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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: Ruhpolding sprint

Mäkäräinen in ‘Different League’ in Ruhpolding Sprint; Dunklee 33rd

Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen on her way to a win in Saturday’s IBU World Cup women’s 7.5 k sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: IBU)

Kaisa Mäkäräinen skied in a league of her own on Saturday.

The five biathletes currently leading the International Biathlon Union (IBU) women’s overall standings also occupied the top five of Saturday’s 7.5-kilometer sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany. But when Mäkäräinen shoots clean in a race, even those fast skiers cannot keep up with “the Finnish flash,” as an announcer for German TV broadcaster ARD dubbed her, as she finished in 20:51.8 minutes for her first World Cup win of the season and 20th victory of her career.

The Czech Republic’s Gabriela Koukalová came closest (+22.0, with no penalties), knocking the German home-crowd favorite Laura Dahlmeier to third (+30.1 with no penalties).

“It was almost a perfect race,” Mäkäräinen told ARD after. “I didn’t feel super, super strong today, even though I had good skis and ski times, but it was quite the slow snow and really deep and tricky.“

“I was really tired in the finish because there are no places where you can rest, you have to work all the time here,” she added during the press conference.

While the course conditions weren’t exactly easy for Mäkäräinen, they were at least as difficult for her competitors, who might not have caught the Finn even if she had incurred a penalty.

In light snowfall and wind, the competitors nevertheless had to shoot near-flawlessly to be at the top on Saturday, which eight of the top 10, including all of the podium finishers, achieved. Mäkäräinen hit all of her targets for the first time in an individual race since almost a year ago at the same venue, also in a World Cup sprint in Ruhpolding.

“Quite slow, I took it like one shot at a time,” she said of her approach to ARD. “But in standing I feel better, especially after shooting clean there in the relay [on Thursday].“

Asked what was more important to her, winning the “yellow bib” of the overall World Cup (Total Score) leader or a medal at the upcoming IBU World Championships, she had to laugh.

“Both!” Mäkäräinen exclaimed. “Both! I would be happy with both, or one of them. It’s really hard competitions right now compared to last year, so every day has to be a good day.”

For now, Koukalová defended the yellow bib against her closest rivals, but explained in the press conference that this was not exactly her main goal for the year.

“Everybody asks me about the yellow bib all the time,” Koukalová said. “But I have to say again, this year it is not the main goal of the season to be the first one in Total Score. I try to focus for the World Championship in Hochfilzen [next month].”

She added that it was a good decision to start in a later start group as “conditions were getting better and better. It was very nice to ski on faster snow than for the first athletes.”

“It’s fun to race in front of this audience, to fully attack,” Dahlmeier told ARD. “You could see that Kaisa is in a bit of a different league in terms of ski speed. I couldn’t touch that today, but I still tried to give it my best. So I am super happy about another position on the podium.”

Starting late in the race with bib 75, France’s Marie Dorin Habert challenged for the podium, but with a miss in her standing stage (0+1) while the top three stayed clean, she came up 15.5 seconds short (no thanks to the 20-30 seconds it takes to ski through the 150-meter penalty lap) in fourth place (+48.6).

Also slated to start Sunday’s pursuit within a minute behind Mäkäräinen will be Italy’s Dorothea Wierer, who took fifth (+57.7) on Saturday with clean shooting, as well as Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand, who also cleaned for sixth place (+59.8).

“Of course it’s good, [shooting] zero-zero,” Wierer told IBU TV in a post-race interview. “But on the track I’m really not in a good shape at the moment. I don’t know what happened. I feel like I would be sick, but I’m not … [For the pursuit on Sunday] we have to shoot four times zero, if not Kaisa is really really fast at the moment. We have to hope that she has some mistakes and we [don’t], but that’s biathlon.”

Four North Americans onto the Pursuit

US Biathlon’s Susan Dunklee shooting prone in the women’s 7.5 k sprint of the 2017 IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)

Susan Dunklee once again led the North American woman in the sprint in 33rd (+2:13.5), despite a penalty in each of her shooting stages (1+1). She had the 29th-fastest time on the range, and skied the 20th-ranked overall course time, including a very fast first loop where she skied right behind Koukalová, who was entering her second loop and ultimately posted the third-fastest course time of the day.

