Finlandâs Kerttu Niskanen (c) after winning the women’s 10-kilometer classic individual start on Sunday in Cogne, Italy. Switzerland’s Nadine Fähndrich (l) placed second and Russiaâs Natalia Nepryaeva third. (Photo: FIS Instagram screenshot)
FIS Cross Country World Cup 10 k/15 k Classic Individual Start Cogne, Italy
World Cup athletes returned to the Cogne race venue on Sunday for a menâs and womenâs classic interval start race. In the womenâs 10 k, Finlandâs Kerttu Niskanen, won in a time of 27:24.8. Finishing just 3 seconds behind her for second place was Swiss skier, Nadine Fähndrich. Russiaâs Natalia Nepryaeva claimed third, 12.6 seconds behind the winner.
Racing for the U.S., Rosie Brennan led the way in 21st (+1:19.6) followed by Caitlin Patterson in 36th (+1:49.6), Rosie Frankowski in 37th (+1:55.2), and Julia Kern in 39th (+1:59.2).
Finishing just 13.4 seconds outside of the Top 30 and World Cup points was Canadaâs Katherine Stewart-Jones in 33rd (+1:44.6).
Cendrine Browne, also racing for Canada, placed 48th (+2:49.0), while the U.S.âs Ida Sargent finished just behind her in 49th (+3:12.3). Canadian Emily Nishikawa started Sunday’s 10 k race but dropped out after the 8.2 k mark.
Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov (c) after winning the men’s 15-kilometer classic individual start on Sunday in Cogne, Italy. Finand’s Iivo Niskanen (l) placed second and Russiaâs Alexander Bessmertnykh in third. (Photo: FIS Instagram screenshot)
In the menâs 15 k classic, Russiaâs Alexander Bolshunov won in a time of 34:48.4. Iivo Niskanen of Finland–and sibling to the womenâs winner, Kerttu–placed second in the menâs competition, finishing 43.7 seconds behind Bolshunov. Sundayâs third and final podium spot went to Alexander Bessmertnykh of Russia, who finished 55.9 seconds back from his teammate and the overall winner.
Alex Harvey of Canada finished 10th (+1:40.7) and American Erik Bjornsen 16th (+1:54.8), 14.1 seconds outside of the Top 10.
Also skiing for the U.S. and scoring World Cup points was Kyle Bratrud in 26th (+2:21.1).
American David Norris finished 9.3 seconds outside of the Top 30 and World Cup points in 33rd (+2:52.2). Two more U.S. skiers competed on Sunday, with Scott Patterson finishing in 43rd (+3:36.8) and Adam Martin in 50th (+3:56.3).
Canadians Evan Palmer-Charrette and Scott James Hill placed 56th (+4:17.0) and 58th (+4:20.6), respectively.
Single Mixed relay winners, Lukas Hofer and Dorothea Wierer of Italy. (Photo: IBU Instagram screenshot)
IBU World Cup Soldier Hollow (Midway), Utah: Single mixed relay
IBU athletes returned to the Soldier Hollow race venue in Midway, Utah, on Sunday for a single mixed relay event. The Italian pairing of Lukas Hofer and Dorothea Wierer claimed the victory in a time of 35:27.9. In the first leg, Hofer missed two shots (0+1 0+1) clocking in at 7:41.2. Wierer completed the next leg in a time of 16:06.0 after one miss. In the third leg, Hofer again missed two shots and tagged off to Wierer at 24:02.6. In her final leg, Wierer once again missed one shot (0+1 0+0). https://newswire.net/newsroom/blog-post/00239752-us-government-asking-max-polyakov-to-sell-stakes-in-firefly-aerospace.html
Finishing 22.9 seconds back from the winners was Austria’s pairing of Lisa Theresa Hauser and Simon Eder in second place, with a team total of two penalties (0+0 0+2).
Third place went to the French team of Antonin Guigonnat and Julia Simon, who finished 50.2 seconds back from the winners with a team total of nine missed shots (0+3 1+5).
Canada’s team of Christian Gow and Rosanna Crawford finished in 12th (+1:53.6) with 12 misses (0+5 0+7). Racing for the U.S., Sean Doherty and Susan Dunklee were 14th (+2:03.1) after skiing a total of 15 penalties (0+6 2+7).
Racing in bib 4 for the U.S., Julia Kern keeps pace in the women’s team sprint during the Dresden, Germany World Cup on Sunday. (Photo: Garrott Kuzzy).
FIS World Cup Dresden, Germany 6 x 1.6 k Freestyle Team Sprint
The first World Cup team sprint of the season was run amidst drizzle and the Dresden, Germany city-scape as the women raced a total of six 1.6-kilometer laps.
Round and round on the looping course, the pace was a mix of tactically subdued speeds with sustained bursts of energy to break the pack.
After all the speed changes and exchanges with one athlete tagging off to the next, it came down to a 1.11 second difference between first place Sweden I and the three closet teams chasing from behind that ended in a photo finish.
Sweden Iâs Stina Nilsson and Maja Dahlqvist won in a time of 24:02.5 minutes. Sweden IIâs Ida Ingemarsdotter and Jonna Sundling placed second (+1.11), and Norway I, with Eide Mari and Maiken Caspersen Falla in third (+1.11).
U.S. I, featuring Julia Kern and Sophie Caldwell placed fourth (+1.11) after the photo finish was reviewed.
The U.S. entered a second team, consisting of Ida Sargent and Hannah Halvorsen. That duo contested the first semi-final, the same semi as U.S. I, but did not advance after placing fourth (+5.44). The top-three teams from each semi advance to the final, along with the next four fastest teams which are the combined âlucky losersâ. Today, the second semi was the faster of the two. The four lucky loser team advancing to the final all originated from the second semi.
In the menâs 6 x 1.6 k skate team sprint race, Norway I and Norway II took the top two podium spots.
In a lunge at the line, Norway Iâs Erik Valnes and Sindre Bjørnestad Skar won the final in 22:38.72 minutes. PĂĽl Golberg and Eirik Brandsdal of Norway II placed second (+0.75) and Russia Iâs Artem Maltsev and Gleb Retivykh third (+0.80).
Canadaâs Bob Thompson and Len Valjas placed seventh (+2.46) in the first semi-final and did not advance to the final. It was the same fate for the only U.S. team entered in the menâs team sprint. Andy Newell and Erik Bjornsen placed 10th (+3.66) in the second semi, and failed to make the finals.
Canada placed 15th in the final standings, the U.S. 19th.
IBU World Cup Oberhof, Germany 4 x 6 k / 4 x 7.5 k Relay
In the womenâs 4 x 6 k relay, Russia placed first in a time of 1:18:46.4 hours. Evgeniya Pavlova, Margarita Vasileva, Larisa Kuklina, and Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht made up the team that used eight spares on their way to the win.
Germany placed second (+33.5) with two penalty loops and 10 spare rounds. Karolin Horchler, Franziska Hildebrand, Franziska Preuss, and Denise Hermann comprised Germanyâs second place team that had two penalties while using 10 spares. The Czech Republicâs Lucie Charvatova, Veronika Vitkova, Marketa Davidova, and Eva Puskarcikova placed third (+36.7) with 1 penalty loop and six spares.
The top spot for the podium came down to the final leg, when Yurlova-Percht pulled out the win when Hermann skied two penalty loops. The Russian used three spares but escaped with no penalties to take the lead out of the shooting range on the final ski loop.
Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, Joanne Reid, and Emily Dreissigacker all represented the U.S. Â and placed 12th (+5:35.8) while skiing five penalty loops and using 16 spares.
Canadaâs Sarah Beaudry, Emma Lunder, Megan Bankes, and Rosanna Crawford finished in 13th (+5:58.8) with four penalty loops and 15 spares.
Russian also claimed the menâs relay, winning in a time of 1:20:54.3 hours. The winning team of Maxim Tsvetkov, Evgeniy Garanichev, Dmitry Malyshko, and Alexander Loginov skied no penalty laps and used six spares on their way to victory.
Antonin Guigonnat, Simon Desthieux, Quentin Fillon Maillet, and Martin Fourcade raced for France. The French team placed second (+1:01.1) while skiing a single penalty lap and using eight spares.
Austriaâs Tobias Eberhard, Simon Eder, Dominik Landertinger and Julian Eberhard placed third (+2:18.6) with one penalty lap and using seven spares.
Canadaâs Scott Gow, Christian Gow, Jules Burnotte, and Brendan Green and the U.S. team of Leif Nordgren, Sean Doherty, Travis Cooper, and Max Durtschi were eventually lapped. Neither team was given an official finishing time.
Canada was ranked 18th in the final standings, the U.S. 19th.
For both relays today, the snowy weather and tough course conditions made for a strenuous day of shooting and skiing.
France’s Martin Fourcade shooting clean ans skiing fast as he won the men’s 20 k individual race in Pokljuka, Slovenia, site of the IBU World Cup’s first series of races this season. (Photo: Biathlonworld,com)
IBU World Cup Pokljuka, Slovenia 20 k/15k Individual
Not the least of the myriad variables affecting biathlon races, fickle weather has played games in Pokljuka, Slovenia, site of the first round on the IBU World Cup. The menâs 20-kilometer individual race was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but was postponed to Thursday due to fog.
For each missed shot in the individual races, athletes are penalized one minute. With a large cost for any shooting mistake, a single miss can punish a potential podium performance.
None other than Franceâs Martin Fourcade took the win today in 47:09.2 minutes. (Fourcade is a seven-time winner of the overall IBU World Cup.) Fourcade shot clean in all four of his shooting bouts. And shooting clean was the theme for the podium, the top-three finishers had no misses on the shooting range.Â
Second place went to Johannes Kuehn of Germany, finishing 4.2 seconds back. Third place was secured by Simon Eder, who stopped the clock 19.7 seconds back.
For Canada, Scott Gow skied to 14th (+1:43.3) with one miss. Brother Christian Gow was 16th (1:59.2) after also missing only a single target. Brendan Green skied to 100th (+9:04.1) after difficult shooting, during which he missed seven targets. Nathan Smith did not start.
For the U.S. Leif Nordgren was the best placed American in 40th (+3:24.5). Nordgren missed two shots. Teammate Sean Doherty was 59th (+4:28.2) after missing three shots, Max Durtschi was 102nd (+9:37.0), after missing six targets. Travis Cooper raced to 105th (+10:02.0), while missing six shots.
The womenâs 15 k individual was won by Ukraineâs Yuliya Dzhima 43:06.6 minutes. She was clean in her shooting in her first career IBU World Cup win. Polandâs Monika Hojnisz had a single penalty as she placed second (+5.9). The result was a best-ever result for Hojnisz at this level of competition. The Czech Republicâs Marketa Davidova  also missed a single target on her way to her first career podium, finishing 16.5 seconds back in third place.
U.S. biathlete Susan Dunklee missed one target on her way to placing 11th (+1:00.09). With each miss adding an additional minute to an athleteâs finishing time, it was a solid effort and indicator for Dunklee.
âIâm psyched to have a great result so early in the season,â Dunklee emailed FasterSkier.
Dunklee, the U.S. team veteran, made note of U.S. skier Clare Eganâs race day performance. âClare also threw down an impressive ski split, so in spite of our 3 start quota challenge, our team future looks bright,â Dunklee added.
Egan placed 60th (+4:23.3) after amounting five penalties. She raced the 13th fastest ski time. Emily Dreissigacker, also for the U.S., placed 69th (+5:17.0). Dreissigacker has four penalties.
Canadaâs Megan Tandy finished in 62nd (+4:30.4), after missing three shots. Rosanna Crawford, also for Canada,was 64th (+4:34.7) with four misses, Meghan Bankes 71st (+5:22.) with three misses, and Nicole Moser 98th (+10:20.4) with seven misses.
Norway’s Marit Bjørgen celebrates her overall win in the last race of 2018 World Cup Finals, the 10 k freestyle pursuit, on Sunday in Falun, Sweden. (Photo: Svenska Skidspelen/Instagram)
FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals (Falun, Sweden): 10/15 k freestyle pursuits
In the last womenâs race of the World Cup season, U.S. Ski Team members Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen made it one theyâll remember for a long, long time as Diggins raced to second in the 10-kilometer freestyle pursuit and Bjornsen outlasted two Norwegians for third. The two finished the World Cup Finals mini tour in second and third, respectively, behind Norwayâs Marit Bjørgen who won it in 24:18.9 minutes.
Bjørgen started with a 36-second cushion to her Norwegian teammate Ingvild Flugstad Ăstberg in second. Diggins started third, 41 seconds back, just ahead of Finlandâs Krista Pärmäkoski in fourth (+43.0), based on their cumulative performances over the last two days of the mini tour (skate sprint and 10 k classic mass start).
While Ăstberg, Diggins and Pärmäkoski formed a chase pack, Diggins dropped them in pursuit of Bjørgen on the first lap. The American continued to push the pace throughout the three-lap race, coming within 16.7 seconds of Bjørgen at the finish.
Meanwhile, during the pursuit, a chase group of five, which included Bjornsen, caught Ăstberg and Pärmäkoski. The group of seven dwindled to three on the last two climbs, where Bjornsen and Norwayâs Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen and Ragnhild Haga broke away in a race for third.
The three were even entering the finishing stretch, where Bjornsen then beat them in a final 100-meter push to the line. Bjornsen claimed third (+1:11.5) for her fourth podium of the season and first in a distance skate race. Haga followed in fourth (+1:12.0) and Jacobsen fifth (+1:12.8), while Pärmäkoski placed sixth (+1:16.2), Swedenâs Charlotte Kalla seventh (+1:17.9), Ăstberg eighth (+1:19.0), Swedenâs Jonna Sundling ninth (+1:30.5) and Ebba Andersson 10th (+1:44.7).
Bjornsen now has five-career individual World Cup podiums to her name, and this is the first in a skate race longer than 5 k.
Diggins clocked the fastest time of day in 23:54.4, while Haga was second-fastest (+10.7) after starting the race in 17th. Bjørgenâs time ranked third, Jacobsen was fourth-fastest and Bjornsen fifth-fastest.
Diggins’s performance elevated her to second in the Overall World Cup standings, just 40 points behind Norway’s Heidi Weng (who placed 18th in the pursuit) in first for the second-straight year. Ăstberg slipped to third overall, 22 points behind Diggins. In the Distance World Cup, Weng took the title by 63 points over Ăstberg in second, while Diggins was another 32 points back in third.
Bjornsen ended up sixth in the Overall World Cup and 10th in the distance standings.
Also for the U.S., Caitlin Patterson raced from 46th at the start to 35th (+3:58.4) with the 22nd-fastest time of day, Sophie Caldwell placed 36th (+4:00.7), Kikkan Randall finished her last World Cup race in 43rd (+4:33.3) with the 29th-fastest time, Rosie Frankowski placed 46th (+4:41.3), Liz Stephen 50th (+4:57.2) in her final World Cup race, Kaitlynn Miller 56th (+6:13.8), and Ida Sargent 57th (+7:06.4).
For Canada, Cendrine Browne picked off 10 places to finish 39th (+4:14.4) with 27th-fastest time of day, Emily Nishikawa finished 48th (+4:43.7), Dahria Beatty 54th (+6:04.3), and Zina Kocher 60th (+9:28.4).
The men’s 15 k freestyle and 2018 World Cup Finals podium, with Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov (c) in first, Canada’s Alex Harvey (l) in second and Switzerland’s Dario Cologna (r) in third. (Photo: Svenska Skidspelen/Instagram)
In the menâs 15 k freestyle pursuit that followed, Russiaâs Alexander Bolshunov started 38 seconds clear of Norwayâs Johannes Høsflot KlĂŚbo in second, and Swedenâs Calle Halfvarsson and Italyâs Federico Pellegrino headed out together another second later in third and fourth, respectively.
Norwayâs Martin Johnsrud Sundby started the race in seventh (+53.0), and Switzerlandâs Dario Cologna followed in ninth (+56.0), while Canadaâs Alex Harvey started 1:16 back in 18th.
While Bolshunov skied the entire race on his own and won the weekend mini tour in 35:03.3, a number of racers battled for second, with Sundby moving into second in the chase pack, ahead of seven others, less than 2 k in. Several skiers found themselves at the front of that group, including Cologna, Halfvarsson, and even Harvey (with Harvey leading the chase at 9.3 k), while the time gap to Bolshunov grew.
With about 2 k to go, the group was down to six. Harvey attempted an attack, but Cologna matched him. Then, on one of the courseâs final climbs, Cologna made his move to get a slight gap, but lost his balance slightly on the downhill, allowing Harvey to catch back up.
With one last uphill to go, Harvey was in the driverâs seat in second, Cologna in third and Sundby in fourth. That order held to the finish, with Harvey claiming second, 47.1 seconds behind Bolshunov, Cologna placing third (+47.5) and Sundby fourth (+48.7). Just behind them, Russiaâs Maxim Vylegzhanin crossed in fifth (+50.3), ahead of Norwayâs Hans Christer Holund in sixth (+51.7), Halfvarsson in seventh (+54.1), and Norwayâs Sjur Røthe in eighth (+54.9). Nearly 10 seconds later, Norwayâs Niklas Dyrhaug outlunged two Russians for ninth (+1:04.1): Denis Spitsov in 10th (+1:04.2) and Andrey Larkov in 11th (+1:04.3).
Harvey, who finished the season in fourth in both the Overall and Distance World Cup standings, won the time of day in 34:34.3. Holund had the second-fastest course time, 1 second off Harveyâs time, after starting the race in 22nd.
Harveyâs Canadian teammate Devon Kershaw tallied his fifth-straight distance top 30 in 28th (+2:21.9), after starting 27th, and Graeme Killick finished 56th (+4:33). Julien Locke did not start.
For the U.S., Erik Bjornsen clocked the 22nd-fastest time en route to 38th (+3:10.4), after he started 51st. Simi Hamilton improved 10 places to finish 49th (+4:07.8), Scott Patterson and Paddy Caldwell worked together to move up from 72nd and 73rd, respectively, to 58th (+4:41.5) and 59th (+4:41.6), respectively, at the finish. Kevin Bolger placed 60th (+4:43.5) and David Norris 64th (+5:09.8).
While KlĂŚbo slipped from second to 25th in the pursuit (+1:45.8), the Norwegian still won his first Overall World Cup by 119 points over Cologna in second. Sundby placed third, 29 points out of second and 82 points ahead of Harvey.
Cologna claimed the Distance World Cup Crystal Globe by 41 points over Sundby, and Holund reached the Distance World Cup podium in third, 58 points out of second and just 5 points ahead of Harvey in third. France’s Maurice Manificat had been third heading into the final day of racing, but finished the pursuit in 26th (+2:11.9) and dropped to fifth in the final distance rankings.
