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  • With ‘Biathlon Family’ Behind Her, Crawford Third in Ruhpolding 15 k

    With ‘Biathlon Family’ Behind Her, Crawford Third in Ruhpolding 15 k

    Rosanna Crawford celebrates with her Biathlon Canada teammates Emma Lunder (l) and Julia Ransom (r) after placing third for her first-career IBU World Cup podium on Thursday in the women’s 15 k individual in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)

    For a while it looked as if the podium in the women’s 15-kilometer individual at the Thursday’s IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany, had been all but decided with only a few more athletes circling the course. But then the favorites who had already finished had someone to worry about.

    Along with some 13,000 spectators in the stands, they paid close attention to the video walls in the arena, as one late-starting Canadian — Rosanna Crawford — had just set the best split time after the third shooting by hitting every target for the third time in a row. She was even 1.8 seconds ahead of race leader Dorothea Wierer of Italy.

    “I actually didn’t know I was fighting for a podium until the fourth loop,” Crawford told FasterSkier on the phone after the race. That’s where Czech wax technician, Tom Zidek, a former Biathlon Canada wax tech, told her she was is in first place.

    Canada’s Rosanna Crawford (standing) celebrates her first IBU World Cup podium on Thursday after placing third in the women’s 15 k individual in Ruhpolding, Germany, while Sweden’s Emma Nilsson (who placed 36th) unclips. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)

    “I was like, Oh God!” she recalled with a laugh. “But I think that kind of helped as well because then I knew to expect the crowd for the last standing.”

    Could this be Crawford’s big day? Coming into the range for the final standing shooting, the 29-yaer-old Canmore native knew she likely would get a season-best result if she did not totally implode, but needed to shoot clean again to stay in podium contention and not get hit with the individual race’s merciless one-minute penalty per miss.

    “I made sure just to set up properly, and then I took an extra breath before my last shot and was pretty pumped to see it turn to white,” Crawford recalled of her last shooting stage. “I am a person who really likes cue words and I have a few sentences that I repeat over in my head. … I knew the only way I was going to hit the targets is if I only thought about the present moment.”

    After she had cleaned all five targets for the fourth time, bringing her shooting percentage to a perfect 20-for-20 (the first time she had ever done so in a race), Crawford skated off the shooting mat with a smile on her face. She left the range now 7.8 seconds behind Wierer’s time (after the Italian had also hit all 20 targets), but was still more than 20 seconds ahead of Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen (who had incurred one penalty in her first prone shooting but shot clean after that) and Ukraine’s also clean-shooting Yuliia Dhzima.

    “Being one of the last competitors with bib 96 I had a lot of time to wait,” Crawford said at the IBU’s post-race press conference. “I knew all the eyes were on me probably for my last two shootings. That is something I have never experienced before, going from the third loop onwards where everyone was cheering for me around the loop. … It’s a feeling I have never had before to hit all 20, so I was really excited to ski out of the range.”

    With her team staff, including head coach Matthias Ahrens running next to the track cheering her on, Crawford chased around the loop up the steep “Wall of Ruhpolding” climb. Overall she skied the 26th-fastest course time of the day, and on the final loop in softening conditions, her loop time ranked 48th. But she still hung onto the podium.

    “The course had broken down a little bit, with a hundred-and-something starters, so by the time I went around I was really searching for the best line, which I think paid off as well,” Crawford said.

    The women’s 15 k individual podium at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany, on Thursday, with Italy’s Dorothea Wierer (c) in first, Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen (l) in second, and Canada’s Rosanna Crawford (r) in third. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)

    Coming out of the downhill and onto the finishing stretch with the thousands of spectators cheering her on, Crawford fought the clock. She was out of reach of Wierer, but still within striking distance of Mäkäräinen in second. At the finish, Crawford was third, 21.2 seconds behind Wierer and 8.5 seconds behind Mäkäräinen in second place (+12.7). The Canadian was comfortably ahead of Dhzima in fourth (+45.9), while another clean-shooting Ukrainian, Valj Semerenko, placed fifth (+52.6).

    “I am so excited today, it was really special, my first time hitting 20-for-20 as well,” Crawford said at the press conference. “I really love Ruhpolding! It was my first World Juniors, my first World Cup, and my first podium, so it’s a very special place for me.”

    As Crawford skied into the finish she looked up to the nearest video monitor to check if she indeed had managed to hold her position on the podium for the first time. But she didn’t have to wait long for confirmation as her teammates and coaches already rushed out into the finish to hug and congratulate her.

