![France's Martin Fourcade celebrating his ninth individual win of the 2016/2017 IBU World Cup season on Friday at the finish of the men's 10 k sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: IBU)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/y5lufqhimmfjytzms8m2.jpeg")
IBU World Cup (Ruhpolding, Germany): Men’s sprint
Another impeccable outing for France’s Martin Fourcade, another incredibly memorable one for Austria’s Julian Eberhard. Both shot clean in both stages of the men’s 10-kilometer sprint on Friday at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany, with Fourcade racking up his ninth individual victory of the season in 22:34.2 and Eberhard notching his second podium of the season and third of his career, 18 seconds back.
Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen finished third (+39.7) with clean shooting, and Germany’s Arnd Peiffer also hit all 10 of his targets for fourth place (+51.8).
Out of the top seven, just one man had to ski a penalty lap: Germany’s Simon Schempp, who had one standing miss and ended up fifth (+52.8).
Tim Burke led the U.S. in 12th (+1:11.6) with one standing penalty as well (0+1) for his first individual top 20 of the season. His US Biathlon teammate Lowell Bailey was also in the hunt for a top 10 before he missed his final standing shot (0+1) and ended up 18th overall (+1:24.3).
Fourcade started 60th and posted the fastest course time en route to the victory, 20.6 seconds faster than Germany’s Benedikt Doll, who placed 20th with three penalties (0+3). Eberhard in bib 27 had the third-fastest course time, 22.2 seconds slower than Fourcade, and third-fastest range time.
Burke started 21st and his overall course time ranked ninth (+37.3), while Bailey in bib 18 posted the 36th-ranked course time and 14th-fastest shooting time.
Also for the U.S., Sean Doherty finished 40th (+1:52.3) with one miss (1+0) to qualify for Sunday’s pursuit. In his first individual World Cup race of the season, American Leif Nordgren finished 71st (+2:41.2) with two misses (1+1). Russell Currier — the first starter of the day in bib 1 — placed 75th (+2:52.7) with four penalties (2+2).
Leading Canada as the lone man to qualify for Sunday’s pursuit, Scott Gow finished 42nd (+1:55.6) with one penalty (1+0), while Brendan Green missed the top 60 in 64th (+2:27.1) with two penalties (1+1). Macx Davies was 82nd (+3:08.4) with three misses (2+1), Christian Gow 88th (+3:19.8) with three penalties as well (2+1).