In her last race of the season, Susan Dunklee returned to the podium. The American started fourth in Sundayâs 10-kilometer pursuit at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Oslo, then made her way into third by the final shooting stage. Dunklee shot 18-for-20 (1+0+1+0) and finished 29.5 seconds behind the winner, Darya Domracheva of Belarus, who missed two targets as well (1+0+1+0) and finished first in 30:37.4. Slovakiaâs Anastasiya Kuzmina started the race in first (ahead of Domracheva in second) and ended up second (+9.2) with four penalties (0+2+2+0).
Canadaâs Julia Ransom and Rosanna Crawford finished together in 51st and 52nd, respectively, both 4:52.4 out of first. Ransom had four penalties (0+1+1+2) while Crawford missed five (1+3+1+0). Emma Lunder did not finish.
In the menâs 4 x 7.5 k relay on Sunday, Norwayâs team of Lars Helge Birkeland, Henrik LâAbee-Lund, Tarjei Bø, and Johannes Thingnes Bø used just three spare rounds to clean eight shooting stages and took the win in 1:13:13.7 hours. Austria finished 50.3 seconds back in second place, with Dominik Landertinger, Felix Leitner, Simon Eder, and Julian Eberhard, with a total of five spares. Russiaâs Maxim Tsvetkov, Anton Babikov, DmitryMalyshko, and Anton Shipulin raced to third (+56.9) with just four total spares.
The U.S. men placed seventh (+2:01.5) with eighth spares, after Lowell Bailey put the team in seventh on the first leg. Sean Doherty skied them up to sixth on the second leg, Tim Burke slipped to 10th on the third leg, and Leif Nordgren posted the seventh-fastest anchor leg to put them in seventh at the finish.
Canada placed 16th (+5:42.4) with Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Brendan Green, and Macx Davies. The team had been in 19th at the final exchange, but Davies skied them up to 16th with the 14th-fastest anchor leg. In all, they used 10 spares.
Fredrik LindstrĂśm crosses the line first to secure a gold medal for his Swedish teammates in the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay on Friday to close out biathlon competitions at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Remember when it was a big deal when Sweden won a Biathlon World Cup? The team in bright yellow has made it a habit at the 2018 Winter Olympics, winning their first Olympic relay gold and fourth medal over the last two weeks on Friday â the last biathlon race of the PyeongChang Games.
âItâs dreams coming true at that moment,â Fredrick LindstrĂśm, the Swedish menâs 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay anchor said in a post-race press conference on Friday. âItâs my third Olympics and to be on top with these guys feels great. I donât know what to say.â
LindstrĂśm had taken gold in perhaps the most ideal way for an athlete in his position, by heading out on the last 2.5 k loop in first place, almost 41 seconds ahead of anyone else. While he had missed his first shot in the final standing stage of the race, LindstrĂśm cleared it with the use of one spare bullet. Meanwhile, his closest challenger for the win â Norwayâs Emil Hegle Svendsen, who had followed him into the range and lined up alongside him to shoot â missed his first two targets and went on to miss more, ending up with a penalty lap after using all three spares.
That was the end of gold for Norway and for Svendsen, who was all too familiar with the penalty lane in the closing moments of an Olympic relay. Four years ago in the menâs relay in Sochi, Russia, Svendsen as Norwayâs anchor had been in the medal hunt until the final shooting. There, he used all of his spares and still left a target standing, which sent him to the penalty lap. After leading by as much as 20 seconds in the middle of that race, Norway finished fourth.
But as they say, thatâs biathlon. And on Friday, it was Swedenâs day and LindstrĂśm skiing on his own for a 2.5 k victory loop around the course. But he didnât slow down. As the 28 year old skated up the final climb, he was greeted by several members of his team bowing up and down in a unison to celebrate the history that was about to be made. LindstrĂśm descended down into the stadium, not looking back and still pushing toward the line, before skiing to the sidelines a few meters before the finish to grab a small Swedish flag.
Fredrik LindstrĂśm crosses the line first to secure a gold medal for his Swedish teammates in the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay on Friday to close out biathlon competitions at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
It wasnât like the oversized French flag Martin Fourcade had been seen waving earlier in the Games, in the pursuit and again in the mixed relay. It was understated, like Swedenâs biathlon team before these Olympics, but he waved it proudly as he crossed the line to a sea of swarming teammates.
Sweden (with Peppe Femling, Jesper Nelin, Sebastian Samuelsson, and LindstrÜm) finished first with a cumulative time of 1:15.16.5 hours and a total of seven spares and zero penalties. Skiing alone and finishing 55.5 seconds behind them,  Svendsen crossed the line in second for Norway (with teammates Lars Helge Birkeland, Tarjei Bø, and Johannes Thingnes Bø), after tallying 12 spares and one penalty.
In stark contrast to LindstrĂśmâs wide-eyed smile as he finished, Svendsen, 32, who had previously earned bronze in the mass start and silver with Norwayâs mixed relay in PyeongChang, hung his head. His teammates met him at the finish and tried to improve his mood, but he was down.
âIt was a good battle. We wished each other luck before the start and it was a good fight,â LindstrĂśm said of contending with Svendsen for two out of three loops.
Norway’s third-leg skier Johannes Thingnes Bø (1) racing his team into fourth to first in the men’s 4 x 10 k relay at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Johannes Bø had tagged Svendsen in first at the last exchange, 0.4 seconds ahead of Sweden, with Samuelsson handing off to LindstrĂśm. In the prone stage that followed, both LindstrĂśm and Svendsen cleaned without a miss. They left the range together, more than a minute clear of Germanyâs Simon Schempp in third (who had missed three but avoided a penalty three spares). Germany had been 13.7 seconds back at the last exchange.
âEmil had to go first the first loop, I went first the second loop, and on the shooting we were equal until that standing,â LindstrĂśm reflected. âI donât know, I was the lucky man today. I feel proud that I managed that situation and to bring the gold to Sweden.â
Even without gold, Svendsen is the third-most medaled biathlete in Olympic history, according to the International Biathlon Union (IBU). A four-time Olympian, he has eight medals, four of which are gold.
âI think thatâs awesome,â Svendsen said when asked about his medal tally at the press conference. âIt feels very good and yeah, what can I say? Thank you.â
Finishing more than a minute after Norway and exactly 2:07.1 minutes behind Sweden, Germany (with Erik Lesser, Benedikt Doll, Arnd Peiffer, and Schempp) placed third after Schempp incurred a penalty in the final standing stage. While he was still far enough ahead of Austriaâs Dominik Landertinger to hang onto bronze, that penalty put Schempp nearly a minute behind Svendsen at the start of his last loop.
While he waved to the crowd as he finished, Schempp later said he wasn’t happy with his performance. The German team accrued 10 spares and three penalties (two of which came in Dollâs second leg).
âI just was disappointed in my race,â Schempp told German broadcaster ARD of his finish-line body language, according to a translation. âBut at the end of the day we won the medal. That is the most important thing, thatâs what matters, but of course, I canât be satisfied with my shooting bouts. It was so incredibly gusty … I waited crazily long with my spare shots today because I thought the gusts would be over soon and then I could shoot. But unfortunately that was not the case, so I was on the range forever, losing a lot of time and then still didnât hit every target. It was like a vicious cycle.â
Lesser and Canada’s Christian Gow Up FrontÂ
Sweden had positioned itself for a medal from the gun, with first-leg skier Femling tagging Nelin in fifth, 27.3 seconds back, at the first exchange. Germanyâs Lesser had put his team in first on that leg with near-perfect shooting â cleaning prone and using one spare in standing (0+0, 0+1). Lesser tagged Doll 18 seconds ahead of Slovakia in second, which had put itself in contention with a flawless first leg from Matej KazĂĄr. (Slovakia dropped to 15th on the second leg and was lapped on the third leg.)
Canada’s first-leg skier Christian Gow (12) leading the field, including France’s Simon Desthieux and Germany’s Erik Lesser (far l), to the top of a climb in the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Canada attracted some serious TV time when Christian Gow took the lead on the first climb out of the stadium. He went on to hit five targets in a row in prone and left the range in second, 1.2 seconds behind Lesser in first. One loop later, Gow had slipped to eighth and about 20 seconds back when he needed three spares to clean. He ended up tagging his brother and teammate Scott Gow in ninth, about 48 seconds out of first.
âIt wasnât planned, for sure,â Gow, 24, told FasterSkier after about his decision to lead on the first loop. âRight at the top of the first climb, everyone was kind of moving over to the right, staying in kind of two lines, and thereâs quite a bit of space there, so I took the opportunity to move up just because Iâve done so many relays where youâre stuck in the middle of the pack. ⌠ I saw an opportunity to get to the front â I didnât think it would be the front â but thatâs what ended up happening, and I just did my pace and no one wanted to pass me.
âIâm really happy to have cleaned the prone for sure because itâs great if you can lead it, but if you canât knock down the targets it doesnât mean too much,â he continued. âIn the standing Iâm trying to be a bit easier on myself, just because itâs a new situation to be way up in the front like that and having a great day. I wish I would have held it together a bit better than I did. I think I let the nerves get to me a little bit more than I should of, but a lesson learned and Iâm happy with the first two-thirds [of my race].â
Sweden’s Steady Rise
Nelin raced Sweden into second place, 16 seconds behind the Czech Republic in first by the second exchange. He cleaned prone with one spare and avoided a penalty with three spares in standing while Germanyâs Doll, who had been skiing alone in first before the standing shooting, dropped to fifth and almost 38 seconds back with two costly penalties.
The Czech Republicâs Michal Ĺ lesingr cleaned standing without a miss to take the lead with one loop to go in the second leg, 6.8 seconds ahead of Austriaâs Simon Eder in second. Nelin followed another 8 seconds back in third, and tagged just 0.2 seconds ahead of Austria in the exchange.
The third leg saw Johannes Bø, who had been tagged 31 seconds back in fourth, put Norway in first with a clean prone and a single spare in standing. Samuelsson, who had previously taken silver in the 12.5 k pursuit and placed fourth in the 20 k individual race at these Olympics, put Sweden in a position to win gold, using just one spare to clean prone and shooting without a miss in standing. He latched onto Bø, leading the Norwegian on their final loop and handing off to LindstrÜm just 0.4 seconds behind Norway.
The Swedish men’s gold-medal relay team, with Peppe Femling, Jesper Nelin, Sebastian Samuelsson, and Fredrik LindstrĂśm, after winning the last biathlon race of the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Earlier this season, Sweden won the menâs relay at the IBU World Cup in Oberhof, Germany. The order was the same, except Martin Ponsiluoma skied the first leg, rather than Femling. While the win was a big deal for Sweden, it was against a slightly watered-down field, with some of the top biathletes opting to skip the Oberhof World Cup at the start of the new year.
Fridayâs victory marked Sweden’s first Olympic relay gold in biathlon after it earned bronze in 1976 in Innsbruck, Austria, and again in 1992 in Albertville, France.
âIt means a lot. Itâs the first medal for menâs relay team in biathlon for Swede,â Samuelsson said. âOf course we are really satisfied. We did four good races everyone today and weâre super happy.â
U.S. Ties Olympic-Best 6th
While Austria finished Fridayâs relay in fourth (+2:52.5), and France placed fifth (+3:26.6), the U.S. men tied its country’s best Olympic relay result in sixth (+3:50.2) with Lowell Bailey, Sean Doherty, Tim Burke, and Leif Nordgren. They had been 10th after Baileyâs first leg, in which he used two spares in each stage, and improved to sixth, then fifth on Dohertyâs and Burkeâs legs.
Doherty used just one spare in prone and cleaned standing without a miss, leaving the range in sixth and 42 seconds back with one loop to go. He then tagged Burke in sixth, about 54 seconds out of first, and Burke held that position with a flawless prone stage followed by three spares in standing. He picked off one place on his last loop to tag Nordgren in fifth, 1:38.8 minutes back.
The second-leg skier in the U.S. men’s relay, Sean Doherty racing his team into sixth on Friday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. They went on to finish sixth to tie the best U.S. Olympic relay result. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
âIâm real happy about that,â Doherty, 22 and in his second Olympics, said of his shooting. âI feel like I struggled with the prone earlier on [at these Olympics] and I got that kind of dialed in today, which was nice. Standing was good. I had a little break in the wind and I took full advantage. I shot pretty fast, pretty aggressive, but I hit all five from the clip and thatâs what really moved things up.
âWe had a few days after the individual [race] to go back to the drawing board, come back to some of the fundamentals of shooting,â Doherty explained. âItâs nice to kind of reinforce that Iâm capable of hitting targets and fixing things. When youâre not shooting well, you donât have to keep not shooting well, if that makes sense.â
Nordgren incurred the teamâs only two penalties on his prone stage, but because of the strung-out field, he hung onto sixth, losing time to those ahead of him. He used three more spares in standing but stayed out of the penalty lap, finishing about about 24 seconds behind France in fifth.
âHonestly it is a little disappointing,â Nordgren said after. âI know we were gunning a lot more as a team. I had some mistakes there in prone, too. That hurt a lot since we were right there in contention with some top teams in the worldâŚ
âI will say we had amazing skis today so I pushed really hard on the first loop and I think I got a couple seconds on [Austriaâs] Landertinger,â Nordgren added. âAnd then just in prone ⌠I was just getting thrown around by the wind. It is has given me trouble the whole couple weeks here I obviously never quite figured it out.â
In addition to tying the best U.S. relay result at an Olympics (of sixth place in the men’s relay at the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, Japan), sixth was a big improvement for this team, which placed 16th at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. It was also the best Olympic relay result for Bailey and Burke, after they placed eighth in the 2014 mixed relay and ninth in the 2006 Olympic menâs relay.
Tim Burke (l) on the range during a difficult standing shooting with France’s Martin Fourcade. While Burke cleaned with three spares, Fourcade had to ski a penalty lap in the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Asked whether this was his last Olympic race, Burke said it was.
âToday was a good for me so yeah, I would say yes,â the 36-year-old four-time Olympian said. âBiathlon is a crazy sport; it is so up and down from one race to the next. The emotional rollercoaster is amazing. I am done though.
âIt has been my life for so long. It is what I know. It is what I love,â he added. âBut it is time for the young guns to step up and take my place.â
Bailey told reporters while the race was still going on that he was glad to finish his Olympic career with a race that didnât include any penalty laps.
âOn a day like today, you saw that France was in the loop, now Germany, so the top nations are in there,â he said. âI cannot tell you how challenging this range is. It is so much different than most of the other ranges we shoot on.
âEvery Olympics has been different,â Bailey, also 36 and a four-time Olympian as well as 2017 world champion, reflected of his career. âIn Sochi I had my career best with eighth place in the individual, and I will always have that. I will always know what I am capable of. That said, I know what I am capable of and I didn’t reach the bar that I set for myself. But all four Olympics have been honestly an incredible honor to put on Team USA uniform and go out there and compete for my country.
âI know that itâs time to make the next step, to make the next transition,â he continued. âIâm really excited for our future, my familyâs future. And Iâm really excited for the future of US Biathlon.â
Canada 11th
Canada’s Scott Gow leading American Sean Doherty on the second leg of the men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Canada finished the race in 11th (+5:40.3). Scott Gow had brought them up to seventh with perfect shooting on both his stages (0+0, 0+0) and tagged Macx Davies about a minute out of first.
âMy race pan today was to really emphasize the wind flags, and if it changes direction don’t be afraid to correct for it,â Scott Gow said. âIn standing when I came in, it was quite windy, so I just waited a extra couple of seconds and then started to shoot when I felt like it was calm. It is hard to remember that sometimes because you are in the race mode and you just want to get it over with so you can try and just get back on course, so I was happy with that execution.â
Davies, in his first Olympic race, needed three spares to clean prone and slipped to 10th, then had a penalty in standing to leave the range in 12th with one loop to go. He tagged Canadaâs anchor Brendan Green in 13th, 4:29 behind. Green went on to use one spare in each of his shooting stages (0+1, 0+1) to bring the team up to 11th at the finish.
Macx Davies skiing the third leg for Canada’s 4 x 7.5 k men’s relay at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
âIt wasnât a great race for me, but I fought through it and pushed myself so thatâs all I can ever really do,â the 25-year-old Davies said. âComing into this race I was kind of just excited to get an Olympic start. We didnât know if I was in or not until yesterday morning. Then kind of sitting around today, slowing realizing that it was happening tonight and getting a little bit more nervous and a little bit more excited as it went on. That was exciting.
âBeing part of the team, being part of Team Canada, itâs such a great feeling, great atmosphere,â Davies added. âEveryday you see someone do something amazing and that just inspires you to keep pushing yourself and do everything in your power to succeed.â
As for Green, he said itâs safe to say these were his last Olympics.
âIâve been to three Games now and theyâve all been very unique and special in their own way,â the 31-year-old Green said. âI think Korea did a great job hosting. Volunteers are spectacular and so friendly. Itâs too bad the weather didnât cooperate a little bit more, but we did our best We all fought hard and I think weâll be going away motivated and looking forward to more.â
Whatâs Next?
While the IBU World Cup season resumes March 8-11 in Kontiolahti, Finland, then makes its next stop in Oslo, Norway, March 15-18, both the Canadian and U.S. teams have stated they will boycott the season-ending World Cup in Tyumen, Russia, March 22-25.
âThe latest decision by the IBU was to send the World Cup tour to Tyumen, Russia for our World Cup final,â Bailey said on Friday. âTeam USA is boycotting. The Czech team is boycotting. Canada is boycotting. We are trying to rally more support. I know that as an [IBU] athletesâ rep, we had almost every country had athletes that wrote letters to the IBU saying that we do not want to go to Tyumen. We donât think itâs the right thing for clean sport, and still, the executive board with Anders Besseberg at the helm decided that it was in their best interest to go to Tyumen. So itâs time for a change. IBU leadership needs to change. Besseberg needs to step down. Heâs lost the trust of the athletes.â
âWe wonât go to Russia,” Green said. “Instead weâll go back to Canada for nationals. ⌠I think until Russia is compliant weâll probably continue to take a hard stance until things change.â
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’AbĂŠe-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 menâs 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 Bøâs 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 Germanyâs 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 Bøâs 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 Hoferâs 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 Italyâs Dominik Windisch and Norwayâs Svendsen.
Johannes Bø skied the third-fastest anchor leg and cleaned prone and used two spares in standing (0+0, 0+2) to overtake Franceâs Antonin Guigonnat and Italyâs 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 Sundayâs relay (Sebastian Samuelsson, Martin Ponsiluoma and Fredrik LindstrĂśm) 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 Baileyâs 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 teamâs 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.