    “Julia [Ransom], Emma [Lunder] and Sarah [Beaudry], they kind of pushed past the IBU guys, which I don’t think they were allowed to do, but Canada’s not on the podium every day so they let them sneak by to give me a hug so that was really special,” Crawford told FasterSkier. “I’ve been with these girls the past couple years now and so to be able to celebrate with them is amazing. Their results have been so inspiring for me … [My coach Roddy Ward] also jumped the fence, which I don’t think was allowed, so that was nice to be able to see him as well.

    Biathlon Canada celebrates Rosanna Crawford’s podium on Thursday in the IBU World Cup 15 k individual in Ruhpolding, Germany, with (from left to right) coach Roddy Ward, Crawford, Emma Lunder, Julia Ransom, and Sarah Beaudry. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)

    “It’s just such a team effort to get to the podium,” she continued. “I’m the one out there skiing and shooting, but I couldn’t have done it without the amazing skis on my feet or my coaches behind the scope, so Matthias and Roddy were really important there, and I couldn’t have done it without the girls who I train with all summer. I’m just so grateful for this team that I’m on.”

    “So proud!!!” her longtime boyfriend and teammate Brendan Green wrote on Instagram with a screenshot of Crawford finishing.

    “Brendan is amazing,” Crawford said. “I’m sure he was pretty nervous. He was the first text messages and tweets and Instagrams that I had on my phone. Right now I’m having dinner with him and then we’ll go to the awards ceremony tonight. It’s really special.”

    “It’s incredible for me, not something that I was really expecting this season,” she told German broadcaster ZDF in an interview immediately after the race. “I didn’t have the best summer of training so to be on the podium is really special for me.”

    That was an understatement. Last spring, Crawford and her family dealt with a severe personal tragedy with the loss of her brother Jordan.

    “It was such a hard summer for me, losing my brother in April,” she told FasterSkier. “I really wish he was here today so I could celebrate with him, too. I miss him a lot. Jordan was a huge cheerleader for me. He always believed in me. Whenever I was home, he was always cooking me food and helping me take care of the dogs, and he was always so concerned that he was causing me stress. … Jordan loved the outdoors so whenever I was out in a valley or skiing or mountain biking, he was always in my thoughts, and wishing I could share these things with him. It was really hard on the whole family, but it brought us closer together as well in some ways, to support each other.”

    Asked if she had caught up with her family members yet, including her sister Chandra Crawford, a 2006 Olympic gold medalist in cross-country skiing, she said she had spoken to all of them.

    “Training was always a little bit on the back burner for the first couple months while we were all grieving and then once finally the motivation came around again to start training, it felt right and proper,” she said of her offseason and transition to another race season. “But then again, the results just were not paying off through the first trimester [of the World Cup] and I didn’t know what I was doing wrong and I was really starting to lose hope.”

    Crawford’s previous best non-relay result this season was 39th in the 10 k pursuit in Hochfilzen, Austria. And her last time in the top 10 outside a relay race was back in December 2014, where she placed fourth in a sprint and seventh in a pursuit in Pokljuka, Slovenia.

    Coincidentally, Germany’s ZDF network featured the Canadian women’s team in a preview to the individual race, filming them and coach Ahrens while they attended a one-hour cooking class in Ruhpolding. But they certainly had not intended it as a segment on a likely podium finisher for the very next race.

    “Yes, of course the Bavarian food fueled me around the course,” Crawford said with a laugh when ZDF asked about that.

    “Just thank you so much to the fans. There is no way I would have been able to ski around that last loop without them,” she added.

    “This really describes the biathlon family,” Crawford later explained in the press conference. “That it doesn’t matter which country you are from, people will be cheering for you. And not only the fans but also the techs. Jarko, Kaisa’s head wax tech, who used to wax for Canada, he was giving me splits off of Kaisa telling me, ‘You are ahead of Kaisa, go get her!’ So they might have to have a serious conversation tonight! It was really incredible.”

    Rosanna Crawford (Biathlon Canada) finishing third in the IBU World Cup women’s 15 k individual in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)

    In her interview with FasterSkier, Crawford also spoke of a Ukrainian coach who cheered her on for the final loop. “I think this really describes what the biathlon family actually is,” she said. “It’s not the IBU. It’s the coaches and the athletes and the wax techs and the fans, that is actually the biathlon family.”

    Despite all the support she had felt throughout the year, Crawford had a season she was not satisfied with so far, with two 39th places as her best results (excluding relays). Going into this race, she ranked 79th in the overall World Cup standings. Last weekend, instead of starting at the World Cup in Oberhof, Germany, she raced two sprints on the IBU Cup in Brezno-Osrblie, Slovakia, where she placed 15th and 22nd. More so than a demotion, that was a move Biathlon Canada made to give other women on the team a chance to qualify for the upcoming Olympics.

