Ostersund, Sweden. Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) finished ninth in the 10K Sprint at the Biathlon World Championships today, the third best result of his career.
Burke has only two better results in World Cup level competitions than today: sixth place in the Pokljuka Slovenia World Cup Pursuit last season and seventh place in last year’s World Championships 20K Individual competition.
All week the wax technicians have been testing skis here in Ostersund in preparation for this opening weekend of the Biathlon World Championships. According to US Wax Technician Andreas Emslander, “The snow here is very dry and slow, despite the fact that the air humidity is very high, nearing 90%.†Everything changed around 5 AM today as light freezing rain coated the dry snow with a thin layer of ice, followed by some light snow. Emslander continued, “We had to basically start over today.†At that point, the wax team went to “Plan B,†testing different skis and waxes, for icy fast conditions, as they prepared for today’s competitions. These new snow conditions along with temperatures near freezing affected everyone including Burke today.
On the way to his ninth place, Burke had only one penalty, missing the first shot in the standing stage. He finished 1:05 behind clean-shooting Maxim Tchoudov of Russia, who claimed Gold in 22:25.4. Just 35 seconds separated Burke and the Bronze medal winning Ole Einar Björndalen of Norway. Björndalen had two penalties, while finishing 30 seconds behind Tchoudov. Björndalen’s teammate Halvard Hanevold, 19.8 seconds back won the Silver medal while matching Tchoudov on the shooting range.
Burke has been quietly full of confidence all week as he prepared for this World Championships. As soon as he hit the tracks today, he was focused and in control. Coming to the prone stage, he seemed to ignore the noise of the crowd and the competitors around him. He then calmly, but quickly settled into position and dropped the five targets in quick succession. Out of prone, he was in the top eight. With each kilometer, word came over the US radios that Burke was skiing well and picking up speed, at one point gaining eight seconds on Michael Slesinger of the Czech Republic, just in front of him. In standing, Burke was equally efficient, despite missing the first target. Once he left the penalty loop, he continued to gain on the leaders with each step, until crossing the finish line in seventh position at the time. Burke, the 39th starter, was bumped to down to ninth by later starters Tchoudov and fourth place Maxim Tcherezov.
At the finish line, Burke was smiling as he discussed his race, “I was very focused on this race today. I have gone through every step of it at least 100 times in the past three weeks. When the weather changed the conditions today (from the dry slow snow of all week to icy fast snow) I completely changed my tactics. I knew that the race would now be really fast, so you would have to go all out from the start. Before the standing stage, I knew from the splits that I was gaining time. It made me a little nervous, but I that was the only way I was going to get a good result. In standing when I missed the first shot, I told myself to keep going, and the rest would be hits.â€
Later, Burke commented on the ninth place after seeing the final results and just missing the eight-person flower ceremony, “I am a little bit disappointed in being ninth, but not really. This is a great start and I am in a good position for the Pursuit.â€
A video interview in the finish area with Tim Burke, recorded before he knew the final results follows.
