember in recent history,” Bailey said. “We came into today hoping to break in to the top ten. We didn’t quite make it, but we are satisfied with the result. I think it was a bit of a surprise for a lot of people that we were right in the top ten throughout the race.

    “It was impressive to see Annelise Cook, in her second ever world cup start, shoot clean without extra rounds while many of the veterans around her struggled with the always fickle Pokljuka winds.”

    The Canadians were some of those athletes that Bailey saw struggling with the wind. They used twelve spare rounds and still hit the penalty loop three times.

    “Our team has a ton of potential in the mixed relay,” leadoff skier Megan Imrie told FasterSkier. “Unfortunately today, our standing shooting was exceptionally rough. We can maintain good contact with the leaders in the skiing, so when our shooting hits the mark, watch out.”

    The mixed relay concluded the first period of World Cups, and the athletes now have a break before competition resumes in Oberhof, Germany on January 5.