November 29, 2012 (Ostersund, Sweden) – Canada’s Zina Kocher, 29, launched her World Cup biathlon season with a solid start placing 23rd  in the women’s 15km individual event today in Ostersund, Sweden. The Red Deer, Alta. athlete shot clean in prone, but struggled in standing as she missed three shots.

Norway’s Tora Berger shot clean for her first victory of the season signaling her intentions as her Belarus rival Darya Domracheva suffered two misses on her way to second with Russia’s Ekaterina Glazyrina taking 3rd matching Berger on the range as she shot clean as well.

For Kocher her prone shooting gave her a boost. “Today was a solid prone performance and gives me great confidence going into the weekend,” said the two-time Olympian. “There was high potential for it to have been an awesome day today.” While she felt her skiing was sluggish she was the eighth fastest on the course.

Following Kocher was top American biathlete Annelies Cook with three misses at 6:20 behind Berger. Canuck Rosanna Crawford suffered four misses ending up 61st while Megan Imrie was 72nd with four penalties as well. The USA’s Sara Studebaker ended up 76th (4 misses), Susan Dunklee was 81st (7 misses) and Lanny Barnes was 84th with four misses.

Full results HERE.