    “This season has definitively not started out very good for me, and then getting sent to the IBU Cup was really frustrating,” Crawford said on the phone. “But I did really like the course in Osrblie, and it was the best skiing I’d felt all year so I really tried to carry that momentum into today’s race. … I think staying in Europe over Christmas was incredibly beneficial for us.”

    Crawford’s previous career bests in non-relay races have come in sprints, with her fourth place in Pokljuka and a fifth place in Hochfilzen, both during the 2014/2015 season. She’s been on the podium before, placing second with teammate Nathan Smith in the single mixed relay in Östersund, Sweden, to open the 2015/2016 season.

    “There’s just so many lessons you learn over the years, and trying to bring it all together and to have it pay off on one day is exactly what we’re all hunting for out there,” Crawford concluded.

    Fourth Career Victory for Wierer

    Italy’s Wierer, who frequently performs very well in this competition format and also won the individual in Ruhpolding in 2016 (Crawford placed 18th back then as the best North American) set the best time on Thursday, crossing the line after 41:29.0 minutes.

    “I am really happy about this,” Wierer said at the press conference. “I knew that it’s all about the shooting. In the last individual competition I shot really bad, but the last weeks I feel really confident about my shooting. I think the track was really good, and hard conditions are much better for my skiing. The shooting range wasn’t difficult today, there was nearly no wind.”

    Asked about having to wait if her time would ultimately be good enough for first place, she added with a laugh: “I was looking [at] Rosanna, and I was afraid of her. But finally I saw that she was some seconds behind me. I wasn’t sure because on the last round I lost a lot, I was really tired, but at the end she didn’t get me!”

    On her 35th birthday, Mäkäräinen finished second (+12.7). She was the only finisher in the top five with a penalty, incurred during her first prone shooting.

    “It’s a good present,” she said at the press conference when asked about her second place. “I have actually managed to do many good races on my birthday, so this is nice. … 19 out of 20 is really good for me, probably my best shooting this winter, so I am really happy about that and not thinking too much about that one penalty.”

    “It’s an amazing place,” she added when asked about her tendency to do well in Ruhpolding. “I like it a lot here because the crowd is really close to us, and there were a lot of people from Finland here, also my parents and their friends. So it was a nice atmosphere today.”

    She added that she did not intend to extensively celebrate her birthday with her family.

    “I will celebrate by having a massage and good dinner,” Mäkäräinen said. “Just basic things, the athlete’s life goes on, we have more races to come.”

    Dunklee 27th, Ransom 34th

    For US Biathlon, Susan Dunklee finished 27th with three penalties (1+1+1+0), staying ahead of a number of competitors who performed better on the range thanks to her 14th-ranked ski time.

    “Certainly the highlight for me today was watching Rosanna crush it,” Dunklee wrote in an email. “Her whole team, athletes and staff, were overjoyed. It’s inspiring to see and lends positive energy to all the North Americans going forward.”

    “This was the first race that felt normal for me and not an extreme high or low,” she wrote of her own race. “It’s a relief. The skiing felt great today and I have no doubts in it going forward. Shooting is finally rounding into form; 85% is a solid result. My goals going forward are to stay healthy and happy and I believe that’s what I need most to perform well in February.”

    US Biathlon’s Clare Egan in front of the stands in the finish of the women’s individual 15-kilometer race at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. Initially she was ranked 35th, and ultimately ended the race in 57th. (Screenshot: ZDF broadcast)

    Starting about in the middle of the field in bib 43, her teammate Clare Egan was initially 35th as she came into the finish, waving to the cheering crowd as she was shown on the video wall. As more athletes ended their races ahead of her, she ultimately finished 57th (+4:26.3) with three one-minute penalties (0+1+0+2).

    “Finally a race I can be proud of!” Egan commented in an Instagram post.

    “We will field our first women’s relay this weekend,” Dunklee wrote of their team, which will be joined by athletes who competed at the IBU Cup in Arber, Germany, on Thursday. “It has been a challenging season so far living and traveling with such a small crew, trying to stay upbeat and carry the team with a skeleton group.”

    Starting the race early in bib 5 and thus completing her race before Crawford’s had even begun, Biathlon Canada’s Julia Ransom placed 34th (+3:35.0) with two penalties (1+1+0+0). Sarah Beaudry finished 53rd (+4:18.6) with two penalties (0+1+1+0), and Emma Lunder was 67th (+5:21.7) with four penalties (1+0+2+1).

    After their own races had concluded, they could only wait for Crawford after learning about the great day she was having and excitedly ran out into the finish to greet her.

    “It’s really amazing for our country and for our sport,” Crawford said in the press conference. “Hopefully there will be a few more eyes on biathlon during the Olympics. The last person to get a podium was Zina Kocher in the individual as well [a third place in Östersund during the 2006/2007 season]. So this is becoming a special race for Canada. Julia Ransom had a personal best with a ninth place in Östersund, so we seem to be individual specialists.”