âWe have a solid team and I know we didn’t show our true potential today,â Bailey said, according to the release. âBut the most important relay is still to come. We’ll just have to wait until then.â
âI was happy to put together a good race on the track and in the range,â he said. âThe 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.
âI had struggled in standing in the previous race so I wanted to get back to taking good shots in standing,â he added. âAlthough 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 [Italyâs Thomas] Bormolini (of Italy) and we worked together to get back in contact with the lead group.â
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 Gowâs 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 womenâs 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.
France’s Martin Fourcade after winning the men’s 20 k individual at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany, by more than a minute on Wednesday. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)
IBU World Cup (Ruhpolding, Germany): Men’s 20 k individual
For Franceâs Martin Fourcade, the difference between a miss on the last shooting stage of the menâs 20-kilometer individual International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup on Wednesday versus perfect shooting wouldnât have ultimately changed his result in Ruhpolding.
Despite the one-minute penalty, which was tagged onto his total time after his lone miss of the day, Fourcade still won by a minute. The Czech Republicâs OndĹej Moravec, who started 2 1/2 minutes ahead of him in bib 18 (while Fourcade wore bib 23), had successfully cleaned every stage, shooting 20-for-20, and initially crossed the finish line first â about a minute and 23 seconds ahead of former race leader Simon Eder of Austria.
But Moravecâs moment in first was fleeting as Fourcade burst into the stadium, not yet letting off the gas, seconds after Moravec finished. Fourcade took the win in 44:27.9, 1:01 ahead of Moravec in second. To indicate how fast Fourcadeâs last loop was, itâs worth noting that he was 30 seconds ahead of Moravec with 4 k to go. On that final 4 k loop, he doubled his time ahead of second place.
Fourcadeâs win came four days after his last race in Oberhof, Germany, the 12.5 k pursuit, which he also won.
âWe are in a biathlon routine now,â he said, according to an IBU press release. âIt was hard to find strong motivation with not much recovery or training this week. ⌠Today I wanted to beat my record of podiums in a row. Today was my 14th [individual podium, including last season] in a row and I am really proud of this. I am very happy with my competition as well. Ruhpolding is place that I really love and I am happy that I continued my success here.â
Norwayâs Johannes Thingnes Bø achieved his eighth-straight podium in third, 1:06.3 behind Fourcade with a single miss on the last stage as well (0+0+0+1).
âI heard the speaker, so I knew Martin had missed,â recalled Bø, who started behind Fourcade in bib 29. âI knew if I could shoot clean, there was a small chance I could beat him. I tried and missed. That was my tactic: to go for the win, not save the podium.â
He left the range for the last time 48.3 seconds back from Fourcade in first.
Michal Krcmar (l) and OndĹej Moravec (r) after reaching the flower ceremony in fifth and second, respectively, on Wednesday at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)
Germanyâs Roman Rees shot clean and placed fourth (+1:19.1) for his first-career World Cup top 10, and the Czech Republic had two in the top five with Michal Krcmar in fifth (+1:36.6) for his best result of this season.
For Moravec, second place marked his season best as well, after finishing outside the top 10 in previous races this season.
âThis podium is really important for me,â he told the IBU. âMy first trimester was really bad; my shape was not good especially for the shooting. I also missed a lot of the summer training so did not have the best preparation ⌠I am very please at how I was able to focus and have success in this race.â
Austria’s Dominik Landertinger followed in sixth (+2:21.9) with one penalty and Eder ended up seventh (+2:23.8) with one miss as well.
While the one-minute penalty per miss did not faze Fourcade, it led several North Americans to drop out of top-20 contention, particularly Tim Burke (US Biathlon), who had been in 16th after cleaning the third shooting stage. Burke had cleaned his first stage then missed one on the first standing, but was back in the top 20 with a clean third stage. On the final standing, he missed his first two shots, causing him to look up for a moment to refocus. He cleaned the last three, but still ended up with two additional minutes of penalties that put him 36th at the finish, 4:35.0 out of first (0+1+0+2).
Sean Doherty (US Biathlon) racing to 31st to lead his team in the men’s 20 k individual on Wednesday at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus)
Sean Doherty led the U.S. men in 31st after missing two targets between the first prone and first standing stages. Ranked 76th after the second stage, he recovered to 53rd after a clean third stage and then 32nd after hitting all five targets on his last stage (1+1+0+0). With two penalties, Doherty finished the race 4:13.6 back in 31st.
âI am happy with the race today,â Doherty said, according to a US Biathlon press release. âI left some room for improvement on the range. It was a big step in the right direction from last week. We had very fast conditions on the course today and our waxing staff did a great job as usual.â
All three U.S. starters finished in the top 40, with Lowell Bailey in 37th (+4:36.4) with three misses (0+2+0+1).
Biathlon Canada was led by Christian Gow in 34th (+4:30.7), for his career-best in a 20 k individual race. After starting in bib 2, he cleaned his first and third stages to put himself in 32nd with one stage to go, within 28 seconds of the top 20. But a miss on his last standing put Gow in 39th leaving the range for the last time, and he ended up 34th at the finish (0+1+0+1).
âMy shooting was just OK today,â Gow wrote in an email. âI would have liked to hit one more for sure and then I would have been completely satisfied with the race. I felt more nervous than normal in the range, and my two misses were a direct result of being a bit hesitant on the shooting mat.
âI am pretty happy with today overall,â he added. âI think this is the best skiing I’ve had in an Individual race and my best placing as well. I do wish I could have one or two shots back, but overall I am happy.â
Also for Canada, his older brother Scott Gow finished 55th (+5:13.2) with three penalties (0+1+1+1), Brendan Green placed 78th (+6:53.7) with four misses (1+0+2+1), and Macx Davies was 91st (+8:02.4) with five penalties (1+1+3+0), out of 107 finishers.
The Gow brothers and Green raced Sunday in the menâs 4 x 7.5 k in Oberhof, where they placed 10th.
âHonestly, I have been feeling pretty tired after the 3 days of racing in a row last weekend,â Christian wrote. âOur travel wasn’t too bad, but it still didn’t feel like much of a rest day.â
The Ruhpolding World Cup continues Thursday with the womenâs 15 k individual (starting at 8:30 a.m. EST on the Olympic Channel). Another menâs 4 x 7.5 k relay will follow on Friday, then the womenâs 4 x 6 k relay on Saturday, and the menâs and womenâs mass starts on Sunday.
The women’s 10 k classic podium on Wednesday at the NorAm trials in Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec, with Cendrine Browne (1) in first, Katherine Stewart-Jones (2) in second, and Anne-Marie Comeau (3) in third. Dahria Beatty (l) placed fourth. (Photo: Cross Country Canada/Instagram)
The NorAm trials at Mont Sainte-Anne (MSA), QuĂŠbec, concluded Wednesday with the 10- and 15-kilometer classic interval starts. On the line were NorAm points, U23 and World Championships invitations, and for the women, what may well be the last Olympic spot on the Canadian team.
The action started with the men’s 15 k classic, which Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier of the Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre (CNEPH) won in 39.07.8 minutes to punch his ticket to U23 World Championships later this month in Goms, Switzerland. He won the race ahead of Scott Hill of Barrie Cross Country (BXC) in second, who skied a fast final lap to come within 6.9 seconds of first.
Canadian Para-Nordic teammates Graham Nishikawa and Brian McKeever finished third (+30.0) and fourth (+37.4), respectively, with Nishikawa as McKeever’s guide in Paralympic events having the edge in the interval-start race the two skied on their own (Nishikawa started 64th and McKeever 55th).
According to Nishikawa, the two have been entering NorAm events that fit into their preparation for the PyeongChang Paralympics. Nishikawa wrote a quick email on his way to the airport on Wednesday.
“Happy with my week overall in MSA. Shape is good. Skis were good. Will keep improving into Korea for Paralympics,” he wrote after his second distance podium of the week.
In the women’s 10 k classic, Cendrine Browne (Canadian National U25 Team/CNEPH) continued her strong showing at trials with her second victory and fourth top-four result, taking the win in 29:47.0.
Katherine Stewart-Jones, of the U25 Team and National Team Development Centre (NTDC) Thunder Bay, and Anne-Marie Comeau (UniversitÊ Laval) were virtually tied for second after the first lap, but Stewart-Jones held the speed to take second, 39.2 seconds behind Browne and 24.3 seconds ahead of Comeau in third.
About 16 seconds later, Maya MacIsaac-Jones, of the U25 Team and Rocky Mountain Racers (RMR), finished fourth (+1:21.0) ahead of Dahria Beatty, of the Canadian World Cup Team and Alberta World Cup Academy, in fifth (+1:26.6).
The selection criteria are complex, but a quick calculation suggests that Comeau, who placed second to Browne in Monday’s skiathlon, gets the provisional women’s distance spot for the PyeongChang Olympics (since Browne already established herself as the sprint leader), and Stewart-Jones, who was fifth in the skiathlon, gets the U23 Worlds berth. Stay tuned for updates and official selections.
The junior men’s 10 k classic podium on Wednesday at the NorAm trials in Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec, with Antoine Cyr (c) in first, FĂŠlix LongprĂŠ (2) in second and Ătienne HĂŠbert (3) in third. (Photo: Cross Country Canada/Instagram)
CNEPH’s Antoine Cyr took his third win of the week in the junior men’s 10 k, finishing in 25:57.3, well ahead of local FĂŠlix LongprĂŠ (MSA) in second (+48.2) and Ătienne HĂŠbert (AWCA) in third (+55.6).
In the junior women’s 5 k, Hannah Mehain (Sovereign Lake Nordic/National Junior Team) took the win in 15:22.7, just 2.7 seconds ahead of skiathlon winner Natalie Hynes (Whitehorse Ski Club/National Junior Team) and 15.0 seconds ahead of Tuesday’s skate sprint winner Annika Richardson (NTDC Thunder Bay/National Junior Team) in third.
Simon Eder tags off to Lisa Theresa Hauser for Austria during the single mixed relay World Cup in Ăstersund, Sweden. The pair raced to a 16.5-second win. (Photo: IBU/biathlonworld)
This year, same race, same place, Smith sat out because of a sore throat but Crawford and Christian Gow teamed up for Canada to take on the event again. Partway through the race they were in podium position before a serious crash took them more than out of medal contention; the team was lapped and finished 22nd.
“Pretty bummed,” Crawford said.
Through the first leg, she had used two spare rounds but still tagged off in third place, just 7.1 seconds out of the lead. Then Gow shot perfectly to hang onto fourth, 18.4 seconds out of the lead as the Austrian duo of Lisa Theresa Hauser and Simon Eder had taken control of the race and would never be out of the lead, eventually winning by 16.5 seconds.
Crawford chased hard and passed Italyâs Alexia Runggaldier.
âI thought, Iâll just tuck in behind the Italian, but then I thought, oh, sheâs going too slow,â Crawford said. âThatâs always an amazing feeling when you think, I feel stronger than you, I can pass you.â
After a tough season for much of the Canadian team last year, that feeling was particularly nice, she added.
Crawford was skiing in third just on the tails of Germanyâs Vanessa Hinz when she hit ice on one of the last downhills of the loop and âdid a few somersaults.â She stayed on the ground for several seconds and Canadaâs hopes for another podium were dashed.
âMy head was fine,â Crawford said. âThere were quite a few physiotherapists who ran over, so they were asking whatâs my name, where am I, what date it was. I got all of that right. But when I went to go and push myself up, my shoulder was really sore.â
After at least a minute or two, Crawford headed back out onto the trail, but in a very different part of the race than she had been before. Then there was the issue of her rifle, which she said didnât have any serious damage but at the time wasnât working well.
âJust snow everywhere,â Crawford said. âI think the sights might be twisted a little bit, or something happened because then when I did take a shot I was, like, 10 cm above the standing target. Something was off.â
Even with spare rounds which are allowed in relay races, Crawford was left doing two penalty loops and in the meantime, the leaders lapped through. Canadaâs day was over.
While Crawford doesnât have any serious injuries, her shoulder was banged up.
âIt is just bruised,â she explained. âThe skin tore a little bit where the rifle must have hit it… I probably should have just stopped. Our physio here [later] said, yeah, you have quite a bit of adrenaline going through, so if something feels like it still hurts, then it means that itâs probably pretty bad.
âBut itâs so hard, especially in relays,â Crawford said. âChristian is such an amazing shooter, heâs so fast and so accurate and he had done so well. I really didnât want to let him down. And then I was also thinking about Nations Cup points. If I didnât finish then we would get no points, whereas even if we were lapped at least we would get some points. So all of that was going through my head.â
Canada finished 22nd, and did get a few Nations Cup points.
Another lesson: stick with the plan.
âMy race plan was to not take that inside corner,â Crawford said of the spot where she crashed. âI changed it halfway through the race bcause other people were taking it… On my second time down the hill, so after my first prone shooting, I was behind Hauser, and she took the inside line and I lost a little bit of a gap on her. So I thought, okay, next time I will take the inside line. So the third time going down the hill I was behind Hinz. She took the inside line and I was right behind her.
âIn hindsight I probably should have just stuck with my race plan and taken it a little bit wide, because I have been here many, many years,â she concluded.
Austria Shines as France Falters
Meanwhile, the Austrian duo was extending their lead. France had come in as heavy favorites, with Martin Fourcade and Marie Dorin Habert having won the same race last season, Fourcade having won the overall World Cup, and Dorin Habert finishing fourth in the womenâs World Cup Total Score last season.
Kazakhstan’s Maxim Braun celebrates third place ahead of Martin Fourcade of France, Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden, and Dmytro Pidruchniy of Ukraine. (Photo: IBU/biathlonworld)
But the duo put together a sloppy shooting race, using 10 spare rounds over 40 targets. The Austrians, on the other hand, were nearly perfect, using just two spare rounds and cleaning their targets quickly.
By the time Eder came in for the final shooting bout, he could have used at least two spare rounds and still left with the lead. Instead, he cleaned.
âFirst race, first victory – this is a dream,â Eder said in an Austrian Ski Federation press release. âIt already paid off to toil for another year. I knew this would be one of the toughest single mixed competitions, because you always carry the exhaustion from the last climb to the shooting range. But I could pace myself well. I think tactically it was a strong performance, and thatâs the most important thing in the single mixed. Itâs not about always going full throttle, otherwise the shooting series wonât work out anymore. It was just perfect on the range today.â
âItâs just incredible to immediately be on the top of the podium in the first race,â she said in the same press release. âThe first race is always something special, because you are extremely stressed.â
Behind them, an interesting race was unfolding. The German team used nine spare rounds and had only a single perfect shooting stage, and Hinz said that her legs were ânot yet quite where Iâd like them to be.â But teammate Erik Lesser was aggressive on the trails, having the third-fastest time on each of his relay legs, and he skied across the finish line in second place, well clear of the rest of the field.
And thatâs where things got really crazy. A number of teams had left the range the final time quite close together: Kazakhstan with Maxim Braun, then Lesser (who immediately passed him), then Italy and Ukraine. Italyâs Thomas Bormolini charged hard and skied his way into third position.
But on one of the final downhills Bormolini fell, taking out Dmytro Pidruchnyi of Ukraine as well. That allowed Braun, who had been left behind, to sail past them. It also allowed Fourcade and Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden, who had started the final loop many seconds back, to catch further up.
In the end it was Braun taking third place for Kazakhstan, France fourth, and Sweden fifth.
âI opened my eyes and I saw the athletes from Sweden and Ukraine just lying in the trail,â Braun said through a translator in the post-race press conference. âI would like to have watched the race myself to realize what was going on. I realized it was my chance and I grabbed it… this summer we worked really really hard, and this is a fantastic beginning of the season for us.â
While he acknowledged that he had “a little bit of luck,” it was also good biathlon: with just five spare rounds, Kazakhstan had the second-best shooting of the day.
Americans 19th After Fast Start
The single mixed relay was the first World Cup start of Emily Dreissigacker’s career. The Americans started in bib six and Dreissigacker soon found herself among the race leaders.
Emily Dreissigacker of the United States competing in the single mixed relay in Ostersund, Sweden. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
âMy plan was to get in behind someone and try to pace myself and relax on the first lap, especially up the first hill,â Dreissigacker wrote in an email. âBut it turns out I just have this instinct in a mass start to get to the front. At the time it felt easy and it was super fun to lead even if it was just for a hot sec. But of course once the adrenaline wore off I definitely paid for it.â
Dreissigacker got through the first shooting stage with perfect shooting, and headed out again. But the effort early on was indeed catching up with her.
âIÂ think itâs important in a single mixed relay to pace yourself on the first leg, which is something I did not execute well today,â she wrote. âMy legs flooded really badly and didnât start to clear at all until my very last loop.â
She had to use all three spare rounds in standing, and tagged off to Leif Nordgren in 20th. Nordgren, though, used only one spare round total over his next prone and standing stages, and was able to bring the Americans into 12th.
Dreissigacker then took a penalty loop in both of her second-leg shooting stages, and then Americans ended up in 19th place after being lapped.
âProne felt good but my group moved right and down,â Dreissigacker explained. âIâm not sure why, it could have been the wind, it could have been something slightly off in my position but I was happy to at least hit all of my spares⌠Overall Iâm happy with [the race]. I have a lot to learn still and a lot I can improve upon, but you have to start somewhere.â
Thatâs a sentiment for Nordgren, too, who is hoping for better things later in the year.
âItâs a long season with the highlights being the Olympics so I didn’t really expect much from today,â Nordgren wrote. âThat being said itâs always nice to get a chance to race, itâs a different type of stimulus for the the body then just a hard intervals session. Emily had a rough day on the skis. Itâs a pretty brutal single mixed course here, so if you aren’t ready to go hard right from the start you’ll pay for it later. The snow was a little deep today as a result of the grooming so that makes it a little bit tougher on the legs too. It’s not the end of the world not getting to race the second leg – it was nice to get back in race mode even if just for a little bit.â
For Nordgren, just to be racing and feel good was an achievement compared to last year, when it was on this very day that he realized a toe injury sustained just before the start of the race season was actually a big problem. Nordgren ended up taking several weeks off of racing completely to heal.
âLast year it was a dark time for me!â he wrote. âItâs really nice to have not had any trouble like that heading into the season. Overall the preparation has been pretty good this year, so I’m excited to get into the individual races starting next week.â
France’s Martin Fourcade (c) in first, Latvia’s Andrejs Rastorgujevs (l) in second and Austria’s Simon Eder (r) in third on the podium following the men’s 15 k mass start at the season-finale 2017 IBU World Cup in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU)
Between breaking historic biathlon records and waiting for the imminent birth of his second child, France’s IBU World Cup dominator Martin Fourcade forgot one crucial detail of Biathlon 101 before Sunday’s final race of the season in the men’s 15-kilometer mass start: loading his ammunition clips.