“I put myself in the race right from the start, taking advantage of a great ride behind Gabi for a loop,” Dunklee said, according to a US Biathlon press release. “Unfortunately, my pace fell off in the loops after that and my range performance was mediocre.

“I will have a great pack of athletes within two seconds ahead of me to chase tomorrow,” she added, referencing experienced competitors such as Germany’s Franziska Preuss (who placed 31st on Saturday, +2:12.8) and Ukraine’s Valj Semerenko (30th, +2:11.8).

Biathlon Canada’s Rosanna Crawford at the start of the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the 2017 IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: ARD broadcast screenshot)

Canada’s Rosanna Crawford finished 55th (+2:54.0) with one standing penalty (0+1), also shooting fast with the 19th-ranked range time, but still searching for her ski speed from last season with the 78th-ranked course time.

Her Biathlon Canada teammate Megan Tandy, who lives and trains near Ruhpolding for part of the season, finished her race just one position and 0.3 seconds behind in 56th (0+1, +2:54.3).

Returning to the World Cup after a training block at home in Canmore, Alberta, skipping the races in Oberhof last week, the third Canadian Julia Ransom finished 60th (+3:07.2), also with one standing penalty (0+1) to make the top-60 cutoff for the pursuit.

Teammate Emma Lunder missed qualifying for the pursuit in 89th (3+0, +4:21.7).

Also missing the top 60 was Americans Joanne Reid in 71st place (0+2, +3:25.2), Clare Egan who was 77th (2+1, +3:51.0), and Maddie Phaneuf who finished in 94th place (0+2, +4:36.5).

US Biathlon’s Maddie Phaneuf at the start of the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the 2017 IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: ARD broadcast screenshot)

“Well…feeling like garbage on the skis doesn’t help with racing fast haha!” Phaneuf commented on her race on Facebook. “Not super happy with my shooting, 0,2 and ended up 94th. No Pursuit for me tomorrow. But on the bright side, I have clean laundry, currently drinking a glass of wine, and my standing shooting was the 8th fastest of the day! Next stop…Antholz, Italy on Monday.”

It was the first World Cup week of the season for Phaneuf, who also raced the second leg of the U.S. women’s relay, which finished 17th on Thursday. She was called up after posting 10th- and 12th-place IBU Cup finishes earlier this month. She saw her first World Cup start last season on U.S. soil in Presque Isle, Maine, finishing 65th in the sprint.

Results | Pursuit start list

January 14, 2017
Burke Gives It One More Shot for Season-Best 12th; Bailey 18th in Ruhpolding Sprint

Tim Burke (US Biathlon) leads Switzerland’s Serafin Wiestner in the IBU World Cup men’s 10 k sprint on Friday in Ruhpolding, Germany. Burke finished 12th for a season best, and Wiestner was 41st. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)

This week, Tim Burke reached a serious tipping point. A US Biathlon veteran with six International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup podiums to his name (including a silver medal at 2013 World Championships), Burke stated this past fall that he was going for the one medal that eluded him: an Olympic medal. That meant racing through 2018.

His last World Cup podium came four seasons ago when he placed third in a sprint in Östersund, Sweden. So far this season, Burke, less than a month out from his 35th birthday, had failed to crack the top 20. His season-best result was 26th in the pursuit last week in Oberhof, Germany.

Then, on Wednesday, he skied the second leg of the men’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay in Ruhpolding, Germany, using all three spares on his standing stage and ending up in the penalty lap. The team placed 12th, and Burke wasn’t happy with his performance.

“This year has been such a roller coaster for my ski form,” Burke wrote in an email on Friday. “After the relay on Wednesday, I really considered skipping the rest of the World Cups until World Championships.”

2017 IBU World Championships are set for Feb. 9-19 in Hochfilzen, Austria. Skipping “the rest of the World Cups” until then would have meant missing the Ruhpolding sprint and pursuit, as well as potentially three races in Antholz, Italy, Jan. 19-22.

Burke decided to give it one more shot — or 10 more, to be exact — and suited up for another race day in Ruhpolding: the men’s 10 k sprint on Friday.

After more than 100 racers had finished, Burke was glad he joined them as he ultimately placed 12th for his best individual result of 2016/2017.

“I decided to give it one more try today and was thrilled to finally feel better,” Burke wrote. “Because of my recent struggles, I was very careful not to push too hard early on in the race. I kept the pace just below ‘red line’ and then really went for it about 1.5k from the finish.”

