 posted another strong result yesterday morning with a 14th place finish in the 10K Sprint.</p><p>The 31-year old Alaskan had what he called, “another solid performance.†He finished 1:01 behind Emile Hegle Svendsen of Norway. The new Norwegian star mastered the tough Hochfilzen layout in 26:08.1 with clean shooting. Ivan Tcherezov of Russia and Alexander Os of Norway each had a single penalty, while finishing second and third, 26.3 and 32.9 seconds back.</p><p>About 10 cm of snow fell over the night in Hochfilzen, but had little effect on the competitions according to Hakkinen. “The tracks are actually quite hard and fast. It does not look so fast because it is so tough. We had three training days here this week and I worked hard on mastering the range approach (which had a steep uphill that tops off on the shooting range). This approach and especially that last bump just before it make the approach very hard.â€</p><p>On his shooting and the race in general, he added, “It was a solid race and it looks like I will get some good (World Cup) points. The shooting was not perfect, since I missed one. Still, this result will put me in a good position for the Pursuit tomorrow.â€</p><p>Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK) finished 81st, with three penalties, 2:45.6 back, while Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) in 89th place, also with three penalties and Russell Currier, in 102nd place with six penalties, finished 3:01.7 and 4:36.5 back, respectively.</p></div><div class=){kind=logo}
Hakkinen 14h in Biathlon Sprint at Hochfilzen
FasterSkier · December 13, 2008
Simone Hauswald of Germany, in her first start of the season won the Women’s 7.5K Sprint. Hauswald skipped the Ostersund World Cup last week, due to illness. She had been the top German woman in their pre-season training races. Even after the illness, she looked sharp with no effects from the time off. Hauswald toured the course in 23:04.3, while shooting clean. Russian Svetlana Sleptsova took second, despite two penalties. Her fast skiing left her only 14.1 seconds behind Hauswald. Andrea Henkel of Germany, with one penalty in the standing stage finished 18.3 seconds behind Hauswald.
Haley Johnson (Lake Placid, NY) with four penalties finished 90th, 3:33 back while Lanny Barnes (Durango, CO), with two penalties, and Laura Spector (Lenox, MA), with three penalties, finished 98th and 101st, 3:51.5 and 4:26.6 back respectively.
Hakkinen will be the sole US participant in the Pursuit competitions today. The Men’s 12.5K competition starts at 11:45 CET (5:45 AM EST).
Source: USBA