    Skardino Earns Individual Discipline World Cup

    Since the IBU does not count the races at the upcoming Olympics for World Cup points and standings, this second individual race was also the last one on the competition calendar this season.

    Thus Nadezda Skardino of Belarus, who won the first individual race of the season in Östersund, managed to claim the “crystal globe” award in that discipline by finishing seventh in Ruhpolding on Thursday (+1:04.8, with no penalty). It was Skardino’s first World Cup discipline title.

    Despite finishing ahead of her in fourth on Thursday and another third place from the race in Östersund, Ukraine’s Dzhima could not make up enough points and placed second in the standings just five points back, while Mäkäräinen was third. Even without Crawford still finishing ahead of Skardino and Dhzima the outcome would have been the same.

    “It was my dream, and now I’m minus one dream in my life,” a smiling Skardino told the IBU. “I am very happy, because I thought about it after my win in Östersund. … And now I did it! Today I was not very fast on the tracks, I only thought about my clean shooting. I understood that I can win [the discipline title] if I shoot clean. I knew if some more people stay between Yuliia and me I could lose more points and still lose this, but after all people finished I was very happy I did it!”

    Crawford placed 12th in that ranking as the best North American, scoring 2 points for her 39th place in Östersund and 48 for the third place in Ruhpolding.

    The women’s World Cup Total Score leader Anastasia Kuzmina of Slovakia, coming off two victories last weekend in Oberhof, placed eighth on Thursday (+1:32.3, with three penalties) to retain her lead there.

    Races in Ruhpolding continue with a men’s relay on Friday and women’s relay on Saturday, before concluding with mass starts on Sunday. Crawford is now qualified for that race as one of the five best athletes this week not currently in the top 25 of the overall World Cup; she is now ranked 48th in the Total Score standings.

    — Alex Kochon contributed reporting

    Results

  • By a Mile, Not an Inch: Smith Wins First World Cup with Stunning 24-Second Margin

    By a Mile, Not an Inch: Smith Wins First World Cup with Stunning 24-Second Margin

    Nathan Smith of Canada celebrates as he crosses the finish line all alone after the 12.5 k pursuit in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, for his first career World Cup victory. (Photo: Biathlon Canada/NordicFocus.com)
    Nathan Smith of Canada celebrates as he crosses the finish line all alone after the 12.5 k pursuit in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, for his first career World Cup victory. (Photo: Biathlon Canada/NordicFocus.com)

    Nathan Smith has come close to winning a World Cup before. He’s just never quite done it.

    The 29-year-old Canadian biathlete has been on the podium – he won a silver medal in the sprint at World Championships two weeks ago – and he’s been in podium position late in the game in pursuit and mass start races. That experience showed on Saturday in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, when things finally came together and Smith notched his first win, a 24-second victory over Benedikt Doll of Germany in the 12.5 k pursuit.

    “I’ve felt good since taking a few easy days after Kontiolahti, and I knew that since I took an easy day yesterday I should be feeling good today,” Smith said. “I had that feeling in warmup too.”

    Right from the start, Smith raced like someone who knew he belonged at the top. He cleaned target after target, and skied aggressively and confidently on the trails. At one point he pulled a group that included Martin Fourcade of France and Anton Shipulin of Russia – two of the sport’s biggest heavyweights – around for almost the entire 2.5 k loop.

    “I passed Martin at one point,” Smith said. “I guess he didn’t want to lead, so he made me lead for a little while. I would have rather not, but he was sneaky about it. It was okay though– I didn’t want guys catching us from behind.”

    Smith on course, all by himself. He had the 14th-fastest ski time of the day despite taking it easy on the final loop. (Photo: Biathlon Canada/NordicFocus.com)
    Smith on course, all by himself. He had the 14th-fastest ski time of the day despite taking it easy on the final loop. (Photo: Biathlon Canada/NordicFocus.com)

    It was when Smith cleaned the third shooting bout, and the first standing one, that it began to really look like he could take home the win. When his competitors missed shots, Smith headed out onto the trails alone. And the diminutive Canadian looked very much alone as he pushed through the loop, trying not to lose time to the chasers.

    When he came back onto the range, he had a 15 second advantage. He could take his time, as long as he hit all his shots; a penalty loop, which usually takes a bit over 20 seconds to complete, would put him in jeopardy of losing the lead to someone behind him, should they shoot clean.

    “I felt pretty nervous,” Smith admitted. “I definitely had a little flashback when I was coming into the stadium of Östersund earlier this season when I was in third, I think, and then I totally bombed the last standing. I missed three. I was a little bit nervous about that, but I think experiences like that also help you. I could really clear my mind coming into the lane, and I did a really good job focusing on the task.”

