KHANTY-MANSIYSK, Russia – In his second to last race of the season, Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, N.Y.) came back strong with an 11th place in the 10k Sprint competition in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. With one of the fastest times on skis today, Burke finished his race in 25:07.8 minutes, 43.5 seconds behind today’s winner Ivan Tcherezov (RUS) who cleaned both shooting stages. Following penalties in both prone and standing, Burke had to ski an extra 300m.
“His skiing was really strong today, I am really satisfied. The conditions here are hard to ski; the snow is really hard and sticky. The wax technicians did a great job and made Tim’s skis competitive”, said U.S. Head Coach Per Nilsson after the sprint race.
“Today was one of my best skiing races ever. It’s quite surprising since at the end of the season the form can be up and down every day. But today it just worked. I had great skis and it was way more fun to compete today than over the last weeks,” said Burke.
The skis played an important part in Burke’s race today. “The technicians really worked hard over the last few days because we experienced a lot of problems here over the last few years. Next year the World Championships will be held in Russia so they did a lot of extra testing”, Burke explained.