Fourcade only realized he had started with four empty clips when he crouched down on the shooting mat for the first prone shooting, then signaled for help. His coach standing at the range reacted the fastest and threw him a full clip. Fourcade inserted it into his rifle and went on to hit all five shots, leaving the range in 18th position and 21 seconds behind the leaders, almost the time it takes to ski a penalty lap.
But what he and his coach had done strictly was not allowed: Fourcade would have had to wait and receive the spare clip from a race official, because the range is a âno-coaching zoneâ. While the race went on, Fourcade’s name was marked with an asterisk on the timing screens, and the race jury and technical delegate started discussing if Fourcade maybe should be disqualified or hit with a time penalty.
Fourcade later said he was aware the violation was under review, but decided to keep racing like normal. Before the second shooting he had compensated the gap passing the whole field to take the lead again, and received additional spare magazines this time from an official kneeling next to the first-lane shooting mat.
Seemingly undeterred by the problems, Fourcade went on to clean not only the second stage, but also the two standing stages to create a lead of almost 25 seconds, already celebrating as he left the famous Holmenkollen arena for the final loop. He was the only athlete in the field to shoot clean in all four stages, crossing the line in a time of 37:32.2 minutes under the huge applause of thousands of fans in the stands who had just witnessed a demonstration of his abilities. But would his victory stand?
“I am simply an idiot, because I forgot to reload my magazines before the start,â Fourcade explained during a press conference later. âToday I had a really good day in spite of this huge mistake. I succeeded getting back the time I lost, and then shot clean. I am really happy and proud of my competition. It was probably one of the best days in my career, but it was a competition full of stupidness.â
Behind him, Austria’s Simon Eder and Latvia’s Andrejs Rastorgujevs â usually known as a fast skier but shaky shooter â manged to also clean the final standing stage and went out on the last loop together. Rastorgujevs was faster there, overtaking and then distancing Eder to achieve the first World Cup podium of his career with two penalties in the race (0+1+1+0), 17.4 seconds behind Fourcade. Eder finished third (+32.4) with one penalty (0+0+1+0) to claim his third individual podium of the season (plus two in single mixed relays and two in men’s relays).
In his long career, Rastorgujevs, 28, had been on the podium at IBU European Championships, winning gold in 2014 and at Summer Biathlon World Championships on rollerskis, but never in a World Cup where he only had four fourth-place finishes to his name.
âThe first podium in I think more than five years for me, after a lot of fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eigth, ninth, tenth places,â Rastorgujevs said during the press conference. âI am really happy, and I want to say a big thanks to my team and my service guys, who have worked very hard for this second place … I think today is a special day, and it’s also a big party for my team … Now I think this is opening the door for more podiums. We will see what happens next season.â
“Yesterday I joked about a podium [in an interview], I don’t know why I did that, but I am really happy I got this podium today,â Eder explained. âThe third race in a row is always a problem for my body, I already know this. I prefer to have a rest day, so I knew it was gonna be hard today. I am happy I got the third place. I saw Andrejs behind me which made me happy, and tried to keep up with him as long as possible hoping for the third or maybe second place but he was too strong for me.â
Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) shooting during a standing stage in the men’s 15 k mass start, the last race of the 2016/2017 IBU World Cup season, on Sunday in Oslo, Norway. He went on to finish 15th. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Halfway through the race, US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey had been in the lead after two clean prone shooting performances, taking the first lane in the standing shooting. But he missed two targets in that stage and had to ski a penalty lap, and then missed another one in the final shooting.
âI think this was one of my best races of the season in terms of ski speed. I felt composed and focused in prone, and was happy with two cleans,â Bailey wrote in an email to FasterSkier. âIn the first standing, I didn’t necessarily plan on shooting on point 1, but [Russia’s Anton] Shipulin did not want to lead in and I thought, if anything, it would be a bit of an advantage to be on point 1 if the wind came up. Those two misses set me back a fair amount, but I’m happy I stayed in the race mentally, only had one miss in the last standing, and was able to ski my way back into a top-fifteen.â
Bailey finished the race in 15th place with three penalties (0+0+2+1), 1:10.4 behind Fourcade. But had Fourcade actually won, or would he be disqualified or relegated back?
After the race, the competition jury could be seen on the TV broadcast deliberating the case for several minutes, and ultimately they decided to not take any actions against Fourcade.
âI knew after the first shooting I was under disqualification [review], because the way I got back my full magazine is not the way exactly to do it,â Fourcade said. âIt was a possibility to be disqualified, so I wanted to show to everyone, to all the other athletes, to the audience, to the jury also, that it was my day. And if they decided to not give me the victory, I knew in my heart that I had it.â
âI think the jury was right,â Bailey wrote in his email. âI’ve been there. I know what it’s like to make a simple, costly mistake, and I think he definitely didn’t gain any advantage by NOT loading his clips.â
Aside from Rastorgujevs and Norway’s fourth-place finisher Emil Hegle Svendsen (+42.2 with two penalties), the athlete who would have stood to benefit the most from a punishment for Fourcade was Germany’s Simon Schempp, who had been in the lead in the mass-start score World Cup standings before the race. But just coming back from a lengthy illness after last month’s World Championships where he won the men’s mass start, Schempp only finished with a 20th place (+1:28.5 with three penalties) in the same discipline on Sunday, and thereby still lost that title to Fourcade.
âThe hope was there, but with my current form it is very tough,â Schempp told ARD after the race. âI gave it everything I had. I am disappointed, but something like that can’t be fixed when you come here basically without any training. I lost a lot of points in the standings the last weeks, and I can still feel the illness in my bones. I can’t help it, it happens.â
But Schempp also did not want to get the award back âoff the courseâ by a disqualification.
“I wanted to thank and to give all my respect to the team of Germany and to Simon Schempp, who decided to not ask for a protest,â Fourcade said in the press conference, unprompted. âThat’s a big gesture. I really take my hat off to Simon Schempp. I must say how impressed I am by their class, they deserve much more than a crystal globe today.â
Bailey finished the season in eighth in the World Cup Total Score standings, a career best all the more impressive considering he skipped an entire week of races in Oberhof, Germany, for a longer rest and training break after Christmas. That paid off, with a gold medal in the men’s 20 k individual at World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria, a second place in the sprint at the World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea, and another second place in Kontiolahti, Finland, in the single mixed relay together with his teammate Susan Dunklee.
âThis is, by far, the best season of my life,â Bailey wrote reflecting on his season. âAt 35 years old, I can say that I’ve waited a long time for this season. I have so many people to thank, first among them, my wife Erika for believing in me through it all, and being by side every step of the way. It’s been so great to have her and my daughter on the tour for the majority of the season.â
Eckhoff Wins Final Mass Start at Home Despite ‘Squirrel Drama’
Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff crossing the finish line with the Norwegian flag to celebrate her victory in the women’s 12.5 k mass start at the 2017 IBU World Cup on Sunday in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU)
âI hope I didn’t kill it,â was the first comment by Tiril Eckhoff after Sunday’s race to broadcaster NRK.
What the Norwegian was referring to was the only small thing that disturbed her victory in the women’s 12.5-kilometer mass start at her home venue in Oslo: a streaking squirrel crossed the course in a ditch before the longest climb seven kilometers into the race, right in front of a six-person lead group that included Eckhoff, France’s Justine Braisaz and American Susan Dunklee.
The little animal seemingly was confused which way it should try to escape, then jumped up when Braisaz tried to break, with Eckhoff almost running over it as well.
âThat squirrel was my favorite part of the race,â Dunklee wrote in an email to FasterSkier. âIt ran in front of me then I saw it collide with Justine. I couldn’t help but laugh!â
âBraisaz drove over the squirrel, so I just had to take my ski up and hope it goes well,â Eckhoff told NRK. âIt’s good to see some wildlife in the forests of Norway.â
After the race she could have a good laugh about the incident, which her home country’s TV broadcaster dubbed âEckhoff vs. ekhornâ and âekhorndramaâ by the Norwegian word for squirrel.
Reportedly the squirrel got away alive. And luckily it had not been Eckhoff vs. moose, another common dweller of the Norwegian forests.
Shooting 19-for-20 after she earlier in the season had never hit more than 16 shots in a four-stage race (0+0+1+0), Eckhoff took the lead after the final shooting ahead of Czech Republic’s Gabriela KoukalovĂĄ, and pushed hard throughout the last loop to create a gap that allowed her to grab a Norwegian flag before the last ski bridge in the Holmenkollen arena, waving to the fans as she skied down the homestretch before crossing the line in a time of 34:23.1.
“I was very fed up with [always] going to the penalty loop,â Eckhoff said at the press conference. âSo I just said to myself, ‘Now I’m gonna take those targets down,’ and I managed that, so now I’m really happy … because that has been my main issue.â
Eckhoff had won gold medals in the sprint and the women’s relay at last year’s World Championships at home in Oslo, where she grew up and still lives. But partly due to illnesses she struggled with this season, she didn’t return to form until after this year’s Hochfilzen World Championships. She went on to notch a second place in the sprint in PyeongChang, South Korea, and then a sprint win in Kontiolahti, Finland.
Behind Eckhoff, KoukalovĂĄ finished Sunday’s race in second place (+22.6) with one penalty (0+1+0+0), thereby securing the World Cup title in the mass start discipline ahead of Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier, who finished ninth after shooting three misses (+54.2), not able to defend the small lead she held before the final but winning the overall World Cup Total Score title for the first time.
After the race, Sweden’s Hanna Ăberg also received the IBU award for the âRookie of the Yearâ.
âI was not under pressure today,â KoukalovĂĄ said with a big smile at the press conference. âI had no expectations. I tried to imagine that I’m already somewhere else, at the athletes’ party this evening for example … It’s one of the best seasons of my life.â
âI am totally exhausted, and happy that there is no more race tomorrow,â her rival Dahlmeier told German broadcaster ARD after the race. âThe miss at the end ruined a better result today, and on the course it was also really tough for me. I have reached my limit now … I hope some energy comes back to celebrate the season tonight.â
Before the final shooting Dahlmeier’s teammate Franziska Hildebrand had been in the lead by almost 20 seconds thanks to three clean shooting performances, with her first individual podium of the season within her grasp. But she missed her very last shot, causing her coach to let out an audible swear, and she had to ski a penalty lap, which allowed the clean-shooting Eckhoff and KoukalovĂĄ to pass her.
Coming back on the loop still in third place, Hildebrand was chased down by Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen and Czech Republic’s Veronika Vitkova, who passed her shortly before the finish skiing down into the Holmenkollen arena. Mäkäräinen claimed the third place on the podium (+34.5) with two penalties (0+0+1+1), while Vitkova finished fourth (+36.1) and Hildebrand fifth (+39.0). Mäkäräinen’s teammate Mari Laukkanen, the winner of the preceding sprint and pursuit races in Oslo, finished sixth (+40.0) to round out the most successful weekend of her biathlon career.
âIt has been some hard time the last two weeks,â Mäkäräinen said in the press conference, referring to the passing of Finnish shooting coach Asko Nuutinen. âI’m sure that has somehow affected my results in a negative way, and now yesterday and today I managed to get the power and do some better races. So I am happy with the result today. I just tried to focus on what I do, not thinking about the result that much.â
âIt’s been a very special week with what happened to the Finnish girls, and I am very impressed with Kaisa and Mari,â Eckhoff said at the press conference.
Halfway through the women’s mass start, Dunklee had been in the lead after shooting clean in both of her prone stages, then held on with the top group on the course, mostly letting Eckhoff dictate the tempo.
But after also struggling on the range in Saturday’s pursuit race with ten penalties, Dunklee, who recently exhibited remarkably consistent shooting performances, started to miss and incurred three penalties in the first standing stage and another two in the last one (0+0+3+2).
âI am not entirely sure what has been off in standing this weekend,â Dunklee wrote in her email. âIt’s frustrating. Maybe the biathlon gods thought it was time for a dose of humility. My ski form is the best it has been all year.â
In the end she came to the finish in 20th place, 1:43.8 behind the winner Eckhoff.
Still, Dunklee managed to retain the 10th position in the World Cup Total Score standings, another career best to end a season that included a silver medal in the mass start at the World Championships and another podium at the World Cup in Kontiolahti in the single mixed relay with Bailey.
âThis is the sort of history making team that every athlete dreams of being part of during their lifetime,â Dunklee reflected on the season. âWe have staff who have worked for decades believing this level is possible. Now the door has been opened. I don’t think they will have to wait decades for the next relay medals or World Championships podiums.â
Susan Dunklee and Lowell Bailey celebrate after finishing second in the World Cup single mixed relay in Kontiolahti, Finland. Austria won the competition. (Photo: IBU/Twitter)
The single mixed relay is a relatively new format, and one that is not yet contested at World Championships or the Olympics.
And so when a single mixed relay (two athletes) and a ânormalâ mixed relay (four athletes) are held on the same day, the U.S. Biathlon World Cup teamâs policy has always been clear: prioritize the mixed relay, and get the World Champs and Olympic team the most practice possible for their big days.
All that changed in Kontiolahti, Finland, today.
The U.S. decided to put Susan Dunklee and Lowell Bailey â both medalists at 2017 World Championships â on the single mixed relay. Even before the race began, expectations were high. The Americans were calling themselves the âdream teamâ.
After the race? Oh, yeah.
The duo finished second, claiming the first relay podium by an American biathlon team since 1994, when Beth Coats, Joan Smith Miller, Laura Tavares, and Ntala Skinner finished second in the womenâs 4 x 6 k in Canmore.
âWe have known that if we had our best day on the right day, that it was possible in the mixed relay even a few years ago,â Dunklee said of having a relay podium. âFor that mixed relay it just quite hasn’t happened for us. I think maybe we psyched ourselves out a few times… I have dreamed for a long time being able to run into the finishing pen and with a bib on and a rifle, and greet my teammates as they come in. Itâs so cool to finally do that. It’s definitely a dream come true.â
But if she pictured running into the finishing pen of a normal biathlon event, the single mixed relay might not have come to mind. The format of the newest World Cup competition is unusual. Loops are 1.5 kilometers, shorter than any other ski loops on the World Cup. The women ski (and shoot) twice, then tag off to the men just after shooting so the men can ski (and shoot) twice, then the women twice again, then the men twice, and finally the men getting to ski one last 1.5 k loop to reach the finish line.
That unfamiliarity came with excitement: the team knew ahead of time that they had a good chance of a top finish. With a flat course, both Americans felt good about their power skiing. The format also has the highest shooting-to-skiing ratio of any biathlon competition, and the pair had been shooting almost unbelievably well in the second half of the season.
âThe stuff Susan and I have been working on throughout the training year in shooting, which is namely trying to reduce our shooting times and shoot quicker, lends itself to a race format like the single mixed relay,â Bailey said. âIt was my first single mixed relay and Susanâs as well, and we were totally psyched. Itâs a great moment to see both programs, both the menâs and the womenâs teams, have a joint success like this.â
Despite the new format, Dunklee found herself leading on the second loop, thanks to a fast and clean prone shooting.
Then — she fell on a downhill.
âIt just happened so fast and before I knew it I was on the ground, and my rifle fell on the back of my head where I have a nice sore bruise now,â Dunklee said. âAfter that I just got up. I had a few hundred meters before I need to be ready to shoot, and that’s more important than freaking out and worrying about it too much.â
She blamed “snow snakes,” but Dunklee managed to re-gain some determination. By the time she reached the shooting range she had re-focused. Dunklee hit all five targets in quick succession, claiming the fastest standing shooting time of all the women.
She tagged off to Bailey in third place — just 8.9 seconds behind Kazakhstan and Germany — and the U.S. was back on track.
Bailey, for his part, completed the second leg of the relay with two spare rounds, skiing comfortably  near the front of groups and tagging off in fifth, +17.2 seconds.
âWhatâs interesting about this course is that itâs pretty flat except for one relatively modest uphill,” Bailey said. “Today there was quite a bit of wind on the course so to be leading was a disadvantage in a group. So you saw some tactical play up at the front of the race. I felt like I couldâve gone harder in the initial loops, but I also knew that with such a short, 1.5 k loop, the shooting really is where the race is won or lost. So my strategy was to just stay in contact with the lead group.â
Meanwhile, Simon Eder of Austria had gone to the front and Austria would hang onto the lead for the rest of the race. Lisa Theresa Hauser had used two spare rounds in her first standing, but through both of Ederâs relay legs and Hauserâs second leg the team used only three. That turned out to be untouchable.
âOnce Austria got far enough off the chase pack, I felt it was more of a risk to try to go all out in my last leg to try to catch Austria, than try to hit my targets,â Bailey said.
That’s because behind Austria, it was still a fight. After Bailey quickly hit his extra shots, it was Dunkleeâs turn. She again cleaned prone before needing two spare rounds in standing. But the wind on the range in Kontiolahti had been tricky all day, and most of the other leaders also used spares. So despite the missed shots, Dunklee still managed to move up to second place.
âI think everyone was struggling, especially standing,” Dunklee said. “I would not normally expect to be even with, or not lose a whole lot of places on, the leaders [with two spares], but since everybody else was struggling too it was okay… I think with this short format, you get a little bit more adrenaline and you are pushed a little bit harder in skiing. You get the shaky legs going when youâre standing.â
With Austria seemingly untouchable, Bailey was left to battle it out with France, Germany, Switzerland, and Kazakhstan.
After one more clean prone, he was fifth, but still with the group.
In standing, Bailey needed a spare round. But again, he loaded them extremely fast â allowing him to leave the range in third place anyway. In his haste to hit the trails, he almost fell on the sharp corner leading out of the range and into the stadium. But he kept his balance, and then hit the gas.
âThe tactics at the front of the race in the third and fourth loops for me, the pace was not all that high, so I really felt pretty fresh when I came out of standing for that last 1.5 k loop,â Bailey said. âI knew that it was basically just a really long sprint finish. So I just tried to sprint from the mat essentially and hoped that I didnât run out of gas by the finish line.â
Ahead of Bailey: Roman Rees of Germany, just four seconds away. Rees is one year out of the junior ranks, and had only ever competed in one other World Cup relay of any kind. Twelve years older, Bailey set out to catch him.
But behind: Jean Guillaume Beatrix of France, another veteran with as many podiums to his name as Bailey had. Leaving the range Beatrix was less than a second behind Bailey, and wanted to get onto the podium.
