January 23, 2015 (Antholz, Italy) – Susan Dunklee raced to her best performance of the season on Friday at the IBU World Cup in Antholz, Italy, finishing eighth in the women’s 7.5km Sprint with one penalty at 1:10 behind winner Darya Domracheva (Bel) who shot clean. Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen took second with one penalty at 26.9s while Laura Dahlmeier (Ger) also cleaned to take third at 50.4 behind Domracheva.

Susan Dunklee (USA) © Nordic Focus

“My focus today was not so much about nailing the individual components of the race, but putting them together in a way to make a strong biathlon performance,” Dunklee said. “That meant holding back in certain places on the race course so I would feel recovered enough for the shooting. With the added stress of high elevation, it is extremely important to pace smartly.”

After missing all of last week with a fever and bad cough that prevented her from doing any training at all, Rosanna Crawford 26, led the Canadians with a 29th-place finish and one missed target at 1:47.

Rosanna Crawford (CAN) © Nordic Focus

“I felt pretty good in race preparation on Wednesday and was hoping things would keep on that trend, but today in warm up my legs felt pretty dead and I knew it was going to be a fight,” said Crawford. “My first loop was decent, but I just didn’t feel like I had that push for the next two laps.”

Starting 12th on the day, Dunklee went clean in prone and left the range in fourth place, just 6.2 seconds back of the lead. After one miss in standing, she remained in fourth place and held that position across the line, eventually being bumped down to eighth.

“I often perform well when I am happy, and with craggy mountains, sunshine, and plenty of snow, Antholz feels like paradise. It is one of my favorite stops on the circuit.”

Darya Domracheva (BLR) © Nordic Focus

Fellow Canuck Megan Heinicke was 40th with with two penalties, Hannah Dreissigacker was 60th with three penalties, Annelies Cook came in 67th with two penalties, Julia Ransom (CAN) was 76th with three missed targets, Audrey Vaillancourt (CAN) was 83rd with one penalty and Maddie Phaneuf  placed 93rd with three penalties in her first World Cup sprint.

With their performances today, Dunklee, Crawford, Heinicke and Dreissigacker qualify for tomorrow’s 10km pursuit.

Full women’s sprint results are available here.