January 20, 2005 – Canada’s Robin Clegg exploded into the top-20 with his best-ever biathlon World Cup result in Antholz, Italy on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old Olympian combined impressive speed on the course with the execution of a near-perfect shooting score to finish the men’s 20-kilometre individual event in 17th place with a time of one hour 57.9 seconds.

“It was a very difficult day for me mentally. I just had to keep pushing and remain completely focused,” said Clegg, who rejoined the Canadian Biathlon Team in Italy for the first time in World

Cup competition since the holiday break. “I took a lot of extra time at the shooting range because of strong winds, and tried not to worry too much about where I was in the standings.”

Clegg, of Ottawa, maintained pace with the top-five for most of the race, powering his way into second, until two shooting errors during the last shooting bout cost him two penalty loops, pushing him out the top-10.

“My performance today shows that I can compete with the best in the world, and that it is more than possible to break into the top-10,” said Clegg. “I’m addicted to the challenge of achieving the perfect race and it is what drives me to compete.”

Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen took the top prize, finishing the day’s race a full two minutes 33.5 seconds ahead of his closest competitor to take the gold medal with a time of 54:48.0, hitting all 20 targets. Chengye Hang of China joined Bjoerndalen on the podium in second at 57:21.5, with one shooting error, while Nikolay Kruglov of Russia was third at 57:32.4, and a perfect shooting score.

David Leoni of Camrose Alta. was the only other Canadian competitor in the men’s 20-kilometre individual, finishing the race in 72nd place with a time of 1:05.50.0, hitting 14 of 20 targets. There were 118 of the world’s top biathlon athletes competing in Wednesday’s race.