Germany's Simon Schempp won the second race of the week at the IBU World Cup in Pokljuka, Slovenia, with a 16-second pursuit victory over France's Martin Fourcade, while American Tim Burke raced up to ninth (after starting 14th) for his first top 10 of the season.
Ninth on Saturday, Nathan Smith placed 10th in Sunday's pursuit, the final race of the IBU World Cup in Östersund, Sweden, and another Canadian, Macx Davies finished in the top 30 in his first World Cup pursuit.
Nathan Smith did the expected and placed ninth in Saturday's IBU World Cup sprint, despite two misses. Meanwhile, another Canadian, Macx Davies, turned heads as the only man in the 100-plus field to shoot clean. He finished 10th for his career-best result by 30 places.
Julia Kern, Clare Egan, Emma Lunder, and Macx Davies talk about adjusting to their first, second, and third seasons on American and Canadian national teams for cross-country skiing and biathlon.
Nathan Smith, Rosanna Crawford, Brendan Green, and Megan Heinicke headline the "A" team, while eight athletes were picked for the "B" team.
Canada's Nathan Smith made headlines for the second-straight day with his second-straight clean race, hitting all 20 targets to place fifth in Sunday's IBU World Cup pursuit. Leif Nordgren led the U.S. in 20th, and Slovenia's Jakov Fak remained untouchable in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
Canada's Nathan Smith improved 71 places since his last World Cup sprint for a career-best seventh with perfect shooting in the Saturday's IBU World Cup sprint in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. Three Canadian men qualified for Sunday's pursuit, with Brendan Green in 22nd and Macx Davies in 54th.
Leif Nordgren missed two weeks of training and the first weekend of World Cup racing after coming down sick over his holiday break. After a less-than-satisfying return to elite competition, he hatched a plan to use Open European Championships to get revved back up. In today's pursuit, he did just that.
Scott Gow found himself on the podium just 1.6 seconds behind the winner of Friday's 10 k sprint on the third day of racing at the IBU Cup in Obertilliach, Austria. Audrey Vaillancourt also shot clean to lead the Canadian women in seventh in the 7.5 k sprint.
Julia Ransom topped her previous IBU Cup career best of 11th, which she set on Tuesday, with clean shooting for seventh on Wednesday in the 7.5 k sprint in Obertilliach. Also for Canada, Christian Gow placed eighth, Scott Gow was 11th and Macx Davies 15th in the 10 k sprint.
Newly-minted Biathlon Canada national team member Macx Davies talks season prep and Frozen Thunder: "When you have a long ski, catching up with friends is one of the few things that can shorten the long hours on the track," he writes. "Finally I am skiing. Finally the season is here. Finally it is winter."
21-year-old Macx Davies had his first World Cup start on Friday - and promptly placed 42nd, qualifying for Saturday's pursuit. It perfectly illustrated Biathlon Canada's strategy for the weekend, resting their current Olympic team while giving some experience to the athletes it is grooming for the next Olympics.
Both Darya Domracheva of Belarus and Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway - last year's runners-up in the World Cup overalls standings - finally picked up their first wins of the new biathlon season, suggesting that maybe the favorites will be in shape in time for the Olympics after all. Susan Dunklee (USA) placed 32nd and Macx Davies (CAN) 42nd to lead the North Americans.
Canada's Macx Davies realized midway through the 15 k individual race that in order to have a good result, he needed to knock down all of his remaining targets. So he did, and skied to a career-best eighth-place finish. Rose-Marie Côté led the junior women with 22nd place and Canada was strong across the board.
Christian Gow and Stuart Harden continued solid Championships racing that was nonetheless not quite what they were hoping for, finishing 16th and 18th in the junior and youth pursuits. For America, Casey Smith turned in one of the more impressive pursuit performances of the day, missing a single shot and climbing 20 places to 23rd.
In the opening junior men’s race of biathlon’s World Youth and Junior Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland, Canada’s Kurtis Wenzel used near-perfect shooting to demolish the field and collect his second world championship title. His teammates, however, were less successful, shooting 80%, 60%, and 40%. “After the individual race I was a little bit down,” said Maxc Davies, who had missed 12 shots and placed 72nd. How things change. In Thursday’s junior 4 x 7.5 k...
After a World Junior Championships where it has already proven dominant in the medal counts, Russia sealed the deal by winning both the youth men’s and women’s relays in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic on Friday. And it wasn’t even close: both teams won by more than a minute, the men over Italy and the women over Ukraine. Elena Badanina, the leadoff skier for the Russian women’s team, doesn’t see herself as becoming a star, despite...
After a tough first day of competition at the World Youth and Junior Biathlon Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic on Saturday, the American and Canadian men will be on the offensive in Sunday’s pursuit. With the top 60 finishers from today’s sprint races qualifying to move on, the North American teams – which notched just two top-30 performances – will have plenty of pursuing to do. “Overall the Canadian team didn’t have a stellar...