Starting relatively early in bib 21, Burke cleaned the first prone stage and clocked the 13th-fastest course time on the first loop. His second loop was slightly slower yet still competitive as the 19th-ranked time, and he sped up considerably on the last loop after missing a standing target and having to ski a penalty lap. His last loop was seventh fastest in the field, and overall, Burke’s course time was ninth fastest.

“Considering the season so far, I am very satisfied with my course time today,” he explained. “I had probably the best training season of my career, so despite some poor results, I have tried to just stay positive and confident that things would eventually turn around.”

While Burke described his lone penalty (0+1) as “not ideal”, he expected more penalties from others, given the breezy conditions and light snow falling later in Friday’s race.

“It’s always tough to say, but without that miss, I probably would have been close to the podium,” he wrote. “Of course there are many others who can say that as well!”

Burke ended up 1:11.6 minutes out of first and about 32 seconds off the podium in 12th, after eight of the 11 finishers ahead of him hit every target.

Overall IBU World Cup leader Martin Fourcade of France racing to his ninth individual win of the 2016/2017 IBU World Cup season on Friday during the men’s 10 k sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: IBU)

France’s Martin Fourcade put together the fastest skiing and best shooting performance of the day, starting 60th and cleaning both stages to finish 18 seconds faster than anyone else with a winning time of 22:34.2 minutes. He posted the fastest course time by more than 20 seconds to achieve his ninth victory of the season, and for the runner-up, Austria’s Julian Eberhard (who also shot clean and posted the third-fastest course time), it was his second podium of the season and third of his career.

“That was a perfect race from the first to the last meter,” Eberhard told Austrian broadcaster ORF. ” I wouldn’t know where I could have gained additional time [on Fourcade].”

Eberhard started 27th, just behind Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen in bib 25, who also hit all 10 targets and took the lead briefly at the finish. Eberhard bested Svendsen’s time by 21.7 seconds to become the new race leader until Fourcade crossed the line, and all three remained on the podium.

“Already in the prone shooting I felt super,” Eberhard said. “In standing, I noticed a little pressure because I knew it could become a great result, but I worked through the sequence calmly, and then marched full throttle until the end.”

“During my [warmup], I was watching the screen, and I saw that Julian and Emil Hegle were shooting clean, and I wanted to match them,” Fourcade said, according to an IBU press release.

About 12 seconds off the podium, Germany’s Arnd Peiffer started 81st (directly behind American Lowell Bailey) and proved to be a threat with clean shooting, but his 15th-ranked course time didn’t quite stack up to the top three. Racing in front of a sold-out, home crowd at Ruhpolding’s Chiemgau Arena, Peiffer settled for fourth (+51.8), ahead of another German, Simon Schempp, who was the only man in the top five to miss a target (0+1) for fifth place (+52.8).

Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) leading Slovenia’s Rok Trsan during the IBU World Cup men’s 10 k sprint on Friday in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)

“I would say it was a decent final loop,” Peiffer said of skiing with two Americans, Bailey and Sean Doherty, to German broadcaster ARD. “I noticed I wouldn’t be able to catch up to Emil [Hegle Svendsen]. That was too far away, and I couldn’t add any speed anymore. So I rather tried to keep the fourth place, and luckily had the advantage of knowing all the split times. I just managed to rescue myself into the finish, but I suffered quite a bit today.”

Bailey turned out to be the second U.S. man in the top 20 on Friday in 18th (+1:24.3). He started late in bib 80 and cleaned prone to put himself in the hunt for a top 10. In standing, however, Bailey missed his final shot to drop to 17th and he ended up 18th at the finish with a single penalty (0+1).

Doherty in bib 79 was the third American to qualify for Sunday’s pursuit, racing to 40th (+1:52.3) in his second individual World Cup race of the season (last week in Oberhof, the 21 year old placed 80th in the sprint).

“Today’s race was great,” Doherty said, according to a US Biathlon press release, after missing just one prone target (1+0). “I am continuing to feel better and better on the skis. It was very exciting to be in the mix and finish the last lap with the crowds yelling full force.”

Missing out on the top 60 necessary for the pursuit were Americans Leif Nordgren, who finished 71st (+2:41.2) with two misses (1+1) in his first individual race of the season (following toe surgery), and Russell Currier, who started in bib 1 and ended up 75th (+2:52.7) with four penalties (2+2).

