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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: IBU World Cup pursuit

  • Lunder Rises to 27th for Career-Best Pursuit; Kuzmina Nabs First Win in 3 1/2 Years

    Emma Lunder (Biathlon Canada) racing last January at the 2017 IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

    Emma Lunder may be a relatively recent addition to Biathlon Canada’s World Cup team, but the 26-year-old Vancouver native has raced her share of International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cups.

    On Saturday, Lunder demonstrated both experience and composure, just as she had done the day before with close to zero visibility in the sprint, in the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit in Hochfilzen, Austria. Despite having started more than two dozen World Cups since the 2013/2014 season, this was only her third pursuit.

    “I went into this race knowing that both snow and wind were expected, so I anticipated conditions similar to yesterday’s sprint,” Lunder, who had previously raced to 42nd in the sprint with 9-for-10 shooting, wrote in an email. She had started second of 102 racers in the sprint and had to clear her own path through new snow while trying to stay on course.

    On Saturday, she started 42nd, 2:04 minutes behind the sprint winner, Darya Domracheva of Belarus, and within 12 seconds of 32nd.

    “With all of the racers starting fairly close together, a nice little track formed right in the middle of the ski trail so I just tried to ski in that path as much as I could during the race,” Lunder explained.

    It was snowing as expected on Saturday afternoon, but not as heavily as the day before, and the wind was variable.

    On the first prone shooting stage, Lunder missed her first shot but hit the next four. She had to ski a penalty lap and left the range in 45th, 2:35 minutes behind Domracheva, who had cleaned to remain in first place.

    “On the range today I had some windy bouts and some calm bouts, so I took the information I had from yesterday about correcting and clicked accordingly,” Lunder recalled.

    After missing her first shot, which she attributed to being slightly hesitant with her setup, Lunder went on to hit the next 19 — cleaning the next three bouts. In doing so, she rose to 37th after a clean second prone, then 32nd after the first standing, then 25th after the last stage.

    “In standing I ended up on lanes near the start of the range (lanes 7 and 3) so it gave me a few extra seconds to recover from the climb into the range,” she wrote. “I focused on the same cues I’d been using yesterday and tried not to think too much, and that seemed to do the trick for me.”

    Lunder crossed the finish line in 27th, 2:31.6 behind Slovakia’s Anastasia Kuzmina who also shot 19-for-20 after an early prone miss (1+0+0+0) to take the win in 34:41.2.

    It was Lunder’s best World Cup pursuit result and second-best result of her career after placing 21st in a 15 k individual race last season in Antholz, Italy.

    “I was getting splits throughout the race telling me what position I was in, but I just tried my best not to think about it too much, and keep skiing as fast as I could and shooting as well as I could!” she wrote. “Coming into the last standing I felt a little bit shaky, but once I was on the shooting mat I just went for it as if it was any other shooting bout, and I ended up with a good result. I’m really happy with my performance today. … to crack the top-30 in the second weekend of World Cup racing is definitely motivating for me!”

    Emma Lunder (r) with fellow Biathlon Canada national-team member Rosanna Crawford after the women’s modified sprint at Biathlon Canada’s team trials in November in Canmore, Alberta. Lunder placed second in that race to secure one of the last two spots on Canada’s IBU World Cup Team, while Crawford, who had been pre-selected for the team, placed sixth in that race. (Photo: Peter Collins/petercollinsphoto.com)

    The other Canadian in the race, Rosanna Crawford, finished 39th (+3:44.3) after starting 49th and shooting 16-for-20 with one miss in each stage (1+1+1+1). Crawford had the fourth-fastest overall shooting time out of 56 women in the pursuit.

    “I feel like today was a bit more like my normal shooting speed for standing and a little slower than my normal for prone,” she wrote. “I was really taking my time in zero for prone because the snow was making it so hard to see the target. Visibility was slightly better in the race, but I still tried to take my time in the hopes of hitting all 5.”

    In placing 39th, she tied her previous season best from the 15 k individual last week in Ostersund, Sweden, and scored World Cup points for the second time this season.

    “It’s disappointing to miss one shot every time, and to get into the top 30 I would have had to hit 18 or better,” Crawford wrote. “I’m glad I got a few points today, but feeling frustrated that I can’t put a good skiing and shooting together in the same race. Skiing was pretty good for the first 3 laps, and I slowed down a bit for the last 2, but today was my best skiing so far this year.