    Smith didn’t clean. He picked up his first penalty of the day, and headed to the penalty loop. The expression on the face of Canadian Head Coach Matthias Ahrens, who watched the shots from behind a scope, was ambivalent.

    Smith, focused on the range.
    Smith, focused on the range.

    “I was still nervous,” said Smith. “I didn’t know how those other guys were going to shoot. I’ve seen Martin hit 20 out of 20 in gale force winds. He’s the best shooter on the World Cup. I think him and Shipulin were fighting for the [World Cup] overall so I think maybe that played to my advantage a little bit and threw them off their game on that final bout.”

    Behind Smith, conditions on the range remained dicey – or maybe even got dicier. First Fourcade, then Shipulin, then Arnd Peiffer of Germany picked up two penalties apiece.

    Doll, who came into the range in fifth place, had only one penalty, like Smith. He skied out of the penalty loop into second place, 37 seconds behind the Canadian.

    “I wasn’t totally relaxed,” Smith said. “We only have one support guy here, Tom [Zidek, the head of the service team], and so I didn’t get that many splits. I just got one leaving the stadium when Tom said those guys were still in the loop. So I knew I had maybe 25 seconds. I kept going hard until the last climb and then I knew I was safe.”

    It was a stunning margin for Smith, who was able to cruise around the final loop and enjoy his trip into the finishing lanes, a trip he had dreamed about for so many years.

    “It was kind of surreal to be skiing by yourself on the last lap,” he marveled. “Usually your first win, you’d think it would be a nailbiter, right to the line and somehow outlunge the guy. It was kind of awesome to have a buffer where I could enjoy the final finish stretch and have that moment.”

    Behind him, Doll was just as ecstatic to finish second. He was overcome with emotion as he crossed the line. Before this weekend, 24-year-old Doll had never been on the podium – he had a collection of top-10’s but as recently as last season was also competing at second-tier events like European Championships.

    Smith celebrating his first trip to the very top step of the podium. (Photo: Biathlon Canada/NordicFocus.com)
    Smith celebrating his first trip to the very top step of the podium. (Photo: Biathlon Canada/NordicFocus.com)

    Doll now has two podiums to his name after finishing third in the sprint, and is asserting his name as one to add to his teammates Simon Schempp, Peiffer, and Erik Lesser as being among the top Germans.

    “I didn’t imagine it before the race,” he said in a press conference. “I said, okay, I just want to do my job, especially at the shooting range…. Standing, I had two times one mistake. In the last stage I said, okay, one mistake. I saw Martin and Anton in the [penalty loop] and I said, one [loop], it will be fourth or fifth place. I made my round and when I came out and saw, okay, second place, I was so excited! I gave everything.”

    After completing their penalty loops, Shipulin and Fourcade had hit the course together. They left Peiffer behind as they tried to one-up each other on the trail. Fourcade is often the favorite under such circumstances – his explosive sprint speed can allow him to leave competitors behind in a matter of meters, when he decides to turn it on – but today, it was all Shipulin.

    The Russian extended his lead coming around the final corner into the finish, and never looked back. He gave it his all and left Fourcade in the dust.

    “I knew Martin was a very strong rival, and I had a choice,” Shipulin said in the press conference. “Try to catch up with Benedikt, and maybe not catch up because he’s in very good shape now, or save the power for the final rush… I decided to keep it for fighting Fourcade. It was quite cool that Russia was on the podium.”

    “In the stadium Anton was just a bit faster than me,” Fourcade said in a post-race video interview with the IBU media team. “We both know he is powerful at the finish.”

    Another Two Globes for Fourcade, Plus Wax Drama

    Fourcade, though, still celebrated as he crossed the line. His result, compared to the results of others, means that he’s has clinched the overall World Cup title for the fourth time in a row.

    “That was my main goal this season,” he said. “I’m full of happiness because I have these trophies. But I’m also not satisfied because of the fourth place…. With the sprint and pursuit globes and the overall World Cup globe for the fourth time in a row, that is more than a dream for me. I will enjoy this, this time.”

    There’s still one more race, a mass start on Sunday, and other positions are up for grabs. Shipulin has clinched second place, and Jakov Fak seems to have a good hold on third, but other positions may shift.

    Fourcade made history, as no other biathlete has ever won four World Cup Total Score titles in a row. If he can win two more, he will match Norwegian great Ole Einar Bjørndalen for the number of total titles. To steal Bjørndalen’s individual race win record, though, he’ll have to stay in the sport a long time: Bjørndalen has 93 wins and Fourcade just 37; this season he won eight races, at which rate he’d have to keep racing for seven more years with the same level of success.