Scott Gow was the lone Canadian to qualify for the pursuit in 42nd (+1:55.6) with one miss (1+0). Brendan Green missed the top 60 by 5.8 seconds in 64th (+2:27.1) with two penalties (1+1), Macx Davies was 82nd (+3:08.4) with three misses (2+1), and Christian Gow 88th (+3:19.8), also with three penalties (2+1).

On Sunday, Burke will start the pursuit 20 seconds after Peiffer in fourth place. Bailey will head out just 12 seconds after Burke.

“As always in Ruhpolding, the times stayed very close today so everything is still possible in Sunday’s pursuit,” Burke told US Biathlon.

The women’s 7.5 k sprint is scheduled for Saturday at 8:30 a.m. EST. Watch it live: eurovisionsports.tv.

Men’s sprint results | Men’s pursuit start list

January 13, 2017
At Home in Ruhpolding, Heinicke Captures Career Best 11th; Norway’s Horn Nabs First World Cup Win

Megan Heinicke (Biathlon Canada) racing to 59th in the sprint at the 2014 Olympics near Sochi, Russia.

Megan Heinicke had a little something called home-course advantage working in her favor on Friday, and for that matter, on Wednesday and this Sunday as well.

The 26-year-old Canadian from Prince George, B.C., has called Ruhpolding, Germany, her home since September. Lucky for her, the fifth IBU World Cup stop of the season was there, with races Wednesday through Sunday. And on Friday, the six-year Biathlon Canada veteran qualified for her first-ever mass start after placing a career-best 11th in the 7.5-kilometer sprint.

“This was one of my strongest skiing performances ever,” Heinicke wrote in an email after Friday’s race, in which she topped her previous World Cup best by one place (she was 12th in the 15 k individual at the beginning of the season in Östersund). “I simply felt strong and there is nothing more fun than fighting hard when you feel strong.”

The 16th starter out of 98 women, she finished 52.3 seconds behind the winner after shooting 90 percent with a clean prone stage and one standing penalty.

That put her in third overall after prone, and while her standing miss set her back to 10th and she slipped one more spot to 11th on the last lap, Heinicke initially finished fifth of 16 women.

“I was well aware that starting with bib 16 meant that there were still a lot of strong girls behind me so I wasn’t disappointed to fall back a bit [in the final results],” she explained. “I was really hoping to stay in 10th, but 11th is a new personal best and I am really pleased with the result.”

Throughout the race, she heard she was in contention with top women like Darya Domracheva of Belarus (who started 14th and ended up second) and Italy’s Dorothea Wierer (who started 19th and placed ninth). She wasn’t sure what that meant or where it would put her, but she felt strong and assumed she was doing well.

Going into the race, Heinicke had hoped for a top 30, but more specifically, to “glide longer in the flat sections and be a bit more explosive with higher frequency on the few steep sections,” she wrote. “Shooting wise I had been trying out some keywords and those were all I wanted to think about on the range.”

On Wednesday, Heinicke had another first, racing to second in the opening leg of the women’s 4 x 6 relay and putting her team 25 seconds from the lead at the exchange. The Canadians ended up 11th — not quite the team-best fourth they accomplished just over a year ago — but Heinicke saw it as a stepping stone.

“I had a great relay leg this Wednesday and had also had a great relay leg in Oberhof which had me feeling determined and confident,” she wrote. “I am slowly starting to feel more confident and I have this fierce determination to shoot well which is enough to keep me focused.”

The level of support she’s received has helped her as well.

“I have had some big life changes this fall and am feeling like there is no pressure on me and I think that has been good for my head,” she explained. “I am really motivated by having several personal bests this season and I feel like the return of my self confidence is good for me. I am planning to keep racing with the same determined, task-oriented approach and who knows what can happen! I certainly wasn’t expecting these results to come this year!”

With Friday’s result, Heinicke was one of two Canadian women to qualify for Sunday’s 12.5 k mass start. Rosanna Crawford sat out Wednesday and Friday because of a cold, but is currently 12th in the overall World Cup (making the top-30 criteria) and listed to start in bib 12.

In her first-career mass start, Heinicke will start in bib 28.

“I am glad I have been able to start our relay a few times so I am not feeling too nervous about starting in the pack,” Heinicke wrote.