Between Germany, France, and the United States, there was only room for two on the podium. As the 1.5 k loop wore on, Beatrix faded â only a few seconds, but enough to keep him and his French teammate Anais Chevalier in fourth place.
By the time the race came to the stadium, Bailey had caught Rees. He tried to use all of his power to pass on the inside corner, but Rees held strong. The two ended up dueling down the finishing straight, with Bailey prevailing by just half a second.
âYES!â he screamed as he crossed the finish line, 32.8 seconds behind the Austrian team. Dunklee ran out to meet him.
âThat was a first and itâs a great feeling,â Bailey said. âIn a lot of ways itâs better than just going out and having a great race on your own, but to have a great team result like that, itâs a new experience. I shouldnât say that, weâve had some great team results in both the mixed relay and the menâs relay — we were fourth place last year in the mixed relay [in Canmore], but no one really wants to go out and celebrate in the finish zone with fourth place. This was the first time that you could hug your teammate in the finish zone. Iâve watched that phenomenon throughout my career so itâs nice to experience it.â
The U.S. had matched the Austrians on the range, using just five spares to Germanyâs six, but the timing was off: Austria had gone, and so Bailey had concentrated on winning second, not potentially blowing up in chase of first place.
That turned out to be a good strategy, because Eder had knocked down his final five standing targets with scorching speed of 17.9 seconds. By comparison, Dunklee’s best mark among the women was 21.4 seconds.
âI actually talked to Simon Eder after the race because I knew his last shooting was blistering fast, and I said, âHey, what was your strategy there? You didnât have to shoot that fastâ,â Bailey said. “And he said, âI came in and the wind died right when I got into position so I knew I had just a few moments there to take advantage of it.’ By the time [our] chase group, which was 30 seconds or less behind him hit the mat, [the wind] was back to being gusty.â
The Canadian team of Julia Ransom and Christian Gow finished 19th, +2:27.0, with eight spare rounds.
In the mixed relay later in the day, the French team of Marie Dorin Habert, Anais Bescond, Simon Desthieux, and Quinton Fillon Maillet took the win, followed by Germany (+11.0 seconds) and Ukraine (+27.1).
The American team of Clare Egan, Joanne Reid, Paul Schommer, and Sean Doherty finished eighth, +1:37.4.
The Canadian team of Emma Lunder, Megan Bankes, Scott Gow, and Brendan Green finished 22nd in the mixed relay, +6:09.5.
âI would just reiterated that I was just psyched to see the whole team do well, both in the single mixed and the mixed relay,â Bailey said. âItâs Nations Cup points, so it counts for our Nation Cup overall total score for the women and the men. It was a pretty important race in that regard. Iâm really happy for the team. Everyone deserves it, the techs and everyone, itâs been a really long season and theyâre still working as hard as ever so Iâm really thankful for that.â
Lowell Bailey and Susan Dunklee celebrate finishing second in the single mixed relay in Kontiolahti, Finland. (Screencap: US Biathlon/Twitter)
IBU Biathlon World Cup (Kontiolahti, Finland): Single Mixed Relay
In the last single mixed relay of the season, Susan Dunklee held the lead after two loops of skiing. She was looking for a top tag-off to American Lowell Bailey, but she crashed on a downhill. Nevertheless, she was able to focus on the shooting range and climb back into podium position.
The leaders were gone, however: Simon Eder and Lisa Therese Hauser of Austria ran away with the competition, using five spare rounds to race to a 32.8-second victory.
Bailey left the last shooting in third position, and caught Germanyâs Roman Rees on the trails. The pair also managed to hold off Jean Guillaume Beatrix of France, who left the range just behind them. It came down to a sprint finish, with Bailey besting Rees (and his relay partner, World Cup Total Score winner Laura Dahlmeier). The U.S. had five spare rounds to Germanyâs six.
It was the first relay podium of any kind for the United States since 1994, when the women finished second in a relay in Canmore, Alberta.
The Canadian team of Julia Ransom and Christian Gow finished 19th (+2:27.0) with eight spare rounds.
Left to right: Finland’s Krista Pärmäkowski, Norway’s Marit Bjørgen and Finland’s Kertu Niskanenen after the women’s 30kiloimeter World Cup classic mass start on Saturday in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: FIS Cross-Country/Twitter)
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Oslo, Norway): Holmenkollen 30 k classic mass start:
Norwegian Marit Bjørgen won the women’s 30-kilometer classic mass start at Homenkollen on Sunday, in a time of 1:22:59.2. She bested two Finns, Krista Pärmäkoski and Kerttu Niskanen. Pärmäkoski finished in second (+2:05.8) and Niskanen in third (+2:07.0).
Norway’s Heidi Weng finished fourth (+2:08.6), outlasting Swedenâs Charlotte Kalla (fifth, +2:11.7). Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk finished sixth (+2:12.9), Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen seventh (+2:19.6), Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Ătsberg  in eighth (+2:31.3), Sweden’s Anna Haag in ninth (+3:27.9) and Finland’s Laura Mononen in tenth (+3:28.7).
The first North American to finish on Sunday was Kikkan Randall, who placed 20th (+6:17.2).  The next North American across the line was the U.S. Ski Team’s Sadie Bjornsen in 24th (+6:48.8). Liz Stephen finished in 31st (+8:46.8), and Chelsea Holmes (Alaska Pacific University) in 39th (+11:19.1).Â
The University of Utah ski team celebrating its first NCAA title since 2003 on Saturday at 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships in Jackson, N.H. (Photo: Jason Clay/Colorado)
NCAA Skiing Championships (Jackson, N.H.): 15/20 k freestyle mass starts
On the final day of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Skiing Championships in northern New Hampshire, the University of Utah pulled out a 16.5-point victory over the University of Colorado-Boulder (and finished 17.5 points ahead of the University of Denver) in the team standings, and the two previous NCAA champions from Thursday’s 5/10 k classic races, Martin BergstrĂśm and Petra Hyncicova, achieved their second-straight titles in as many nordic races this week.
On a frigid Saturday morning in Jackson, N.H., with temperatures just below zero Fahrenheit for the start of the menâs 20 k freestyle mass start, BergstrĂśm, a Utah freshman from Sweden, outlasted the University of Coloradoâs (CU) Mads Ek Strøm, a Norwegian senior and two-time 2016 NCAA champion, by 0.5 seconds to win his second-straight race in 46:02.8 minutes. Moritz Madlener, a German senior at Denver University (DU), placed third (+0.6). Just behind him CU’s Petter Reistad, of Norway, finished fourth (+1.2), and Dartmouth Collegeâs Fabian Stocek, of the Czech Republic, placed fifth (+1.9).
While temperatures warmed up to about 1 degree for the womenâs 15 k freestyle mass start and the wind picked up to about 15-20 miles per hour, the women raced three laps around the Jackson Ski Touring Centerâs race loop and navigated even faster downhills that caused a few crashes.
Hyncicova used her love for downhills and skate races to capture her second consecutive NCAA title, breaking away with University of Vermont (UVM) junior Alayna Sonnesyn on the second lap. The Czech Republic native and CU junior attacked on the A-climb at the top of the course and won by 21.1 seconds in 39:21.6. Sonnesyn, of Minnesota, bested her third place from Thursday’s 5 k with a second-place finish on Saturday. CUâs Christina Rolandsen, of Norway, finished third (+38.9), ahead of Idaho native Anika Miller of Montana State University (MSU) in fourth (+44.0).
Utah took fifth and sixth with Merete Myrseth (+1:01.5) and Guro Jordheim (+1:16.1), and had two other men in the top 10 (Martin Mikkelsen in 8th and Kevin Bolger in 10th) to achieve the alpine-nordic team title.
In the womenâs race, the Utes were the only team with all three women in the top 14, with Natalia MĂźller in 14th (+1:32.1).
âThe turning point of today is when Guro broke a pole, and she was back in the 20âs, and she and Natalia were skiing together,â Utah Director of Skiing Kevin Sweeney said, according to a team press release. âWe told them that they had to go and they busted out and made a big move. The menâs results were tremendous, but whether or not we were going to win was based on those guys making the move. It was exceptional athleticism and gutsy performances.â
The NCAA team title was the 11th for Utah and its first since 2003.
âI am stunned with the win today,â Sweeney added. “In all my years of coaching, it was one of the most challenging four days of competition. I say that because the weather was incredibly cold and windy, and challenging from both a waxing perspective, as well as visibility and conditions. I know all the teams had to deal with it, but it really beat us up. It took a lot of perseverance and gutsy performances for us to win. We struggled a little bit in the slalom, but they were going for it and came up short.
“Weâve been crunching numbers and have been able to beat Denver and Colorado by about 30 points on a really good showing during the RMISA season, but didnât know if we could do it in the championships,â he continued. “BergstrĂśm was skiing at a whole new level this week, and Mikkelsen had stepped it up, and I knew Kevin Bolger could get top 10. I was also confident in the women, who have been skiing awesome, so I felt good there. Itâs awesome to be able to take this new trophy back to our new ski building.â
As for those earning All-American status on Saturday with a top-10 finish, Utah had five (BergstrÜm 1st, Myrseth 5th, Jordheim 6th, Mikkelsen 8th, Bolger 10th), Colorado had four (Hyncincova 1st, Strøm 2nd, Rolandsen 3rd, Reistad 4th), Denver had two (Madlener, Dag Frode Trollebø 7th), MSU had two (Miller 4th, Johanna Talihärm 7th), Dartmouth had two (Stocek 5th, Luke Brown 9th), UVM had one (Sonnesyn 2nd), Northern Michigan University (NMU) had one (Adam Martin 5th), the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF) had one (Sarissa Lammers 8th), UNH had one (Lizzie Gill 9th), and Bowdoin had one (Hannah Miller 10th).
Stay tuned for a more in-depth report with quotes and photos from Saturdayâs skate mass starts.
USSA Cross Country Junior Championships (Lake Placid, N.Y.): Freestyle team relays
The 2017 U.S. Junior Nationals Alaska Cup winners, New England, at the awards ceremony on Saturday in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: XCJuniorNationals2017/Facebook)
[UPDATED] For the final day of 2017 U.S. Junior Nationals in Lake Placid, N.Y., regional divisions formed three-racer teams for the U16, U18 and U20 freestyle relays.
Intermountain swept the U16 team events with Lane Myshrall, Skylar Patten and Johnny Hagenbuch winning the U16 boysâ relay by 3.6 seconds over the Midwestâs James Schneider, Alexander Nameth and Peter Moore in 23:00.4 minutes. Another 1.1 seconds back, Alaska reached the podium in third (+4.7) with Eli Hermann, Zander McMullen and George Cvancara.
Intermountainâs U16 girlsâ team of Sarah Morgan, Annabel Hagen and Sydney Palmer-Leger posted a 53.7-second victory over New Englandâs Charlotte Ogden, Anna Lehmann and Abigail Streinz, winning in 26:21.4. The Pacific Northwest finished 18.1 seconds later in third place (+1:29.9) with Fiona Max, Gretta Scholz and Annie McColgan.
Alaska won the U18 boysâ relay with Luke Jager, Canyon Tobin and Gus Schumacher finishing in 21:42.9, 7.5 seconds ahead of New Englandâs Elliot Ketchel, Adam Glueck and Ben Ogden in second. The Midwestâs Anders Sonnesyn, Patrick Acton and Luc Golin rounded out the podium in third (+22.2).
Rocky Mountain topped the U18 girlsâ relay with Katja Freeburn, Ezra Smith and Maddie Donovan crossing first in 25:47.3. Just 5.8 seconds back, Intermountainâs Brooke Dunnagan, Anna Gibson and Sofia Schomento placed second, and the Midwest secured third (+16.7) with Margaret McCollor, Luci Anderson and Anja Maijala.
The U20 menâs relay title went to New England, with Kam Husain, Koby Gordon and Daniel Streinz pulling out a 1.3-second win over Alaskaâs Tracen Knopp, Logan Mowrey and Hunter Wonders in 21:53.1. Intermountain followed in third (+8.8) with Eli Jensen, Peter Wolter and Nathan Wells.
The Midwest came up big in the U20 womenâs relay, with Abby Jarzin, Hannah Rudd and Margie Freed finishing 10.1 seconds ahead of New Englandâs Alexandra Lawson, Mary Kretchmer and Mackenzie Rizio in 25:41.4. Another 1.1 seconds back, Intermountainâs Leah Lange, Maddie Morgan and Marin Coletta placed third (+11.2).
New England won the Alaska Cup with 325 points, the same point total as Intermountain in second. Alaska placed third in the overall team competition with 295 points, just five points ahead of the Midwest in fourth.
Left to right: Finland’s Iivo Niskanen, Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Russia’s Alexander Bessmertnykh after placing second, first and third, respectively, in the Holmenkollen World Cup men’s 50 k classic mass start on Saturday in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: FIS Cross-Country/Twitter)
In a historic Holmenkollen, Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby took his second 50 k win in a row, claiming this year’s title in a time of 2:02:59.7 (he won last year’s Holmenkollen in a time of 2:08:41.9). Sundby is now the only male skier to win two consecutive World Cup Holmenkollen 50 k competitions.Â
Crossing behind Sundby in second was Finland’s Iivo Niskanen, 9.9 seconds back from the race winner’s time. In a three-way photo finish, Russian Alexander Bessmertnykh bested Norwegians Niklas Dryhaug, and Sjur Røthe in the lunge to the line, with Bessmertnykh taking third (+1:15.2), Røthe fourth (+1:15.2) and Dryhaug fifth (+1:15.2).
Canada’s Alex Harvey was just two tenths of a second behind the three-way lunge, finishing in sixth (+1:15.4). Norway’s Christer Hans Holund crossed 2.2 seconds later in seventh (+1:17.2). Three more Russians rounded out the top ten, with Sergey Ustiugov finishing in eighth (+2:35.0), Andrey Larkov two tenths of a second behind in ninth (+2:35.2) and Sergey Turyshev in tenth (+2:42.2).
The top U.S. skier for the day was Scott Patterson (Alaska Pacific University), earning World Cup points in 28th (+7:18.8). Canada’s Devon Kershaw crossed 33rd (+2:11:59.1) and American David Norris (Alaska Pacific University) finished 35th (+9:56.4).
Two more Americans competed in Saturday’s Holmenkollen, with Noah Hoffman finishing in 38th (+11:02.6) and Ben Lustgarten 46th (+18:44.7). Canadian Russell Kennedy was the final North American to finish in 47th (+20:16.3).
The IBU World Cup men’s podium after the 12.5 k pursuit in Kontiolahti, Finland, where Arnd Peiffer of Germany outsprinted Simon Eder of Austria for the win. (Photo: IBU/Twitter)
After one day knocked down to the second spot of the podium, it was back to the usual winning ways for Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier in the 10 k pursuit. Dahlmeier caught Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff, who won Friday’s sprint, early in the race after Eckhoff had one penalty in the first prone and second-starter Dahlmeier cleaned. While Eckhoff picked up five more penalties as the race went on, finishing 15th (+1:12.0), Dahlmeier had just one – and cleaned when it counted, on the final shoot with France’s Marie Dorin Habert and the Czech Republic’s Gabriela Koukalova right there with her. Dorin Habert missed one shot and held on to second place (+16.5) despite the penalty loop, while Italy’s Lisa Vittozi picked up her first individual podium in third (+19.9).
The win secured the overall World Cup title for Dahlmeier, her first. “That makes me really speechless,” she told Germany’s ARD broadcaster. “This is an amazing moment.”
Susan Dunklee collected four penalties and dropped from fifth place to 14th (+1:02.8) for the United States. Teammates Clare Egan and Joanne Reid finished 45th (+3:24.7) and 52nd (+4:07.0), respectively.
For Canada, Julia Ransom finished 53rd with three penalties (+4:14.0) and Emma Lunder 58th with four missed shots (+6:20.7).
Earlier in the day, Martin Fourcade had started the men’s race in bib one and set out to win the men’s 12.5 k pursuit, but was undone by four errors on the shooting range. No matter: the French biathlete still picked up the World Cup crystal globe for the pursuit discipline after finishing fifth (+25.5 seconds) and now he’s skipping tomorrow’s mixed relays to go be with his wife, who is about to have their second child.
Capitalizing on Fourcade’s errors were a group of chasers, among whom Arnd Peiffer of Germany managed to shoot 20-for-20. The race came down to a sprint finish between him and Simon Eder of Austria; Peiffer took a 0.3-second win for his eighth career victory. Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway finished third, +2.3 seconds, and Andrej Moravec of the Czech Republic fourth, +9.8.
Besides Peiffer, the only other man in the field to shoot clean was Sean Doherty of the United States. That allowed Doherty to jump from 44th at the start to a season-best 18th (+1:19.5) at the finish, the top result for the American team. Lowell Bailey finished 27th (+1:57.2) and Leif Nordgren 43rd (+3:24.4) with three and four penalties, respectively.
Christian Gow led Canada with just one penalty and a 37th-place finish (+2:36.0), a big improvement from his 50th-place starting position. Brendan Green placed 50th with three penalties (+4:47.3).
 France’s World Cup sprint and total score winner Martin Fourcade (c) on the podium of the men’s 10 k sprint at the 2017 IBU World Cup in Kontiolahti, Finland, with the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Moravec (l) in second and Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen (r) in third. (Photo: IBU)
These days at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Kontiolahti, Finland, biathlon star Martin Fourcade of France is not as worried about his opponents on the course as he is about the imminent birth of his second child.
âThat’s the first thing I did when I came to the finish, I checked my phone to see if my wife called,â he told German broadcaster ZDF after the race.
There was no message yet, so he declared that he also intends to race on Saturday before traveling back home. âThen I don’t know about my schedule, I have to wait what my wife decides,â he added with a laugh.
In Friday’s 10-kilometer sprint, Fourcade once again posted the best course time as he so frequently has this season, and thus was able to make up the seconds he lost after a miss in his standing shooting. At the end of the day, he was the only man in the top five without hitting all 10 targets.
After that penalty, Fourcade had to fight hard for the victory on the last loop. He crossed the finish line in 22:17.0 minutes, just 0.6 seconds ahead of Czech Republic’s OndĹej Moravec, who had taken the lead just a few minutes earlier. Three-hundred meters before the finish at the last timing point, Fourcade had been two seconds behind.
