Trondheim, Norway, March 19. Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) finished ninth in today’s 10K Sprint at the inaugural Biathlon World Cup here, while Teammate Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) finished 20th.
The 9th place, with one penalty was Burke’s best result of the season, topping his 11th place in the same competition at the Biathlon World Championships last month. With Bailey shooting clean today, The duo also recorded the best two US results in the same competition this season. Burke finished 57.5 seconds behind Michael Greis of Germany, who won in 26:11.3. Bailey was 1:17.6 back.
At the finish line, Bailey commented, “I just relaxed out there today and it happened.”
Regarding Burke’s season best, US Coach Per Nilsson commented after Burke cleaned the standing stage, despite two split bullets, “it is about time we got a break. The targets went down with splits today. That is just enough luck for Tim to make a great race for him.”
Burke had only one penalty today in the prone stage and negated most of its value with fast skiing. “The tracks were really slow and deep today. I like this kind of conditions and it did not affect me very much. I think part of my success was that as me and the others on the US Team dealt with the jet lag from the Vancouver to Trondheim trip better than some other teams did. I felt great.”
It was obvious that Burke had fast skis, as he several times almost ran over Klemen Bauer of Slovenia as they approached the shooting range prior to the prone stage. In the second loop, Burke skied 10 meters behind the eventual race winner, Greis. “It helped me a lot skiing just behind him. I could not catch him, but was not losing any ground, so I knew I was doing okay.”