Also for Canada on Friday, Zina Kocher placed 48th, 2:18.8 behind the winner — Fanny Welle-Strand Horn of Norway. After starting 96th, Kocher found herself in the top 20 after a clean prone and the 23rd-fastest course time on the first lap. However, she missed three in standing, which put her back from 31st to 65th with one lap to go. Kocher posted the 13th-fastest course time overall.

Audrey Vaillancourt finished 68th (+3:13.7) with a single prone penalty, and Julia Ransom, in her second World Cup sprint, was 81st (+3:55.8) with four penalties: one prone and three standing.

Dunklee: ‘One of my best performances of the year’

Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) on her way to 26th on Friday in the women’s 7.5 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)

US Biathlon’s Susan Dunklee led the Americans in what she considered one of her best performances of the year, in which she placed 26th, 1:44 behind Horn.

Dunklee started 30th and skied right around 30th for most of the race, cleaning prone and missing one in standing, and posted the 30th-fastest course time overall.

In an email, she explained her skiing felt “snappy,” which left her surprised with the splits she was hearing: why weren’t they better?

“There are always factors out of your control as an athlete,” Dunklee wrote. “Today we saw some tricky waxing conditions with wet snow and we didn’t nail it quite as well as we usually do.”

Skiing aside, she explained she had her best shooting day of the season, “which is a huge confidence booster going forward,” she wrote. “Plus I was happy, relaxed and focused this morning; I was just plain psyched to be racing, more so than I have been lately.”

On Sunday, Dunklee as the lone American in the women’s mass start will start in bib 23.

“I’m ready to try again in the mass start,” she wrote.

Her teammates, Annelies Cook and Hannah Dreissigacker, placed 52nd and 77th, respectively on Friday. Cook cleaned prone and missed one standing to finish 2:30.1 behind the winner, and Dreissigacker fell behind with two prone penalties and another miss in standing to end up 3:41.2 back.

Horn Surprises for First World Cup Win

While much of the attention in Friday’s sprint went to Domracheva, who started 14th and cleaned both stages despite using one spare in prone, there was also a lot riding on Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff, the 31st starter who came within 4.2 seconds of Domracheva’s time heading into the final lap.

Norway’s Fanny Welle-Strand Horn celebrates her first IBU World Cup win and podium on Friday after the 7.5 sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: IBU/Ernst Wukits)

She couldn’t quite catch her, finishing 5.9 seconds behind Domracheva, but there was another Norwegian gunning for the win — Horn, who, at 26, had never before reached the World Cup podium.

Horn started 35th, two minutes after Eckhoff, and took the lead with a clean prone. She hit all her standing targets as well to stay in control, then raced the seventh-fastest last lap to edge Domracheva’s time by 3.4 seconds in 21:07.4.

“I have been in this game for a long time, five years in the World Cup,” she told the IBU afterward. “Today, everything worked out for me — skiing, waxing and shooting — I am really happy and I am really happy that I made 10 good shots.”

Norway took two of the top three with Eckhoff in third, after Domracheva in second.

“We had amazing skis today,” Eckhoff told the IBU. “We have a really strong team and it is really fun that I am on the podium with Fanny on top.”

While Domracheva lost a few seconds loading the spare, she was glad she was able to avoid a penalty loop.

“I am happy that I shot clean. Sometimes when things like that happens, an athlete misses the shot,” she said.

She also liked the modified course: “The new course is good; there were not so many girls falling anymore,” Domracheva said.

Ukraine’s Valj Semerenko placed fourth, 21 seconds after Horn, Finland’s Mari Laukkanen — an early leader after a clean prone stage — missed one standing to place fifth (+22.7), Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand cleaned for sixth (+28.6), and overall World Cup leader Kaisa Mäkäräinen missed one on each stage but skied the second-fastest course time to place seventh (+32).

Veronika Vitkova of the Czech Republic had the fastest course time, but missed three (one prone and two standing) to finish eighth (+41.2). Wierer was ninth for Italy (+43.3), and Czech Jitka Landova placed 10th (+50.9), 1.4 seconds ahead of Heinicke.

On Sunday, Mäkäräinen, who still leads the World Cup, will start the mass start in bib 1 alongside Domracheva in bib 2 and Semerenko in bib 3.

Results

January 16, 2015