âJust after the shooting, I saw the screen [in the arena] and thought, ‘OK, five seconds back with one more penalty loop, it’s something I can do,â Fourcade explained at the post-race press conference. âThen at the first split time, I was still five seconds back and thought to myself that it’s over and I will never catch him. But at the last split time my coach said to me, ‘Only two seconds,’ so I started to believe again. I think I was really lucky to start on his back. It was a real advantage today to know about the situation.â
âI think it’s a track that suits me well,â Fourcade told ZDF. âI’ve known this place for a long time, it’s where I got my first victory in the World Cup. I love it because it’s really hard, you never stop pushing. Of course I am really satisfied, because the three guys behind me were not in PyeongChang [South Korea, at last week’s World Cup]. So I didn’t choose the best situation to win here because the travel was really hard, but I [managed] to win in PyeongChang and today so I am really proud.â
With his victory Fourcade also secured the âsmall crystal globeâ awarded to the sprint World Cup discipline winner, after he had already locked up his sixth overall World Cup title in PyeongChang. With this 13th victory of the season, he also surpassed the all-time record for most victories within one season after he previously tied Norway’s Ole Einar Bjørndalen mark a week ago.
âI want to thank him for being such an amazing inspiration,â Fourcade said during the press conference, and added regarding his sprint title: âIt’s not just business. I can remember when I won my first globe in 2010 in Oslo. I always try to remember the feeling I had. And I really respect this award, and am proud and satisfied I won it.â
Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen claimed the third place on the podium (+9.4), pushing his teammate Johannes Thingnes Bø to fourth. Both Moravec and Svendsen had opted against the long trip to South Korea.
âBattling with Martin is always hard,â Moravec said in the press conference. âWhen I saw him in the last hill it was really close with 2.2 seconds. And then I knew, ‘This is not good,’ because the last 500 meters of my race were nothing special, I was really tired on the last part of the track.â
At last month’s IBU World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria, US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey denied Moravec his first win of the season in the individual race by 3.3 seconds.
âIt is what it is, 0.6 seconds, but today I am still really satisfied for the second place,â Moravec said. âLast time [in Hochfilzen] I was 50-50 maybe, but today it’s different.â
âI think it was a big advantage for me,â he added when asked about not traveling to PyeongChang. âBecause I did a great preparation at home and took a rest … I think my result today is a good answer to this question.â
âOf course I thought about going to Korea,â Svendsen explained. âBut I think if I would have gone there I would have done medium races during the last three World Cups. Now I got at least one podium, and I think it is better to have some good races than a lot of medium races. I think it was better for me to stay at home after a really bad World Championships.â
âFive podiums this year is much more than I expected,â he said when asked to reflect on his season. âBecause the preparation this year was not so good. I am really happy with this after all the troubles I had last summer… But I hope I can now have six good months of training and come back stronger than ever.â
One of the earliest starters in bib 3, Bø hit all of his targets and was the race leader until Svendsen finished 2.7 seconds faster. As the race progressed, Fourcade and Moravec also finished ahead of him, pushing Bø to fourth (+12.1)
âIt was quite a good race,â Bø told the IBU in an interview. âI don’t know where I could do better. So even if I’m fourth place I know I did my best today. It was high level on the shooting range today, and for myself I am quite happy with 10 hits in a fast speed. … I felt strong on the tracks, and just wish I were a little bit stronger to make the podium.â
Also shooting clean, Germany’s Arnd Peiffer finished fifth (+22.3).
âThis is a demanding course with three long and steep climbs,â Peiffer told ZDF. âI am glad I got through with clean shooting on the range today. In PyeongChang, I was struggling in my standing stages … and that was pretty annoying. On the course it was a solid performance. I am still feeling the effects of the travel, but that won’t be any different for the others … So I am happy about this fifth place.â
Just behind Peiffer, Austria’s Simon Eder placed sixth (+23.0) with one penalty (0+1), and Latvia’s Andrejs Rastorgujevs missed the first World Cup podium of his career after he missed his last target to finish seventh (+25.1) with one penalty (0+1).
Kontiolahti is hosting the eighth World Cup stage of the season in place of Tyumen, Russia, which withdrew as a host in the wake of the McLaren report. Though almost 2,000 miles away from Tyumen, thanks to the new location near the northern Russian-Finnish border, a number of Russian fans still made the trip to Finland. Judging by flags, outfits and cheers, it seemed like they were about even with the local fans with the feel of a home World Cup.
Bailey Clean But Slower on Course
US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey skiing into the finish of the men’s 10-kilometer sprint at the 2017 IBU World Cup in Kontiolahti, Finland. He placed 16th. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Another skier who managed to shoot 10-for-10 on Friday was Bailey, continuing his extremely accurate shooting form of the last few weeks. But this time, the American didn’t quite have the punch that propelled him to his historic gold medal at last month’s World Championships and another second place in PyeongChang last week. After eight straight races of placing in the top 10, Bailey finished 16th on Friday, 1:01.1 behind Fourcade.
But Bailey didn’t blame the travel from South Korea to Finland for his slower ski time than usual, after posting the 43rd-ranked course time of the day.
âIt was actually a little bit longer than 24 hours,â Bailey wrote in an email to FasterSkier. âI’m not sure I can use that as an excuse; several athletes did just fine after that travel (Martin Fourcade was flying again!).
âI didn’t feel completely comfortable on my skis today,â Bailey added, regarding the race conditions. âIt was an icy, unstable track and I struggled to keep a flat gliding ski … The conditions were the best we’ve had all week; not too much wind on the range and the tracks were hard and didn’t seem to break down at all.â
Coming out of the final standing stage in 12th place and 32.6 seconds out of first, he lost almost another 30 seconds on the final loop.
âI definitely didn’t have the strongest last loop,â Bailey wrote. âI just didn’t have a whole lot in the tank for the three big climbs. Some days are better than others and today I wasn’t at my best on the course. But, things can change quickly and I’m hoping to feel better for tomorrow’s pursuit.â
Three Americans, Two Canadians in the Pursuit
US Biathlon’s Sean Doherty (71) and Biathlon Canada’s Brendan Green (21) on the range during the second shooting stage of the men’s 10 k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Kontiolahti, Finland. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
In addition to Bailey, two other Americans qualified for Saturdayâs pursuit in the top 60, with Leif Nordgren in 43rd (+1:36.8) with two penalties (1+1) and Sean Doherty finishing one position behind in 44th (+1:38.5) with one standing miss (0+1).
Paul Schommer, who is replacing Tim Burke in these final World Cups, finished 84th (+3:02.5) with three misses (2+1).
Two Canadians shot clean and also qualified for the pursuit: Brendan Green in 45th (+1:41.4) and Christian Gow in 50th (+1:55.0). Scott Gow missed the top 60 in 67th (+2:21.9) with two penalties (1+1).
Canada’s Alex Harvey (3) celebrates his win in the men’s 50 k freestyle mass start, his first individual gold medal at a World Championships, on Sunday at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. He beat Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov (l) by 0.6 seconds while Norway’s Sjur Røthe (9) can be seen coming in for sixth place, behind (not pictured) Finland’s Matti Heikkinen, Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave and Norway’s Martin Johnsurd Sundby, respectively. (Photo: NBC Sports screenshot)
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Men’s 50 k freestyle mass start
After a week of missing out on the medals at 2017 Nordic World Championships, Canadaâs Alex Harvey, a four-time World Championships medalist from 2011, 2013 and 2015, achieved his first individual gold medal in the final race of this yearâs World Championships in Lahti, Finland.
Harvey, 28, won the menâs 50-kilometer freestyle mass start in a drag race to the finish. Entering the final descent into the stadium with Norwayâs Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Russiaâs Sergey Ustiugov, Harvey rode his fast skis past both of them then had the most finishing kick in the final straightaway for a 0.6-second victory. He finished in 1:46.28.9 hours, while Ustiugov followed him across the line in second and Finlandâs Matti Heikkinen from behind for third (+1.4), after passing Sundby around the outside of the last corner.
Canada’s Alex Harvey (c) celebrates gold in the men’s 50 k freestyle mass start on Sunday at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland, with Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov (l) and Finland’ Matti Heikkinen (r) joining him on the podium in second and third, respectively. (Photo: Cross Country Canada/Twitter)
Sundby appeared to miss a pole plant soon after Heikkinen passed him and let off the pace a few meters before the finish. Thatâs where Great Britainâs Andrew Musgrave continued to accelerate and took fourth place, 2.9 seconds behind Harvey and 0.1 seconds ahead of Sundby in fifth. Norwayâs Sjur Røthe followed another 0.4 seconds back in sixth, Switzerlandâs Dario Cologna was seventh (+8.9), Norwayâs Petter Northug eighth (+12.3), Franceâs Maurice Manificat ninth (+13.4), and Norwayâs Hans Christer Holund 10th (+14.3).
“I had really good skis,” Harvey said in a post-race interview with FIS. “I knew if I came into the corner in second place, that was the optimal position. So I was able to fight hard and hit that last corner in second and slingshot by Martin along the flat and then that was good after that.”
“This is the best race of my life, for sure,” he added. “So I’m really happy.”
Tad Elliott (Ski Club Vail) led the Americans in 27th (+3:16.8). Noah Hoffman (U.S. Ski Team) finished 50th (+8:53.1) and Kyle Bratrud (CXC Team) did not finish.
Canada started four men, with Devon Kershaw finishing 38th (+5:45.5), Graeme Killick 43rd (+7:04), and Knute Johnsgaard in 55th (+12:03.3).
For Harvey, the medal is his fifth at three World Championships and his first individual gold after winning the classic team sprint with Kershaw in 2011.
IBU World Cup (PyeongChang, South Korea): Men’s and women’s relays
Between the menâs and womenâs relays on Sunday at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea, Canada had two teams in the top eighth, with its menâs team finishing seventh in the 4 x 7.5 k and womenâs team eighth in the 4 x 6 k. Behind them, the U.S. men finished 10th and U.S. women 14th.
France won the menâs relay by 33.8 seconds over Austria, using a total of 10 spare rounds but avoiding the penalty lap. Martin Fourcade anchored France to the win in 1:12:09.5 hours, after Jean-Guillaume BĂŠatrix initially tagged them in first, his older brother Simon Fourcade raced them into second with near-perfect shooting (using just one spare to clean), and Simon Desthieux picked off one more place to give Fourcade a 16-second lead for the final leg.
Austria achieved second place with Lorenz Wäger, Simon Eder, Julian Eberhard, and Dominik Landertinger combining for zero penalties and nine spares.
Norway finished third (+45.4) with Vetle SjĂĽstad Christiansen, Ole Einar Bjørndalen, Vegard Gjermundshaug, and Henrik L’AbĂŠe-Lund. They had one penalty on Gjermundshaug’s third leg, and used a total of eight spares.
Canada’s Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Nathan Smith, and Brendan Green finished seventh (+3:03.1) with zero penalties and nine spares. After Christian tagged his older brother Scott in ninth, Scott raced them into sixth place before Smith slipped four places to 10th at the final exchange. On the final leg, Green raced them into seventh, requiring two spares to clean.
The Americans finished about nine seconds later in 10th (+3:12.8) with Lowell Bailey, Leif Nordgren, Paul Schommer, and Sean Doherty combining for zero penalties and nine spares, just like Canada. Bailey had originally put them in second at the first exchange, Nordgren dropped to seventh, then Schommer to 13th, before Doherty finally brought them back to 10th out of 24 teams.
In the womenâs relay, Germany pulled off a 22.8-second win over Norway, with one penalty and eight spares. Nadine Horchler put Germany in third at the first exchange, then Maren Hammerschmidt raced them into first by the raceâs halfway point. From there, Denise Herrmann, a former cross-country World Cup regular, had to ski a penalty lap and tagged off in second, 13.5 seconds out of first. With teammate Laura Dahlmeier sitting out the relay, Franziska Hildebrand anchored Germany to the win in 1:07:35.6 after she used just one spare to clean.
Norway placed second with Kaia Wøien Nicolaisen, Hilde Fenne, Tiril Eckhoff, and Marte Olsbu accumulating one penalty and 11 spares. Olsbu beat out the Czech Republicâs Gabriela KoukalovĂĄ by one-tenth of a second at the finish, as the Czechs placed for third (+22.9), with Jessica JislovĂĄ, Eva PuskarÄĂkovĂĄ, Lucie CharvĂĄtovĂĄ, and KoukalovĂĄ (with a total of one penalty and nine spares).
Canada took eighth (+1:34) with Rosanna Crawford, Julia Ransom, Megan Tandy, and Emma Lunder. Crawford tagged in second at the first exchange, Ransom slipped one place to third, Tandy lost another place to tag in fourth, and Lunder ultimately anchored them to eighth.
The U.S., with Clare Egan, Susan Dunklee, Joanne Reid, and Maddie Phaneuf, finished 14th (+3:08.3) with one penalty and 10 spares. After Egan had a penalty on the first leg, Dunklee skied the fastest second leg to move the team from 19th to 14th, then Reid put them in 11th by the final exchange. Twenty-one teams competed in the womenâs race.
Ski Classics 90 k Vasaloppet (Sälen to Mora, Sweden)
John Kristian Dahl (r) of Team United Bakeries outlunges Ski Classics sprint leader Andreas Nygaard (r) of Team Santander for the win in Sunday’s 90 k Vasaloppet in Mora, Sweden. (Photo: Visma Ski Classics)
[UPDATED] In Sunday’s 93rd annual 90-kilometer Vasaloppet from Sälen to Mora, Sweden, the ninth event of the Ski Classics series, John Kristian Dahl (Team United Bakeries) outlasted Andreas Nygaard (Team Santander) by one-tenth of a second for the win in 3:57:18.1 hours. The race came down to a five-way fight for first, with Stian Hoelgaard (Team Leaseplan) finishing 0.6 seconds back in third. The top 15 men were all within 21.7 seconds of the podium, and Brian McKeever, a member of Canadaâs Para Nordic Ski Team, placed 20th (+2:31.1).
“It has been a fight all day,â Dahl said, according to a Ski Classics press release. Three days ago, he had been unsure about starting the Vasaloppet following a back injury. “I was tired already after 30 k and had to let go of the lead group, but I fought my way back taking it step by step and hill by hill.”
In the womenâs race, Britta Johansson Norgren (Lager 157 Ski Team) broke away from the field to win by 1:37.9 minutes in 4:19.43.4.
Astrid Ăyre Slind (Team United Bakeries) finished second, and Sara Lindborg (Team Serneke) placed third, 9 minutes and 4.2 seconds behind Norgren. KateĹina SmutnĂĄ (Team Santander) dropped out of the race about halfway through.
“I am very tired but also so happy to win today,â Norgren said, according to the press release. “It felt pretty easy until Oxberg [Sweden] with 30 k to go, but then it got really tough and I had to fight all the way to the finish.â
It was Norgren’s first Vasaloppet win after placing second the last three years. She increased her lead in the overall Ski Classics to 215 points over SmutnĂĄ, while Tord Asle Gjerdalen continues to lead the menâs overall standings ahead of his Santander teammate Nygaard, who is 349 points behind in second place. Gjerdalen did not race Sunday’s Vasaloppet.
The all-Norwegian women’s 30 k freestyle mass start podium at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland, with Marit Bjørgen (c) in first, Heidi Weng (l) in second, and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross-Country/Twitter)
FIS Nordic World Championships (Lahti, Finland): Women’s 30 k freestyle mass start
Marit Bjørgen made it a four-peat on Saturday with her fourth gold and third individual win over the last week at 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (She previously won the 15-kilometer skiathlon, 10 k classic, and 4 x 5 k relay.)
The 36-year-old Norwegian closed out the championships with a 1.9-second victory in the womenâs 30-kilometer freestyle mass start, finishing in 1:08:36.8 hours after setting the pace and leading a large group for much of the race. The group began to separate around 15 k, where it was down to 13 women with five seconds of first. At that point, Americans Jessie Diggins and Chelsea Holmes were within that lead pack.
While Holmes started to fall off the pace around 16 k, Diggins stuck with the leaders to the very end, only until four Norwegians broke away to race for the medals over the final kilometer.
With Bjørgen still charging hard up front, her teammates Heidi Weng, Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, and Ragnhild Haga followed, while Finlandâs Krista Pärmäkoski trailed another second back in fifth and Diggins was one more second behind in sixth.
Bjørgen led the downhill into the stadium and skied away from her teammates before the finishing stretch, leaving Weng and Jacobsen to duke it out for second place. Weng got it by less than one-hundredth of a second, Jacobsen took bronze (+1.9), and Haga completed the Norwegian top-four sweep in fourth (+7.4).
Diggins passed Pärmäkoski and notched fifth (+10.4) for her career-best 30 k result. Pärmäkoski placed sixth (+11.3), Swedenâs Charlotte Kalla finished seventh (+13.9), Austriaâs Teresa Stadlober was eighth (+15.5), Swedenâs Anna Haag ninth (+20.3), and Russiaâs Yulia Tchekaleva 10th (+1:20.9) after edging Switzerlandâs Nathalie von Siebenthal in a photo finish. Germanyâs Stefanie BĂśhler placed 12th (+1:23.5) and Holmes finished 13th (+1:28.1) for her career best.
U.S. Ski Team member Liz Stephen placed 25th (+3:09.4), 6.6 seconds ahead of Canadaâs national U25 Team skier Cendrine Browne, who notched a career best 26th (+3:16) in her first World Championships.
Holmesâs Alaska Pacific University (APU) teammate Jessica Yeaton, who races for Australia, finished 33rd (+4:32), Canadaâs Dahria Beatty was 34th (+4:45.2), and American Caitlin Gregg 36th (+5:03.7).
Great Britainâs Annika Taylor, a California native, placed 38th (+6:19.4). Canadaâs Emily Nishikawa was 40th (+6:41.5) and Katherine Stewart-Jones 41st (+7:18.6), and Brazilâs Jaqueline MourĂŁo, who trains in Quebec, was 46th (+13:44.6) out of 47 finishers.
IBU World Cup (PyeongChang, South Korea): Women’s and men’s pursuits
The women’s 10 k pursuit podium at the IBU World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea, with Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier (c) in first, Finlandâs Kaisa Mäkäräinen (l) in second, and Franceâs Anais Bescond (r) in third. (Photo: IBU)
Coming off a fifth place in Thursdayâs 7.5-kilometer sprint, Susan Dunklee held her position despite three penalties in the womenâs 10 k pursuit on Saturday to finish fifth again at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Germanyâs Laura Dahlmeier racked up her second-straight win in as many races in PyeongChang (and sixth-straight, counting World Championships), finishing in 27:58.0 minutes with clean shooting. She was just one of four women out of 58 finishers that hit all 20 targets in Saturdayâs four-stage race.