    “Looking forward to France where I am sure some good cheese will help fuel some good races!!” she added of this week’s upcoming races in Annecy, France. “Also just so happy for Emma Lunder! She really did a great job today, in the range to hit 19 and move up to 27th is awesome!”

    The lone American in the women’s pursuit, Clare Egan finished 53rd (+5:21.6) after starting 36th and having to ski seven penalty laps (2+2+2+1).

    The women’s 10 k pursuit podium at the IBU World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria, with Slovakia’s Anastasia Kuzmina (c) in first, Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen (l) in second, and Darya Domracheva of Belarus in third. (Photo: IBU/biathlonworld)

    In the race for first, Kuzmina, who had started second, 22 seconds behind Domracheva, maintained her position for the first half of the race despite a penalty on the first stage. After leaving the range 27 seconds behind Domracheva after the first shooting, Kuzmina was within 9 seconds of her after the second prone stage, which both women cleaned.

    The first standing stage that followed proved to be the turning point, with Domracheva missing one and Kuzmina cleaning to take the lead by nearly 13 seconds. Both cleaned the final standing, but Kuzmina skied faster to keep Domracheva at bay, racing to the win while Domracheva was passed by Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen on the final loop to end up third (+11.8). Mäkäräinen claimed second place (+10.2), up from starting 50 seconds back in sixth place, with 18-for-20 shooting (1+0+0+1) and the fastest course time of the field. (In comparison, Kuzmina skied the seventh-fastest overall course time and Domracheva’s time ranked 31st.)

    While it was Mäkäräinen’s first podium of the season, it was Kuzmina’s first win since a mass start in March 2014.

    “It is always great to be on the podium and especially in first position,” the 33-year-old Kuzmina said, according to an IBU press release. “After yesterday, I thought I had a chance, but it was not easy for me, especially on the shooting range; I could not catch my breath  … I just tried to stay positive. I took a long time on the last shooting, but finally it was good.”

    “Overall, it was not an easy race with such weather conditions,” Domracheva said. “Like Anastasia, I think I took some extra time for that last shot, but I had 19-of-20 and that is very good.”

    Sunday is a relay day with the men’s 4 x 7.5 k and women’s 4 x 6 k wrapping up racing in Hochfilzen. Canada is listed as starting Lunder, Crawford, Megan Bankes, and Julia Ransom, while the U.S., with three women on the circuit, will not be entering a women’s relay.

    Results

    Women’s relay start list

  • Fourcade Ties Single-Season Win Record; Bailey 9th in PyeongChang Pursuit

    Fourcade Ties Single-Season Win Record; Bailey 9th in PyeongChang Pursuit

    Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) racing to ninth in the men’s 12.5 k pursuit at the IBU World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)

    For a few kilometers, it looked like Julian Eberhard – the winner of Friday’s sprint – had things in hand in the 12.5 k World Cup pursuit in PyeongChang, South Korea.

    The Austrian cleaned his first prone stage and didn’t bleed too much time on the trails to Martin Fourcade, the French superstar who was chasing him down.

    But then he missed two shots in the second stage – and Fourcade sailed past him, off into the history books.

    Fourcade went 20-for-20 on the shooting range and racked up a 34.5-second win, his 12th for the season, matching a record set by Norway’s Ole Einar Bjørndalen in 2005. And there are still two more weekends of World Cup racing after PyeongChang.

    “I am part of  this generation who grew up watching Bjørndalen on television,” Fourcade said to the IBU after the race. “He is just so inspiring. I came to the stadium very tired, I want to thank him for being as inspiring as he was as I was growing up.”

    Eberhard wasn’t totally out of it though; he cleaned both of his standing stages, climbing back up into podium position. With one stage to go, he was skiing comfortably with Austrian teammates Simon Eder and Dominik Landertinger, in second, third, and fourth place.

    Eder and Landertinger missed twice on the final stage; Eberhard only missed once. Again, he had to watch someone else pass him while he was stuck skiing his penalty.

    The men’s 12.5 k pursuit podium on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea, with France’s Martin Fourcade (c) in first, Russia’s Anton Shipulin (l) in second and Austria’s Julian Eberhard (r) in third. (Photo: IBU)

    This time it was Russia’s Anton Shipulin, who had started the day 23rd, shot perfectly, and improbably made his way all the way up to second place. It was an impressive demonstration that nobody can be counted out in a biathlon race, even when handicapped by a disappointing result the day before.