    On Thursday after winning the 10 k sprint, Fourcade enjoyed a reindeer-drawn victory lap in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. He now has a crystal globe to celebrate as well. (Photo: IBU/Evgeny Tumashov)
    On Thursday after winning the 10 k sprint, Fourcade enjoyed a reindeer-drawn victory lap in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. He now has a crystal globe to celebrate as well. (Photo: IBU/Evgeny Tumashov)

    One of Fourcade’s competitors, and a previous World Cup Total Score winner, Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway dropped out mid-race. In the Norwegian press, Svendsen blamed it on his skis.

    “I knew early on that skis were not working optimally,” he told NRK. “I’ve obviously made a wrong choice.”

    Indeed, Svendsen had just the 51st-fastest ski time on his first loop (he dropped out partway through the third loop). Other Norwegians didn’t have such bad skis – or at least did not complain as much. Tarjei Bø had the 19th-fastest ski time on the day and moved from 50th place up to 11th to lead the Norwegian team.

    Bjørndalen, who shot perfectly in Thursday’s sprint but only finished ninth, and was then undone by poor shooting in the pursuit and slipped to 27th, said his skis were horrible in the sprint but fine today.

    In fact, he used Smith’s success to argue that Norwegian expertise in ski preparation is no longer the top of the game.

    “On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the worst, [my skis] were 10 in the sprint,” he told NRK. “With the resources we have, it’s not okay that some other man has better skiing. Canada has one serviceman here [in Khanty-Mansiysk], so there must be some knowledge that they have that we don’t.”

    Canadian head wax tech Tom Zidek gives Nathan Smith a hug at the finish line after Smith's first victory.
    Canadian head wax tech Tom Zidek gives Nathan Smith a hug at the finish line after Smith’s first victory.

    Fourcade also complained about his skis.

    “My skis were not so much gliding during the competition,” he said in the post-race video. “It was really hard for me to follow the other guys.”

    While emphasizing that he did, in fact, have great skis, Smith also brushed off the idea that his success came because others were slowed by their equipment.

    “Whenever anyone is skiing well and they have a good result, they are going to say that their skis are good,” he said. “When they aren’t feeling well, they’re going to say, oh, my skis, they weren’t the best. But our skis are consistently among the best.”

    Asked about what that special knowledge was, Canada’s head wax technician, Tom Zidek, did a metaphorical shoulder shrug (he often has other servicemen to help, but with just three athletes in Khanty-Mansiysk for budget reasons, Canada sent only Zidek and head coach Ahrens as staff).

    “I don’t know how I can do it and not Norway,” he told NRK. “The secret is to work hard and use your head.”

    Nordgren 19th, Bailey and Green Top-30

    U.S. Biathlon’s Leif Nordgren had placed 21st in the sprint, and made his way up to tenth place after the final shooting bout. Nordgren missed three of his ten prone shots, but then cleaned every standing target to climb his way through the field.

    “Today I was really disappointed to have missed 3 in prone,” he wrote in an email. “That’s not usually a problem for me and it wasn’t really that windy today like it has been in training the past few days. But I was able to turn it around in standing and save myself with 10 hits in a row. In a pursuit it really helps to hit the targets at the end of the race, if you miss in the beginning you still have a lot time to make up that deficit, so hitting in the end is a big bonus.”

    Lowell Bailey of the United States racing to 22nd place in the 12.5 k pursuit in Khanty-Mansiysk. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus.com)
    Lowell Bailey of the United States racing to 22nd place in the 12.5 k pursuit in Khanty-Mansiysk. (Photo: US Biathlon/NordicFocus.com)

    Unfortunately he was out of gas, having battled back from a head cold recently, and slipped to 17th place in the final loop. That still represented, however, his second-best result of the season, after a 16th-place finish in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, earlier this year. It also qualified him for the 30-man mass start competition on Sunday.

    “For skiing, I’m totally dead now,” Nordgren wrote. “I’ve had a little head and chest cold the last few days, so I think its maybe taking me a little longer to recover than normal, but its also getting to the end of a long season and there’ve been a lot of races recently so I’m sure that’s part of it too. Tomorrow is my first mass start of the season, first in about 4 years actually, since WCH were here in 2011.  I’m really excited for it, I’m a lot better biathlete than I was back then, so I think I can have a decent results tomorrow and end the season on a really high note!”

    It’s a return to form for Nordgren, who had breakthrough races and his first top-20’s at World Championships in 2011.

    “Overall he showed a really high level over the last weeks and I think he would have done the same exact thing on any other venue as well, but of course it’s true that he has good memories from WCHs 2011 and really likes the course there,” USBA Chief of Sport Bernd Eisenbichler said of Nordgren’s performance. “He is good shape and would have done the same thing every where else. Overall I am very happy with his development. After a few rough years, he really made this big step forward now and it will keep going up from him from here- I am convinced about that.“

    His finish put him just ahead of teammate Lowell Bailey, who moved from 51st after a frustrating sprint race all the way up to 22nd by way of shooting 19-for-20.