Finishing more than a minute later, Finlandâs Kaisa Mäkäräinen placed second (+1:12.6) after starting fourth based on her sprint result. Mäkäräinen had two penalties, both in the first standing, but cleaned the other three stages (0+0+2+0). Franceâs Anais Bescond raced up from eighth at the start to third place (+1:18.9) at the finish, with a single penalty (0+0+1+0), while Norwayâs Tiril Eckhoff missed her second-straight podium in fourth place (+1:32.0) after starting second but accumulating five penalties (1+2+1+1).
Eckhoff edged Dunklee, of the U.S., by half a second as Dunklee placed fifth (+1:32.5) with three misses (1+1+0+1).
Canadaâs Rosanna Crawford rose from 30th to 19th (+2:49.1) for her best non-relay result of the season, with two penalties (1+1+0+0). Her teammate Megan Tandy also landed her first top 30 of 2016/2017 in 30th (+3:26.2) with two misses (1+0+1+0) after starting 39th. Also for Canada, Julia Ransom finished 44th (+4:18.4) after starting 41st and skiing four penalty loops (1+0+1+2).
Also for the U.S., Clare Egan finished 36th (+3:41.9) with three clean stages but three misses in her first standing (0+0+3+0), after starting 33rd. Joanne Reid slipped from 35th at the start to 52nd (+4:53.4), with five penalties (1+1+0+3).
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)
[UPDATED] One day after locking up the overall World Cup title, Martin Fourcade was back at the top of the podium in the menâs 12.5 k pursuit in PyeongChang.
Fourcade started third, after finishing third in Fridayâs sprint, then shot clean to win in 31:24.2. Russiaâs Anton Shipulin, who started 23rd, also shot 20-for-20 to race up to second place, 34.5 seconds behind Fourcade, with the fifth-fastest course time. In comparison, Fourcadeâs course time was third fastest.
Fridayâs sprint winner, Julian Eberhard of Austria finished third (+36.7) after skiing three penalty loops (0+2+0+1). His teammate Simon Eder placed fourth (+1:03.2) after starting eighth and cleaning three stages before missing two on the last standing (0+0+0+2).
Russiaâs Evgeniy Garanichev improved from ninth at the start to fifth (+1:09.5) with two penalties as well (0+1+1+0). Franceâs Simon Desthieux was sixth (+1:13.5), Austriaâs Dominik Landertinger seventh (+1:20.3), Germanyâs Benedikt Doll eighth (+1:20.4) with the fastest course time after starting 20th.
American Lowell Bailey was another 0.2 seconds back in ninth (+1:20.6), just ahead of Italyâs Lukas Hofer in 10th, who finished with the same time. Bailey previously tallied the third podium of his career on Friday, placing second in the sprint, but had two penalties on Saturday (1+0+1+0) to slip to ninth.
Also for the U.S., Leif Nordgren improved to 28th (+2:28.9) after starting 37th and shooting 19-for-20 (0+0+0+1).
Christian Gow shot clean to lead Canada in 32nd (+3:17.4), up from 56th at the start. His older brother Scott Gow slipped from 27th at the start to 43rd (+4:05.9) with five penalties (0+1+1+3), and Brendan Green followed in 44th (+4:09.8) with three penalties (2+1+0+0) after starting 28th.
Cody Johnson (OSI) racing at the U.S. team trials for 2017 IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in late December 2016 in Jericho, Vt. (Courtesy photo)
In another 20-something-question, fill-in-the-blanks series, we checked in with the world-class U.S. and Canadian biathletes that will be competing at 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships Feb. 22-28 in Osrblie (also known as Brezno-Osrblie), Slovakia.
Hereâs 19-year-old Cody Johnson, of the Outdoor Sports Institute, who will be representing the U.S. at his second Junior Worlds. On Thursday, Johnson was the top American in 50th in the junior men’s 15 k individual.
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“My full name is Cody Johnson. I was born in Connecticut, raised in Fort Kent, Maine, and one thing you should know about my hometown is I have a world cup facility 10 mins from where I live that I train at every day.
American Cody Johnson racing at 2016 IBU Youth World Championships in Romania. (Courtesy photo)
I started cross-country skiing when I was 9 and started biathlon when I was 10, thanks to Gary Colliander. I currently train in Fort Kent with OSI (Outdoor Sports Institute).
If Iâm not skiing, you might find me hunting. If I had to pick a favorite book, it would be ‘Flow‘.
One of the things Iâm most excited about for Youth/Junior World Championships in Brezno-Osrblie is racing.
This will be my second Youth/Junior World Championships, and this year, Iâm competing as a junior. One race Iâm especially targeting there is the individual.
The best advice anyone ever gave me about skiing or racing was ‘have fun’. Thanks Susan Dunklee.
One of the best race memories I have is U.S Team Trials in Alaska when I won the pursuit.
If I could meet one World Cup skier, it would be Simon Eder.
If I donât end up being a professional skier, Iâll probably be a hunting guide.
Iâm missing zero days of school to be here. I am graduated and doing a gap year program with OSI.
Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) racing to gold in the men’s 20 k individual at 2017 IBU World Championships on Feb. 16 in Hochfilzen, Germany. He finished the championships with his fourth individual top six on Sunday in the men’s 15 k mass start. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Before this yearâs International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships, American Lowell Bailey had never cleaned a 20-kilometer individual or 15-kilometer mass start race. In laymanâs terms, he had never hit all 20 targets in those types of races â the longest formats on the circuit. Not in a World Championships, not in a World Cup. Thatâs not to say shooting isnât his strength; thatâs just extremely difficult to do.
Fast forward to Sunday, the last day of 2017 Biathlon World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria, Bailey finished his third individual race of the championships with perfect shooting, shooting clean in the 15 k mass start for sixth place. In four individual races over the last week, he hit 69 out of 70 targets.
âItâs, no words, itâs unbelievable,â Bailey said after Sundayâs mass start, where he finished with what would have been a career best (sixth) in any other of his previous World Championships appearances.
In his eighth World Championships, this year was different. Bailey started the week off by racing to fourth in the sprint, the second-best result of a U.S. biathlete at World Championships. He cleaned that race. Then he finished sixth in the pursuit for his second-best result at World Championships. Thatâs the race he missed one.
Not counting Olympics (Bailey finished eighth in the 20 k at the 2014 Sochi Games), he had cracked the top 10 of an individual race at World Championships once before (in last yearâs mass start in Oslo, Norway, where he placed 10th). Bailey carried his momentum this year all the way to the Hochfilzen 20 k, which he won to become the first American gold medalist at Biathlon World Championships. That happened Thursday. Three days later, he ended the championships with his fourth top-six result in as many individual races.
âIâm so happy for the team, for Susan,â Bailey said. âOur whole team deserves this world champs. We havenât shown what weâre capable of, thereâs always been one setback or another ⌠and the stars aligned for this one. We were waiting for this moment and everything clicked for the team and itâs so great to see, and god, am I glad I stuck around to be here.â
Lowell Bailey sharing his moment on the top step of the World Championships podium with his wife Erika (r) and daughter Ophelia on Feb. 16 in Hochfilzen, Austria. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Bailey, 35, is a new dad. Some people refer to him as a buffalo farmer. He got married nearly two years ago and he and his wife Erika welcomed a baby girl into their lives last June. You could say Bailey has a lot going on, and he considered retiring at the end of last season, yet he came into this season with a very specific focus.
âI told my staff, I said, âHey, I just want to be on the podium again. It really doesnât matter to me where that is because I know every race is just as competitive, so if itâs at world champs, great, if itâs at the first World Cup, if itâs at the last World CupâŚ,â Bailey explained.
With â25-some-oddâ races in a season, he liked his odds. And considering the momentum he has coming out of world champs, Bailey is feeling good about the last nine races of the season.
âItâs just a matter of believing,â he said. âIâve got the confidence now, I know I can go head to head with the best in the world ⌠Iâm just gonna enjoy the rest of the season and every race is a new day and a new chance.â
Podium Contention
While sixth sounds pretty good, Sundayâs mass start was even more exciting for fans of Bailey and US Biathlon as he skied in first, second or third for much of the race.
Bailey put himself near the front of the 30-man field early in the mass start, entering the range in fifth for the first time. One of 18 skiers to shoot clean on that first prone stage, he headed out on his second loop in second place, just 1.1 seconds behind Russiaâs Anton Shipulin in first.
On that second loop, Austriaâs Simon Eder took the lead then traded off with his teammate Dominik Landertinger before Germanyâs Benedikt Doll led the pack into the range for the second time, followed closely by Shipulin and Bailey, respectively.
There, Bailey shot clean and posted the fastest range time to leave the range in first, 0.9 seconds ahead of Landertinger. Overall on the day, Baileyâs range and shooting times ranked third fastest.
On the third loop, Doll, Eder and Landertinger passed Bailey early, and he ultimately entered the range for the first standing stage in eighth, just 2.5 seconds behind Doll in first. Despite tired legs, Bailey shot clean again and left the range in second.
âI just kept to whatâs been working for me all week,â he recalled. âI kept to the simple fundamentals of shooting. Today I was really feeling it, I didnât have it in the legs and sometimes that can be a distraction, but I just said, you know, just do what you can do. You know how to shoot and you know how to ski, so just go and do the best you can.â
Austria’s Simon Eder (17) leads France’s Martin Fourcade (2) and Austrian teammate Dominik Landertinger (22) in the men’s 15 k mass start, the last race of IBU World Championships in Hochfilzen, Italy. Eder went on to place third for his first World Championships podium, Fourcade placed fifth and Landertinger seventh. (Photo: IBU)
He followed Eder, also clean through three stages, out of the range with about 3 seconds between the two. Franceâs Martin Fourcade had worked his way up to third after a penalty in the first stage and trailed Bailey by 0.6 seconds. Aside from Fourcade, seven of the top eight were still without a miss heading into the last shooting.
There, Bailey entered the range in eighth again, 12.1 seconds behind Fourcade, who had worked his way up to first on that fourth loop. Landertinger remained in second, just 0.5 seconds behind Fourcade, Germanyâs Simon Schempp third (+0.7), Norwayâs Johannes Thingnes Bø fourth (+1.3), and Eder fifth (+1.8).
Eder, Schempp and Bailey all cleaned â the only three men to do so and finish the day with 20-for-20 shooting â to embark on that last loop in that order. Eder led Schempp by just 2.3 seconds while Bailey trailed in third, 16.8 seconds out of first. Another 8.4 seconds behind Bailey, Bø flew out of the penalty loop (after his first miss of the day) in fourth.
And while third place was undoubtedly on Bøâs mind, he didnât stop there when he passed Bailey early on the final 3 k loop. Up front, Schempp had caught and passed Eder within the first kilometer. Eder appeared to give up the chase for gold half a kilometer later, and at 13.6 k, he was 7.5 seconds ahead of Bø in third.
Germany’s Simon Schempp celebrating his first individual World Championships gold on Sunday in the men’s 15 k mass start in Hochfilzen, Austria. (Photo: IBU)
Bø caught him and with less than a kilometer remaining, he passed Eder to lead on a downhill into the finishing straight. Schempp skied away, uncontested, for first place in 35:38.3 minutes, while Bø finished 9 seconds later for silver. Just 1.1 seconds behind Bø, Eder notched his first World Championships podium in third (+10.1).
Meanwhile, Baileyâs gap to Bø on the last lap grew to 18 seconds by 13.6 k. Shipulin passed Bailey shortly after, and Fourcade passed him as well to put Bailey in sixth at the finish (+33.5), behind Shipulin in fourth (+25.3) and Fourcade in fifth (+31.3).
âI was able to hang for four laps and I just told myself to hang as long as I could,â Bailey recalled. âUnfortunately I only had four laps and the fifth was bru-tal as they say in Germany. But Iâm so psyched with this whole world champsâŚ
âItâs surreal to be sixth,â he continued. âI mean, a fourth, a sixth, a first, and a sixth⌠Iâve popped good results here and there, but to be consistent for the whole two weeks, Iâm so satisfied with how the trainingâs gone and the preparation. I had great skis today, maybe the best skis Iâve had actually, thank god because I didnât feel so good. I was pretty tired. Itâs amazing, itâs really just amazing. Itâs hard putting it into words.â
For the 28-year-old Schempp, who wore the red bib of the World Cup mass-start discipline leader, it was his first individual world title in his sixth World Championships.
âHe is wearing the red bib, and you could see he deserves that,â Germanyâs head coach Mark Kirchner told German broadcaster ARD. âHe has waited a long time for his individual medal, and now he also [silenced] the last critics who talked all week about how he hasnât won one yet, and even with gold. Sensational.â
âI am just happy that it was finally sufficient,â Schempp told ARD. âIncredible, an amazing race. I am just happy that it finally was enough for the top. Thanks to everyone, I can’t really say anything right now.â
He explained that he made a point to save some energy for the last climb, because he was âdetermined to attack there,â Schempp said. âAnd that was enough. A great day.â
âOf course itâs a big relief,â he added. âAfter all the races here I had to walk through the mixed zone and justify myself, that was not a nice feeling. And everyone asked me about the medal. Itâs not easy, but today I finally was able to put it all together for a season highlight, and that’s why I am also enormously proud of myself.â
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) celebrating second place in the women’s 12.5 k mass start on the final day of 2017 IBU World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria. It was her first World Championships medal. (Photo: US Biathlon/Twitter)
IBU World Championships (Hochfilzen, Austria): Women’s & men’s mass starts
Silver medal for Susan Dunklee. Thatâs the big news coming out of Hochfilzen, Austria, on the final day of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships after the American finished second, just 4.6 seconds out of first, in the womenâs 12.5-kilometer mass start.
Dunklee started in bib 17 in the mass start and cleaned all 20 targets to put herself in the hunt for gold. She finished just behind Germanyâs Laura Dahlmeier who took the win in 33:13.8 minutes, also with perfect shooting. Just three out of 30 women cleaned, with the other being Italy’s Alexia Runggaldier in ninth.
“I think my mistake a lot this season has been wanting the results too much,” Dunklee told FasterSkier after. “[I’ve been] slowly been coming to terms these last couple weeks, trying to focus more on the process and not worrying too much if the medal comes or not so that was a big trick today.”
Finlandâs Kaisa Mäkäräinen reached the podium with a since miss in the first prone stage in third (+20.1). The U.S. had two women in the mass start, with Clare Egan finishing 24th (+3:04.1) with four penalties (1+0+1+2).
Lowell Bailey (US Biathlon) taking aim during the second prone stage of the men’s 15 k mass start on the last day of IBU World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria. He cleaned all four stages to fight for the medals until the final loop, and ultimately finished sixth. (Photo: ARD broadcast screenshot)
[UPDATED] In the menâs 15 k mass start that followed, Lowell Bailey was in contention for a medal until the very end, after being one of three athletes to clean the four-stage race.
Bailey left the range for the last time in third, 16.8 seconds behind Austriaâs Simon Eder in first and 14.5 seconds behind Germanyâs Simon Schempp in second (both Eder and Schempp also cleaned every stage). Behind Bailey, Johannes Thingnes Bø had recovered quickly from a penalty on the last stage, and left the range in fourth, 8.4 seconds behind Bailey.
Early on the final loop, Bø caught Bailey to fight for a medal. Bø didnât stop there, catching up to Eder as well after Schempp dropped the Austrian around 13.6 k. With about a kilometer remaining, Bø passed Eder and stayed ahead of him for silver, crossing 9 seconds after Schempp in first and 1.1 seconds ahead of Eder — who notched his first World Championships medal — in third.
Schempp hit all of his targets for his first individual World Championships gold in the final race of the championships, finishing in 35:38.3. Bø and Eder shared the podium with him, and Russiaâs Anton Shipulin and Franceâs Martin Fourcade passed Bailey on the last loop for fifth (+25.3) and sixth (+31.3), respectively. Bailey finished sixth (+33.5) for his fourth top six (in as many individual races) at the championships, after notching a gold medal in the 20 k, fourth place in the sprint and sixth in the pursuit.
“I just told myself to hang as long as I could,” Bailey told FasterSkier after. “Unfortunately I only had four laps and the fifth was bru-tal as they say in Germany. But Iâm so psyched with this whole world champs. I never cleaned a mass start and I never cleaned an individual and I just did both at world champs.
“Iâm so happy for the team, for Susan,” he added. “Our whole team deserves this world champs. We havenât shown what weâre capable of, thereâs always been one setback or another … and the stars aligned for this one. We were waiting for this moment and everything clicked for the team and itâs so great to see, and god am I glad I stuck around to be here.”
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Otepää, Estonia): 10/15 k classic
The women’s 10 k classic podium at the Otepaa World Cup on Sunday in Estonia, with Norwegian winner Marit Bjørgen (c), Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla (l) in second and Norway’s Heidi Weng (r) in third. (Photo: Gro Eide/FIS Cross Country Twitter)
Remember the days when Marit Bjørgen used to win by 30 seconds or more? Well, the Norwegian multiple-time world champion was nearly there again, racing to first in the womenâs 10-kilometer classic individual start with a margin of 26.5 seconds to second on Sunday.
Bjørgen started in the middle of the pack, in bib 38, and bested the time of her teammate Heidi Weng by 57.2 seconds on the two-lap World Cup course in Otepää, Estonia.
That bumped Weng to second, and another Norwegian Ingvild Flugstad Ăstberg to third (+1:17.4), until Swedenâs late-starting Charlotte Kalla in bib 60 broke up the Norwegian sweep in second. Kalla finished 26.5 seconds shy of Bjørgen, but 30 seconds faster than Weng for the second spot on the podium. Weng ended up third for the second-straight day and Ăstberg fourth.
Also in the top 10, Polandâs Justyna Kowalczyk placed fifth (+1:19.7), Finlandâs Krista Parmakoski was sixth (+1:23.1), Russiaâs Anastasia Sedov seventh (+1:29.6), Swedenâs Anna Haag eighth (+1:50.7), Russiaâs Yulia Tchekaleva ninth (+1:57.2), and Norway’s Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen 10th (+1:57.8).
American Sadie Bjornsen finished in the top 20 in 19th (+2:30.5). Also in the points for the U.S., Rosie Brennan placed 24th (+2:37.8) and Liz Stephen 29th (+2:53.8). Kikkan Randall was about 10 seconds outside the top 30 in 34th (+3:04.7), Ida Sargent finished 42nd (+3:46.1), and Chelsea Holmes 50th (+4:47.5).
Emily Nishikawa led the Canadian women in 40th (+3:39), Dahria Beatty was 45th (+4:11.9), Cendrine Browne 54th (+5:09.2), and Katherine Stewart-Jones 57th (+5:37.1).
