Vermonter Hannah Dreissigacker finished 27th in the final race of her international biathlon career, the 12.5 k mass start at World Championships. “I love biathlon,” Dreissigacker mused. “I have to say, it’s a really really amazing sport."
Both Susan Dunklee of the U.S. and Rosanna Crawford of Canada turned in their best ever results in a Championship mass start, but were looking for more. “I was certainly dreaming of medals here, and I feel like my level is high enough that I’m capable of being on the podium at an event like this," Dunklee said.
“I’m really sad to be saying goodbye to Annelies and Hannah as teammates,” Clare Egan said. “Really, really sad." Despite the high emotions, the American women's relay kept things professional and turned in a good day on the range to finish 13th as a team.
The top Canadians solved some shooting frustrations, while Susan Dunklee turned in a course time just 6.8 seconds off the fastest of the day to make up for three penalties. Marie Dorin Habert and Anais Bescond gave France both gold and silver in the 15 kilometer individual in Oslo.
Susan Dunklee was skiing in the top five of the biathlon World Championships pursuit until the third shooting stage, where she missed three targets and dropped to 20th. But with the second-fastest ski time of the day, she could salvage her second top ten of the weekend by the finish.
Susan Dunklee was eighth in the first individual race of World Championships, despite a missed shot in standing - and the American wants more. "That Presque Isle podium really got me excited again- motivated, and confident, and very hungry," she said.
Martin Fourcade versus Simon Schempp: Two perennial rivals duking it out on the final loop of Thursday's mixed relay. It was a fitting end to the first race of the 2016 IBU World Championships in Oslo, Norway. While Fourcade anchored France to gold and Germany took second, the U.S. placed 10th and Canada 11th.
With darkness quickly setting in on Presque Isle's World Cup trails early Saturday evening, the Czech Republic won the women's relay by 25 seconds over Ukraine and Germany, respectively, while the U.S. women combined for their best result of the season in 10th.
Friday was all about focus for Susan Dunklee. Coming off a historic second-place finish in the IBU World Cup sprint the day before, the U.S. biathlete was looking for more success in the pursuit, starting 18 seconds behind the race leader. On a challenging and cold afternoon, she finished fifth for her best result in a pursuit, while the U.S. women had a banner day with three in the top 25.
Susan Dunklee had been looking forward to racing at a home World Cup for the better part of the last five years, and then some. She found her "happy" place on Thursday to achieve a historic career-best: second place in the women's IBU World Cup sprint. "In order to have my best performances in biathlon or anything in life … I really have to find what I love about it,” she said.
Considering anything better than sixth would have been a first-ever for either the U.S. or Canada in Sunday's IBU World Cup mixed relay, that put Lowell Bailey in a bit of a position heading into the final loop. He ended up catching Canada's anchor, Brendan Green for fourth and came within 1.7 seconds of third.
One early miss didn't bog Dorothea Wierer down. Coming off a podium in Friday's sprint, the Italian raced to her third-career IBU World Cup victory in Saturday's mass start, by 20 seconds over France's Marie Dorin Habert. The lone North American in the women's mass start, Susan Dunklee missed 10 targets to place 30th.
The 43rd starter, Ukraine’s Olena Pidhrushna picked off the places to achieve her first World Cup win in four seasons after "retiring" from racing last year. "I realized how much I miss biathlon and how I need it," she said.
It was another sunny one at the Canmore Nordic Centre for the final official training day before six competitions take place in a span of four days (Thursday through Sunday) at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Canmore, Alberta. Daniel S. Guay caught more of the action on Wednesday. See his complete gallery here. To watch the races live, Canadians can tune into CBC (IBU’s Eurovision website.
The IBU World Cup women's relay podium saw three new teams on Sunday after France won the team event by 17.2 seconds over the Czech Republic, and Russia finished 21.1 seconds back in third. The Canadians ended up 13th and the U.S. settled for 17th after being lapped.
Two names on the Antholz pursuit podium were familiar, but also notable: a World Champ who had never won a World Cup, and a new mom who is returning from a year off. Susan Dunklee of the U.S. finished 17th, flying on the tracks with the fourth-fastest ski time of the field.
Two Russians cleaned Thursday's sprint at the IBU World Cup in Antholz, Italy, and both landed on the podium. Olga Podchufarova captured her first World Cup win, finishing 8 seconds faster than Italian runner-up Dorothea Wierer, and Russia's Ekaterina Yurlova hit every target for third. Meanwhile, three North Americans qualified for the pursuit: Rosanna Crawford in 33rd, Susan Dunklee in 37th and Julia Ransom in 46th.
After leading into the final loop of the women’s 4 x 6 k relay on Sunday, Ukraine successfully held off Germany at the finish, to the audible dismay of the packed stadium in Ruhpolding, Germany. The Ukrainian women took the win by 1.2 seconds, Germany finished second and Italy edged Russia in a sprint for third.
Gabriela Soukalova picked up the tenth win of her career in a snowy mass start in Ruhpolding, Germany: "Just before the start of the season, I was talking with a friend about whether I would ever this tenth World Cup. I put ten as a goal before the finish [of the season]. So that now I'll have to increase that a little.”
American Susan Dunklee reached the flower ceremony again on Sunday. She cleaned the first two shooting stages of the IBU World Cup mass start to ski up into second around the halfway point, then missed one shot in the third stage and ended up sixth to tie her season best.