    “Today’s race was bittersweet for me,” Bailey wrote in an email. “I was happy with my performance but it wasn’t enough to get me into the mass start tomorrow. It would have been nice to have my great performance yesterday instead of today! Anyway, it’s a good way to end the season.  Now I have to shift gears and look forward.”

    The final U.S. competitor, Tim Burke, finished 53rd with six penalties.

    The other Canadian entrant besides Smith, Brendan Green, moved from 30th up to 23rd with just one penalty.

    “Now at the end of a long season and three months away from home, I’ll take today’s result,” he wrote in an email. “Normally I would have expected more from myself on a day like today but I’m definitely running on empty and my body is ready for a break.  I was happy with the performances I’ve been able to execute over the past few weeks, but at the same time I’m disappointed with the drop in my ski form and having to deal with some abrupt underlying issues with my back throughout the season, especially prior to World Championships.”

    Green explained that he will have medical staff try to help re-evaluate his back problems, which stem from a slipped disc a few seasons ago and are proving difficult to permanently resolve, once he gets back to Canada.

    One thing he is happy with is that 19-for-20 shooting, which has been more the rule than the exception for the second half of the season.

    “My shooting since Christmas has been incredibly solid and I’m extremely happy about that,” he wrote. “I had a bit of a tough start to the season with my shooting prior to Christmas, but after re-thinking a few aspects in my approach to shooting and making a couple of changes it really seemed to come together. This is the best shooting of my career and I’m hoping I can carry it forward to next season.”

    Results

  • Soukalova Back on Top in Pokljuka; Crawford One-Ups Herself with Fourth Place

    Soukalova Back on Top in Pokljuka; Crawford One-Ups Herself with Fourth Place

    Canada's Rosanna Crawford clocked the tenth-fastest course time today to finish fourth in the 7.5 k sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia. Photo: Christian Manzoni/NordicFocus.com.
    Canada’s Rosanna Crawford clocked the tenth-fastest course time today to finish fourth in the 7.5 k sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia. Photo: Christian Manzoni/NordicFocus.com.

    Rosanna Crawford had a big breakthrough last week, placing fifth in the World Cup pursuit in Hochfilzen, Austria, a career-best result and all the more impressive because she started the day in 34th place and moved her way up.

    Today in the very next race, a 7.5 k sprint in Pokljuka, Slovenia, the Canadian biathlete went one better and finished fourth, with one penalty and the tenth-fastest ski time.

    “I try not to bring previous results with me into my next races,” Crawford wrote in an e-mail. “You can’t get over confident, just look at Kaisa [Makarainen of Finland, the World Cup leader] today, she goes from great shooting to four misses from one race to the next. She’s still a beast on the ski though! Of course my previous results have helped with my confidence, and I am really excited for two more chances this weekend to have great day!”

    It wasn’t totally clear that Crawford would be in shape for another top result today. She hadn’t been feeling her best earlier in the week.

    “I had a bit of a sore throat and some congestion yesterday, so I was a little worried how I would feel skiing today,” she explained. “I woke up feeling a lot better than yesterday after having taken every tincture I know of- oil of oregano, hot tea with lemon, salt gargle, vitamin D and C!”

    Crawford at the flower ceremony. Photo: Christian Manzoni/NordicFocus.com.
    Crawford at the flower ceremony. Photo: Christian Manzoni/NordicFocus.com.

    But that may have actually helped move on and leave the fifth-place result behind her, as she said was so important.

    “I think a big part of this season has been not having expectations going into my races… I think being a bit sick yesterday and not feeling great in my warm up definitely let me relax a bit, not as much pressure since I wasn’t feeling 100%,” she wrote.

    With one miss in prone, it wasn’t going to be a perfect race. But thoughts of that can’t slow you down when you’re racing on the World Cup.

    “I know it sounds lame, but these things don’t cross your mind while you are racing,” she wrote. “I leave the range after prone and it’s time to think about skiing! I knew I was skiing well, but I just stayed focused on my cue words.”

    As an early starter, it also wasn’t worth worrying about the shooting too much since so many racers were still to come. By the time Crawford hit the last loop of the course, though, she was finally getting some information about how later starters were faring through the prone stage.

    “It was hard to say what would happen after one prone miss,” Canadian Head Coach Matthias Ahrens wrote in an e-mail. “But her clean standing shooting and increase in ski speed combined with shooting mistakes by others, indicated a good back split, which she was informed about and that pushed her especially in the last lap.”