The men’s 15 k classic podium at the Otepaa World Cup on Sunday in Estonia, with Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby (c) in first, Finland’s Iivo Niskanen (l) in second, and Norway’s Hans Christer Holund (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
[UPDATED]Â Norwayâs Martin Johnsrud Sundby dominated the menâs 15 k classic from start to finish on Sunday, starting near the back of the nearly 80-man field and clocking the fastest splits throughout the three-lap race.
He topped the previous best time set by Finlandâs Iivo Niskanen by 37.1 seconds with a winning time of 40:38.2. Conditions werenât easy on the rainy afternoon in Otepää, with tracks appearing shallow at best and visibly washed out in places.
Norway had two on the podium with Hans Christer Holund in third (+49.1). Niklas Dyrhaug was 6.2 seconds short of the podium in fourth, Finlandâs Matti Heikkinen placed fifth (+58.1), Kazakhstanâs Alexey Poltoranin sixth (+1:01.3), Russiaâs Alexander Bessmertnykh seventh (+1:02.5), Norwayâs Sjur Røthe eighth (+1:03.5), Norwayâs Didrik Tønseth ninth (+1:14.5), and Franceâs Maurice Manificat 10th (+1:21.3).
Canadaâs Alex Harvey led the North Americans in 19th (+1:50). Graeme Killick finished 47th (+3:44.6), Devon Kershaw 49th (+3:51.3), Knute Johnsgaard 58th (+4:50.4), and Jess Cockney 72nd (+7:15).
Erik Bjornsen was the top American in 36th (+3:12.1) and Ben Lustgarten finished 66th (+5:34.1).
The men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay podium at 2017 IBU World Championships on Saturday in Hochfilzen, Austria, with Russia (c) in first, France (l) in second, and Austria (r) in third. (Photo: IBU World Champs/Twitter)
HOCHFILZEN, AustriaâRedemption, validation, national pride: just a few of the things that were on the line in todayâs 4 x 7.5 k relay at IBU World Championships.
For Austria, it was clear: a good performance on home soil was critical. The team hadnât won a medal yet despite eight chances to do so.
For Germany, the question was whether their accomplished menâs team could live up to the expectations set by its younger womenâs team, which has won every relay this year, including at World Championships.
For Norway, there had been no gold so far, but the men wanted to defend their title from last year’s Championships in Oslo.
Russia? Relays were seeming like the best way to take medals. They had earned bronze in the mixed relay, but been locked out ever since. Plus, the team has been embroiled in politics. Things were getting complicated.
Franceâs Martin Fourcade has dominated the whole season, but only won one gold at World Championships. Would the relay be the place he could finally get a second?
Plus, Canada won bronze in the team event last year, and the U.S. menâs team, often a top-six threat, was looking to capitalize on the energy from Lowell Baileyâs gold in the 20 k individual.
Any number of teams wanted a slice of the podium. But there were only three steps, and only one set of gold medals.
Out of the start, a team that nobody had expected shot to the front: Latvia. Andrejs Rastorgujevs, always one of the fastest skiers in the field, decided to make a breakaway already on the first loop. He then quickly cleaned prone and continued to lead on his own through the second loop.
Using spares in standing, though, the strategy didnât seem to pay off. Germany staked a claim as soon as he faltered, with veteran Erik Lesser cleaning both shooting stages with no spare rounds and then attacking the final loop. He tagged off to Benedikt Doll with 5.8 seconds on the competition.
âErik is such a great finisher,â U.S. lead skier Lowell Bailey â who tagged off 12.4 seconds back in fourth place, after using one spare round â said of Lesser. âIn that situation he is nearly unstoppable. Hats off to him. He knows how to ski relays.â
While Lesser had thrown down, many teams werenât so far behind him. By the end of the third leg, Benedikt Doll had thrown away Germanyâs lead with poor shooting and six teams were still within 32 seconds of first place. Gone were the U.S., Canada, and Norway. Anton Babikov had turned in a heroâs performance to take Russia to the front, and his team was now chased by Austria, France, Germany, Ukraine, and Italy.
Anton Shipulin had taken over for Russia with a slight lead over Austria and France. Martin Fourcade, the French anchor, chased hard, and passed Austriaâs Dominik Landertinger. With a clean prone from both Fourcade and Shipulin, the race narrowed. But Shipulin still had some seconds of cushion when he came in for standing.
He needed them: Shipulin used one spare. Fourcade shot quickly, cleaned, and tried to catch the Russian. He left the range 4.2 seconds back, setting up a battle between two of the top men on the World Cup.
âToday the last round for me was the most difficult, because I knew that Martin Fourcade is a very strong athlete,â Shipulin said through a translator at the press conference. âI was just trying to run faster than him.â
It turned into the battle that wasnât, however, with Shipulin pulling away and coasting to a 5.8-second win for Russia.
âI think it was too complicated for me today,â Fourcade said. âI am not in my best shape. Anton was really strong on the track. I tried in the beginning of the race to catch him, and I almost did it. But then he had a bit more power than I had.â
While the Russian fans werenât the most numerous in the stands, they were among the most passionate. And the team had delivered for them.
âI feel relieved for our team and our country,â Shipulin said. âI think it has been almost ten years we have not won any [World Championships] in the relay. So we are just really lucky and really happy, and we are going to celebrate.â
(Russia did win gold at the 2014 Olympics.)
Behind Fourcade and Shipulin, Landertinger of Austria and Simon Schempp of Germany were both trying desperately to secure a podium spot, but there was only room for one.
Schempp initially appeared to have better skis on the downhills on the front end of the loop. But on the major climb on the back end, Landertinger accelerated and Schempp was utterly unable to follow. To the monstrous roar of the crowd, Landertinger skied into the stadium to take bronze with his three teammates.
âIt was very, very hard,â Landertinger told Austrian broadcaster ORF. âSimon is one of the best anchor skiers I know. When I skied out of the range after the shooting and saw him just four or five meters behind me, I knew it would be very difficult. I probably looked at that climb a hundred times in training, and it was pretty clear I would do my attack there. And thank God that worked out great.”
Schempp was deflated, but said that Germany needed to have an overall better team performance to secure a podium. Eight spares wouldnât to it.
âIt wasnât enough for the podium today,â he told German broadcaster ARD. âI gave everything I had, everything that was left. Unfortunately we were not convincing on the shooting range today.â
Doll apologized too: four of the eight spare rounds came from him, including three in the standing stage, which had dropped the team to seventh at the time.
âEveryone did their best, I also tried to do my best,â he said. âBut I just didnât have it in my head today. I am really sorry about that, it really hurts because half the used spares were on me. I might have to give out a bar round tonight. I have to take a large part of the blame on me.â
For the Austrian team, the medal was long-awaited and cause for celebration.
Leadoff skier Daniel Mesotitsch was also the leadoff guy when Austria took bronze on this same course back at 2005 World Championships.
âIt feels just as great as back then,â the 40-year-old told ORF. âThere is no better feeling than winning a medal at home with the team. We are all overwhelmed by our emotions. I was briefly feeling sick to my stomach even watching [the last loop]. I was a lot more nervous than during my own loop.â
But now, a medal is theirs.
âItâs beautiful,â Landertinger said. âReally, really beautiful. And I have to say, what I experienced today with those fans, I already got goosebumps coming into the arena today. And I am proud that I can race here. And now with this medal I achieved the goal I had, and I am brutally happy now.â
U.S. Team Seventh, Just Out of Top-Six Goal
Bailey delivered as the U.S. teamâs leadoff racer, using just one spare round and staying near the front for the whole race. After the team could not contest the first few relays of the season, they lost valuable Nations Cup and relay points and started with a high bib number. Bailey had to make up the time on the range, rather than the trails.
âThere was no where to go –it’s actually fairly narrow for a World Championships Course,â Bailey said. âThere wasn’t a lot of room to work. With the high bib number you actually hit the [shooting] point [on the range] before a lot of other people, so I really was just focusing on getting my first shot off quick. I did, but I missed it unfortunately. The key is just in that first prone is keeping enough contact, so I really pushed the pace in shooting and pushed that extra round so I could maintain contact.â
While he was confident coming off his gold medal on Thursday, Bailey was also tired. He wasnât sure how he was going to feel, or if he would be able to make up time on the trails once the pack thinned out enough for him to move.
âI was a little nervous about today, because the last 48 hours have been a little bit wild and I slept two hours the night after the individual,â he admitted. âI didn’t go to bed late. I just lay there and Erika and I were both wide awake, occasionally like, âAre you sleep?â âNo, are you sleep?â âNo, shit.â You have to put your feet back on the ground, back in the ski boots.â
By the time he tagged off to Leif Nordgren, the U.S. was in fourth place, more or less where they wanted to be.
Then, Nordgren cleaned prone and moved into second place, 0.4 seconds behind Germanyâs Doll. Really right where they wanted to be.
âI kind of took my time a little bit in prone,â Nordgren said. âI wanted to make sure I hit all five targets not using any extras, so that went really well.â
The pair were soon consumed by a chase back, but that didnât bother Nordgren.
âI left the range right with Doll there for the lead, and then he didn’t push super hard the second loop so it was no problem staying with him. But of course it allowed some guys from behind to catch up, which, no big deal.â
In standing, Nordgren used one spare, dropping to fifth, and then stayed in sixth place on the trails. Despite losing places, he was still just 17.7 seconds out of the lead.
âI think I paced the race really well,â said Nordgren. âI was right there. I couldn’t quite close the gap, but you know, I think I kept us right in there, so yeah, I am happy.â
Tim Burke used one spare in prone and three in standing, and blamed his spare rounds partly on exhaustion.
âI feel so bad on the skis, itâs such a fight from the first kilometer,â he said. âBy the time I got to standing my legs were cramping, and I — yeah. Itâs so much easier when youâre feeling good, you can push and recover and get in the flow. When youâre just fighting the whole loop to try keep your head above water, and then you hit the mat to shoot, itâs just brutally hard.â
Despite a performance that left him frustrated, the U.S. was still in seventh place when Sean Doherty took over to race the anchor leg. He used two spares in prone and then cleaned standing, heading out on course in seventh place and on the hunt: Ukraine was just 3.2 seconds ahead.
The top six was not meant to be, though.
âI just didn’t have it in the legs today and thatâs pretty frustrating,â Doherty said after crossing the line seventh, +1:50.5. âYou know, to be so close to sixth there and not have the gear on the last lap to push it through. I gave it all I had and just didn’t have enough.â
With a total to eight spare rounds â not bad, but more than Russiaâs three or Franceâs four â the team was missing the last little bit that would have gotten them to where they wanted to be.
âI would say we were hunting for the top six, and you know, Leif and Lowell got us off to such a great start,â Doherty said. âUnfortunately, I wasn’t able to really follow up on that. I think we all had it in us, just couldn’t quite get that critical mass.â
Canada 13th in Hunt for Medal Defense
Last year, the menâs relay was the best moment in several Canadian team membersâ sporting careers. They won an unexpected bronze medal and were the sensation of World Championships.
This season, Nathan Smith has been out with a virus. That gave Macx Davies a chance to start. But overall, the team couldnât match their form from the year before. With ten spares overall, they crossed the line 13th, +3:35.5.
âI was just hoping to have a good race for myself,â said Davies, for whom it was the first World Championships relay start. âIt is hard to put any [results goals] on relays because it is a team event, and I am not the other three guys… It hasn’t been bad, it just has been a little too slow, especially a few too many spares for us. We need to miss less than the other nations if we ski, or if I ski, like I did today.â
âI could have definitely done better than I did today,â said leadoff racer Christian Gow, who had three spares. âToo many mistakes on the range, but I am at least happy with my skiing… I think it was a pretty good ski day. I think it is the closest I have been with that many spares. The skiing was pretty decent, but I dropped the ball in the range.â
-Gerry Furseth, Harald Zimmer, and Ian Tovell contributed
The men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay podium at 2017 IBU World Championships on Saturday in Hochfilzen, Austria, with Russia (c) in first, France (l) in second, and Austria (r) in third. (Photo: IBU World Champs/Twitter)
IBU World Championships (Hochfilzen, Austria): Men’s relay
[UPDATED] Russia’s four-man relay team hit nearly every target on Saturday, using a total of just three spares to clean 40 targets, and stayed out of the penalty loop to capture gold in the menâs 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria.
It was the last team event and the second-to-last day of the championships, with the men’s and women’s elite mass starts remaining on Sunday. Anton Shipulin anchored the Russians to first, 5.8 seconds ahead of Franceâs Martin Fourcade, after Shipulin cleaned his prone stage and used one spare in standing to hold onto the lead his team built. Fourcade cleaned both stages to secure silver for his team, and Austria took bronze (+20.1) with anchor Dominik Landertinger.
After Russiaâs Alexey Volkov used one spare in each of his shooting stages and came through the exchange in seventh, Maxim Tsvetkov and Anton Babikov both cleaned without any spares to bring the team into fourth, then first, respectively.
Franceâs first leg Jean-Guillaume BĂŠatrix shot clean as well and tagged Quentin Fillon Maillet in second. Fillon Maillet then needed one spare in prone, but cleaned standing to take the lead, tagging Simon Desthieux in first. Desthieux used three spares in prone, but avoided the penalty lap before tagging Fourcade in third, 12 seconds behind Austria in second. Fourcade closed the gap and clinched second, and France combined for a total of just four spare rounds.
Austria achieved bronze in front of a home crowd with Daniel Mesotitsch, Julian Eberhard, Simon Eder, and Landertinger combining for 10 spares and no penalties.
Finishing 8.5 seconds after Austria, Germany placed fourth. Italy was a minute and a half out of first in fifth, Ukraine took sixth (+1:41.3), and the U.S. placed seventh (+1:50.5) with Lowell Bailey, Leif Nordgren, Tim Burke, and Sean Doherty. Bailey initially put the team in fourth at the first exchange, 12.4 seconds out of first, then Nordgren tagged Burke in sixth, 17 seconds behind. Burke used four spares to clean and tagged Doherty in seventh, about a minute back. The Americans used a total of eight spares but had no penalties.
Canada finished 13th (+3:35.5) with Christian Gow, Scott Gow, Macx Davies, and Brendan Green. They were 39 seconds out of first and in 12th place after Christian Gowâs first leg, then slipped to 14th before Davies moved them back into 12th by the last exchange. Canada had a total of 10 spares and zero penalties.
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Otepää, Estonia): Freestyle sprint
In the last World Cup before the upcoming 2017 International Ski Federation (FIS) Nordic Ski World Championships next week in Lahti, Finland, five U.S. women qualified in the top 12 of the women’s 1.3-kilometer freestyle sprint, and Jessie Diggins reached the final on Saturday in Otepää, Estonia.
Diggins started the day by placing 12th in the qualifier, 3.93 seconds behind Sweden’s Stina Nilsson in first (and her U.S. teammates Kikkan Randall in third, Sophie Caldwell in fourth, and Ida Sargent in 10th) before winning her quarterfinal and semifinal. In the final, Diggins wad gapped by the leaders on the final climb and finished fifth (+6.82).
The women’s freestyle sprint podium at the Otepaa World Cup on Saturday in Estonia, with Swedish winner Stina Nilsson (c), Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (l) in second and Heidi Weng (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
Nilsson won the final in a time of 2:49.96 minutes, just ahead of Norwayâs Maiken Caspersen Falla (+0.27) who lost her balance and her speed with it on the last corner. The two had broken away from third place and Nilsson led into the final straightaway and held Falla off for the win. Norway took second through fourth with Heidi Weng in third place (+3.75) and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen in fourth (+4.91).
Randall initially finished her quarterfinal in third position and would have been out, but advanced when Russiaâs Natalia Matveeva was relegated to last for obstruction. In the same semifinal as Diggins, Randall fell cresting a small hill over a tunnel and finished fifth (+13.30) for ninth overall on the day.
Caldwellplaced second in her quarterfinal heat behind the dayâs winner Nilsson, then stumbled halfway up a climb early in her semifinal, but stuck with the pack to finish fifth (+1.83) for 10th overall.
Sargent raced in the same quarterfinal as Falla and narrowly missed advancing to the semifinal in third place, fewer than 0.2 seconds behind Switzerlandâs Laurien van der Graaff in second and 0.35 seconds behind Falla, who won that heat. Sargent placed 13th on the day.
Sadie Bjornsen qualified 25th and finished fourth (+2.82) in the same quarterfinal as Randall for the 25th overall.
Canadaâs Dahria Beatty also qualified for the sprint heats in 30th place, and finished sixth in her quarterfinal for 29th overall.
Also for Canada, Cendrine Browne finished the qualification in 48th place and Katherine Stewart-Jones was one position behind in 49th.
Also for the U.S., distance specialists Chelsea Holmes and Rosie Brennan placed 58th and 60th, respectively.
The men’s freestyle sprint podium on Saturday at the World Cup in Otepaa, Estonia, with Norway’s Johannes Høsflot KlĂŚbo (c) taking his first World Cup win, Norway’s Finn HĂĽgen Krogh (l) in second, and Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
In the menâs 1.6-kilometer sprint, Norwayâs Johannes Høsflot KlĂŚbo achieved the first World Cup victory of his career in a time of 3:06.53 minutes, holding onto a lead he had created with an attack right out of the start gate in the final. His teammate Finn HĂĽgen Krogh placed second (+0.60), taking the inside lane in the last turn to push reigning Tour de Ski winner Sergey Ustiugov of Russia to third (+1.0).
For the North Americans, it was a day of narrow misses.
For the U.S., Simi Hamilton started his race day by qualifying in seventh position, and placed second in his quarterfinal. He then closely missed out on the final after placing fourth in his semifinal in a four-way sprint photo finish (+0.33), just 0.04 seconds behind the third place and lucky loser time of Norwayâs HĂĽvard SolĂĽs Taugbøl, who advanced. Hamilton ended the day in  eighth overall.
Canadian World Cup Team member Alex Harvey snuck into the sprint heats in 29th place in the qualifier, then just missed out on advancing from his quarterfinal in a photo finish for second with Great Britain’s Andrew Young, who took it by 0.04 seconds. Harvey finished third in that heat, 0.6 behind Italy’s Federico Pellegrino, for 15th for the day. Young went on to finish sixth in his semifinal for 12th overall, and Pellegrino advanced as a lucky loser from the same semifinal and was fourth in the final (+4.77).
American Andy Newell qualified 16th and finished sixth (+1.89) in his quarterfinal for 27th overall.
Canadaâs Len Valjas missed qualifying for the heats in 40th place, as did his teammate Devon Kershaw in 50th.
American Erik Bjornsen was 53rd, and for Canada, Jesse Cockney 54th and Knute Johnsgaard 56th. In his World Cup debut, Benjamin Lustgarten placed 64th in the qualifier.
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