Despite a few penalties - "bugs" that he hoped he could work out before World Championships - Anton Shipulin led Saturday's biathlon pursuit in Antholz, Italy, wire to wire. Jakov Fak turned on the afterburners so snag second place, and Daniel Mesotitsch finished third.
Starting in 14th position, over a minute behind sprint winner Anastasiya Kuzmina, Tora Berger didn't think she had much of a chance in today's World Cup biathlon pursuit. Despite two penalties, her ferocious skiing brought her into the spotlight under the Antholz sun.
Lowell Bailey led the U.S. with a seventh-place finish in the 10 k sprint in Antholz, with a time 40 seconds slower than that of race winner Anton Shipulin of Russia. Five North American men will start the pursuit on Saturday.
More on the women's World Cup sprint in Antholz, Italy, from U.S. women's coach Jonne Kahkonen, 18th-place finisher Annelies Cook, and Audrey Vaillancourt of Canada, who finished 55th in just the second weekend of World Cup racing in her career.
Careful skiing at altitude and a single penalty on the range netted Annelies Cook the best finish of her World Cup career, placing 18th in a 7.5 k biathlon sprint in Antholz, Italy today. The win went to Olympic sprint champion Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia, who hasn't seen much of the podium since Vancouver.
After the Tour de Ski, cross country skiers took a rest while the sprinters returned to the fore, with perennial favorites Teodor Peterson (sprint) and Maiken Caspersen Falla (team sprint) taking wins in Liberec; new faces also rose to the top, like Mona-Liisa Mahlvaleto of Finland in the women's sprint. In biathlon, Martin Fourcade is back to himself and Tora Berger won the mass start on the same course she took her World Championship title last year. Domestic racing was on pause.
After romping to a win in the sprint on Saturday, Martin Fourcade of France had to work far harder on Sunday, draining his reserves to outsprint Dmitry Malyshko at the end of the 15 k mass start. Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway staged an impressive comeback from two penalties to take third; Tim Burke was 17th in his first race back from illness.
Both Scott Perras and Scott Gow notched personal-best performances on the biathlon World Cup; teammate Jean Philippe Le Guellec joked that the reason he collected two penalties and finished 41st was that his first name isn't Scott. The results highlight a Canadian team growing in both strength and depth.
Martin Fourcade celebrated vocifericously at the finish of today's World Cup sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany, but he clearly didn't expect Andriy Makoveev of Russia to make a late charge from bib 95. While Makoveev didn't get the win, he did make it onto the podium, placing third behind teammate Evgeniy Ustyugov.
Germany's Miriam Gossner used her trademark light and quick skiing to combat some dry, sticky, and slow new snow that fell on the Ruhpolding course today and pick up her third win of the season. Annelies Cook (USA) overcame "herky-jerky skiing" to notch a career best and her first top 30.
Canada will be sending a full team of 16 young athletes to the World Youth and Junior Championships, to be held in Obertilliach, Austria, starting January 25th.
In the men's 4 x 7.5 k relay in Ruhpolding Martin Fourcade anchored France to a 9-second victory over Norway, redeeming themselves of their last memory of the venue. Lowell Bailey and Leif Nordgren put the U.S. in second at the halfway mark, but the Americans ended up 14th.
Norway already had a winning women's relay team, but the addition of Ann-Kristin Flatland, a former World Cup winner who took last season off to have a baby, only made them more dominant. The Norwegians collected a 54-second victory over Russia, even though their rivals used only a single spare round to clean their 40 targets. The U.S. was 13th and Canada 14th.
Despite an Olympic bronze medal and World Championships gold, Jakov Fak hadn't won a regular World Cup competition until this season. How things change. After four podiums, the Croatian-turned-Slovenian is ranked eighth overall. He talked to FasterSkier about the ups and downs of his sport, and how he still returns to his roots in Croatia to train and to "find peace."
It's no exaggeration to say that this might have been the busiest week of the year to be a North American ski fan. With the Tour de Ski practically every day, U.S. Nationals, and some big NorAms used to determine junior and U23 trip rosters, plus biathlon and nordic combined, here are the highlights.
A brief tour of the geopolitical changes in the last 25 years that have led to deeper fields, and the development of the sport itself from initial Olympic inclusion in 1960 to today, when 30 medals are on offer and biathlon is a good investment towards the medal count. Individual racing is just as hard as it always was, but relay racing? Probably harder.
The Russian men continued their exceptional weekend in Oberhof, with Dmitry Malyshko shooting perfectly and winning the pursuit unchallenged. Evgeniy Garanichev made up for his singly penalty and placed second, repeating his own finish from the sprint.
Miriam Gossner was unable to repeat yesterday's victory, missing all five targets on her first of four shooting stages and ten of twenty in total. Instead Olga Zaitseva of Russia rose to the top, after starting in fifth position and accumulating three penalties in the middle of the race.
After anchoring the Russian relay team past Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen, Dmitry Malyshko picked up his first individual World Cup win in the sprint in Oberhof today. Russia put four men in the top six, thanks to a good team atmosphere and a strong service team. Svendsen was relegated to third.
Miriam Gossner - at just 22 years old already an Olympic silver medalist in cross country skiing, from the relay in Vancouver - skied so fast that not even two penalties in the 7.5 k sprint could keep her from the top spot on the podium. Sara Studebaker (USA) had a season-best performance, shooting clean to finish 29th.