    Crawford has sometimes struggled to maintain her speed in the last kilometers of races, but that certainly wasn’t the case today. She turned in the third-fastest closing lap and ended the day 36.8 seconds behind Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic, who shot clean for the win.

    (It was something of a comeback for Soukalova. The recent Olympic medalist had a slow start to the season, but things started to turn around in the women’s relay last weekend, where her team placed third. “That relay was the most important race of the winter,” she said in a press conference. “I started to believe that I could be at the top again… That day, I stopped worrying about hitting the targets and skiing fast… I began to enjoy the competition.”)

    The podium and flower ceremony, with Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic standing on the top step after winning her first World Cup of the season, and Canada's Rosanna Crawford (3rd from right) in fourth place. Photo: Tom Zidek.
    The podium and flower ceremony, with Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic standing on the top step after winning her first World Cup of the season, and Canada’s Rosanna Crawford (3rd from right) in fourth place. Photo: Tom Zidek.

    “I’ve always had trouble with last laps, so a bit yes, you can make up time on that last loop if you have some gas in the tank,” she wrote. “But this course also played really well to my strengths. There are 3 dipsy dodalies (as Matthias calls them!) right before the range/finish, I really made sure to push hard over the hills and to be fast on the downhills. Since it’s a downhill finish here you really need to start making your move on that 1st of 3 hills.”

    Ahrens and National Team Coach Coach Roddy Ward both agreed that the Pokljuka terrain plays to Crawford’s strengths. The course is also at medium altitude, which likely suits the Canadians, who train for most of the year in Canmore, Alberta, nestled in the Rocky Mountains.

    “It is technical with downhills, transitions, etc.,” Ahrens explained. “She had good races here before. I would say that technical work in skiing combined with functional movement work has made her a more efficient skier and that translates into being still able to hold or increase the speed in her last lap.”

    “She is also in great shape and racing smart,” Ward added via e-mail. “You have to work every part of the course here, there is not much rest and there are corners and bumps that you can take advantage of. Rosanna carries her speed well and is confident on downhills. All of this helped her out there today. In particular she made up 5 spots in the final kilometer or so where there are a lot of transitions in up and down terrain.”

    Another challenge: Ward wrote that the shooting mats were slippery, although he wasn’t exactly sure why since it wasn’t raining or snowing.

    “She slowed down her shooting a little to make sure she would hit five,” he wrote.

    Crawford celebrating with Santa. Photo: Tom Zidek.
    Crawford celebrating with Santa. Photo: Tom Zidek.

    Canada had two other women in the race, Megan Heinicke and Sarah Beaudry. Heinicke placed 41st and will have good opportunities in Saturday’s pursuit. She started off the season with a 12th-place finish in the 15 k individual in Östersund, Sweden, but hasn’t been able to replicate the top-20.

    Beaudry place 66th, narrowly missing the pursuit. With a single penalty, she left the range in 52nd, well within the 60-woman cutoff, but slumped in the final kilometers of the race. Beaudry is still a junior and had her World Cup debut in the relay last weekend.

    Two other women, Audrey Vaillancourt and Zina Kocher, were moved down to the IBU Cup after lackluster results in the early season.

    Crawford’s recent success means a lot to the team, including, the coaches said, to younger athletes.

    “Sarah did great again and it’s perfect for her to be here while we are having success that she can feed off of,” Ward wrote. “Sarah is a great teammate and brings a lot of positive energy to the group of girls too. Today she shot well and skied fantastic for 2/3 laps. She ran out of stream on the final lap and that cost her a pursuit start. However, she is young and she shows great speed and strength. In fact, she shows similar characteristics to Rosanna a few years ago (speed, strength, good shooting) that we can really build on in the training.”

    “I believe that having a consistent top performer shows the others in the team what is possible,” Ahrens added.

    Crawford feels that consistently performing at this level is possible, and hopes that she can carry her momentum – it’s the best pair of finishes for a Canadian woman in years – all the way to World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland, in March.

    “I am feeling really strong right now and hopefully I can carry this through the season and into World Champs,” she wrote. “We have a couple of good training blocks before then, so we will just have to wait and see! In previous years I seem to build as the season goes on, so if my shooting stays the same I can hope for more great results!”

    Results

    Canada's Rosanna Crawford (center) after finishing fourth in today's World Cup sprint with, l-r, ski technicians Raphael Grosset, Tom Zidek, and Pavel Stolba, and physio Yvonne Visser. Photo: Matthias Ahrens.
    Canada’s Rosanna Crawford (center) after finishing fourth in today’s World Cup sprint with, l-r, ski technicians Raphael Grosset, Tom Zidek, and Pavel Stolba, and physio Yvonne Visser. Photo: Matthias Ahrens.