    “Today, the shooting did the trick,” Shipulin said through a translator at the press conference. “I cannot remember last time I shot clean in a competition with four shooting stages. I think our service men did a great job: the skis were going very fast, and I felt like I was in a good shape. I just wish I had the same mood yesterday.”

    And reinforcing the possibility of a comeback was Eberhard. He had never before had a podium in a head-to-head race, only in individual-start sprints, and the two misses in prone easily could have started a collapse.

    But he had kept himself to 85% shooting, and nobody could catch the Austrian on the last loop. He held onto third place (+36.7) and for the first time in his career, Eberhard took two podiums in one weekend.

    “This was a really wicked race,” Eberhard told Austria’s ORF broadcaster. “One of the coolest I have ever raced. I gave everything in the end, but I wasn’t really hopeful to catch Anton again, he is just too strong on the final loop for that.”

    Another Top 10 for Bailey

    Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) leading France’s Martin Fourcade in the men’s 12.5 k pursuit on Saturday at the IBU World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea. Fourcade went on to win after starting third, and Bailey placed ninth after starting second. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)

    After finishing second in the sprint, Lowell Bailey of the United States had a top start position in the pursuit. He was quickly caught by Fourcade – who started third – on his first loop.

    “I had a feeling that Fourcade would catch me right off the bat, so I was happy to stay with him, and ski with him the first lap,” Bailey said in a phone interview from PyeongChang.

    The sprint had been Bailey’s fourth individual race in a row with perfect shooting, but he couldn’t keep it going. Already in the first prone stage he split a bullet, and then had two misses later in the race.

    “I was a little bit shaky, I think, in shooting today,” he said. “It’s been a long season, and some days you wake up without the mental focus you have some other days. Today it was a lot of effort to get my zero dialed in and get ready for the race. Knowing that, I’m actually pretty happy with how the shooting went.”

    Despite the misses, he left the final stage in seventh place. The American was caught by Germany’s Benedikt Doll – the World Champion in the sprint – and Landertinger, who had rocketed out of the penalty loop.

    “I was happy with the way I skied the last loop,” Bailey said. “I knew that [Doll] was in the big group behind me, and he and [Landertinger] were coming. They are two of the fastest skiers in the world. So I was happy to be able to hang on to them until the finish.”

    Bailey tried to position himself to come off the final corner and lead to the finish line, but it was challenging given the course setup.

    “It’s whoever gets to the top of the hill first,” Bailey said. “Because I was in a group, I was just trying to catch Landertinger and Doll, so that last 200 meter stretch before the uphill I went as hard as I could. I did catch them and I tried to go around them on the outside on the big sweeping penultimate curve. It narrows down to about 2 meters after that… there’s a bottleneck. I about came even with Landertinger but we both were kind of stepping on each others skis. He got out in front, and I had to get in the draft, and wait for the sprint.”

    By that point, Italy’s Lukas Hofer and France’s Jean Guillaume Beatrix had also caught onto the group. Moving at a high speed, they all shot into the finishing lanes together. Landertinger made it to the finish first, with Bailey taking second place in the group and ninth overall (+1:20.6).

    “That was one of the craziest group sprints you could be in,” Bailey marveled. “You were going so fast you didn’t know whether you should stay in your skate tuck, or start V2ing. It was kind of just ride it out to the finish. Definitely, that last climb is where the race is won or lost for many races at the Olympics.”

    Bailey’s teammate Leif Nordgren finished 28th, +2:28.9 with a single missed shot – the last one.

    “Of course I’m a little ticked at missing the last shot, I’ve been doing that a lot lately, so that needs to change,” Nordgren wrote in an email. “[But] it was a good race for me today, finally I put everything together for a pursuit race.  It’s a lot of fun to be in the mix like that, and to take advantage of the opportunity to move ahead in places is good. I had a big group of guys right ahead of me today which leaves kind of a bitter feeling to the finish.”

    For Canada, Christian Gow led the way in 32nd (+3:17.4) after starting almost last – 56th – but cleaning all 20 of his shots.

    “I am super happy with the race and pumped to have, finally, achieved the elusive 20/20,” Gow wrote in an email. “The conditions on the range tonight were perfect, completely calm in the whole range. I wouldn’t say that I necessarily put any extra focus on shooting today. I had a good feeling in zero before the race and I hoped that I could make a clean shooting happen. I tried to do things normally and not get worried about the possibility of hitting them all.”

    He was followed by his brother Scott Gow in 43rd (+4:05.9) with five penalties, and Brendan Green in 44th (+4:09.8) with three missed shots.

    Results