March 13, 2004 – Since the World Championships were held in Oberhof in early February, Olga Pyleva of Russia has stood on the top of the podium at every stop on international circuit.  In Oberhof, she won the individual race by a large margin. When she arrived in the United States later in the month, she continued to make climbing to the top of the podium a part of her to-do list.  She won the sprint race in Lake Placid and the mass start in Fort Kent. Just two days ago on the outskirts of Oslo, Pyleva impressed the Norwegian fans winning the sprint competition.  With more than a half-minute lead in today's 10K pursuit, Pyleva was set up with a nice lead. She kept that in the end to take her second victory of the week at Holmenkollen.

Pyleva's early lead is challenged Pyleva arrived into the shooting range for the first stage in the prone position with a lead that would allow her only one miss.  With the flags flapping from some light winds, Pyleva's third shot went right of the prone target. She still managed to leave with only one missed target.

As Pyleva left, Kati Wilhelm of Germany arrived to the second shooting mat. She quickly hit all five of her targets and as Pyleva left the penalty loop to move back onto the course, the German was now only 6.5 seconds behind.

The Russian ski service technicians missed the mark, at least compared to their German counterparts.  On every downhill, Wilhelm made impressive gains on Pyleva until she finally glided passed her on a slight downhill into the cross-country ski stadium.

In the second shooting stage, also in the prone position, the two leaders were together.  Pyleva began shooting first and left the range just as Wilhelm hit her fourth consecutive shot.  Would the two remain in their entertaining dual? Just as quickly as it seemed that Pyleva would be challenged, Wilhelm missed her last shot.

Poiree arrives on stage Competing in front of her dearest fans, Liv Grete Poiree started the race in fifth with a fifty-two second deficit to Pyleva.  In the first shooting stage, she suffered the same bad luck of missing her final target.  She left the range still in fifth place, but now only 34.3 seconds behind the Russian leader. On the second lap, Poiree showed her true skiing talent, moving up through the field to enter the range in third, just as Pyleva hit her first target in the second stage.  Poiree missed her first target, but then hit the next four, yet still dropping her to sixth place moving out onto the third lap.

Katrin Apel makes a charge Veteran German competitor Katrin Apel made a charge for the lead after arriving in the range for the third shooting stage, this time in the standing position, in second.  She had left the range after the second shooting in second place, only 21.5 seconds down to Pyleva.  She quickly gained on the Russian, making up over ten seconds in 1.3K.

Into the range, she arrived just as Pyleva was setting herself up to shoot. While Pyleva missed her first shot, Apel hit one target after another.  With Apel's third hit, Pyleva left the range, but had to ski a 150-meter penalty loop.  Apel cleaned!  She moved out onto course in first place, 3.2 seconds ahead of Bulgarian Ekaterina Dafovska, who had also hit all five of her targets in the stage.

Dafovska was not able to capitalize on her position just behind Apel, and began to fall back behind the German.  She lost 4.2 seconds in the first 1.3K after the range, and continued that trend.

Approaching the range for the final time, Apel looked calm after a long tuck that allowed her some rest.  Perhaps her method of approach was fated to cause her to miss, but miss she did.  She missed her first target, just as Dafovska moved onto the mat behind her.  She missed again.  Meanwhile, Dafovska was hitting her targets.  As Apel missed her fourth shot, Dafovska responded with her third hit.  When Apel missed her final shot, leaving the range with a horrendous total of four misses, Dafovska missed her fourth shot. The Bulgarian's last shot was hit.

Pyleva reemerges Just as Apel and Dafovska were leaving the range, bound for the penalty loop, Pyleva arrived into the range in third.  Confidently, but deliberately, Pyleva hit all five of her targets.  She moved onto the course in the lead, 7.5 seconds ahead of Dafovska, who had just concluded her penalty loop.

Norwegian crowd cheers on its hero Poiree began setting up for her final bout of shooting as Pyleva hit her third target.  She began hitting targets, with the crowd behind her cheering every one.  Her fourth shot was just out, low and left, but she followed up with a quick final hit, leaving the range with only one penalty.

Podium decided after final shooting With a small chance that the top three positions would change, Pyleva, Dafovska, and Poiree slowed their pace to save their energy for tomorrow's mass start competition.  Poiree left the range in third place, 48.0 seconds behind Pyleva, but Poiree's next competitor was nearly a half-minute behind her.

Rachel Steer impressive on range, yet again The only American competitor in the race, Rachel Steer of Anchorage, Alaska, began the race in fourteenth. With clean shooting in the first two stages, she moved herself up into ninth place, only 1:36.0 behind the leader. Steer has said that her standing position is much more solid than her prone in the past, but today proved that notion wrong.

In the third stage, Steer missed her first shot, but hit the remaining four to leave the range in eleventh place. The 26-year-old Alaskan entered the range for the final bout in fourteenth place, but again missed her first shot. Because her competitors also had missed targets, she was able to maintain her fourteenth place moving onto the final lap.

Though she showed her winning form on the range, Steer was again hindered by her ski speed. She was passed early in the loop by Anna Carin Olofsson of Sweden and Olga Zaitseva of Russia, claiming sixteenth place in the end with a time of 38:31.1, 2:42.9 minutes behind the winner.

Today still represented a wonderful show of Steer's talents.  Her sixteenth place today is the third best result of her career on the World Cup.  She has had six top-25 results this season, making it her best season ever.  It is interesting to note that all of this has come as a result of training separately from the National Team and its coach, Algis Shalna. She trains with Jan Buron in Anchorage, isolated from other high-caliber biathletes.

Disl amazing with impressive advancement 33-year-old Uschi Disl of Germany put forth an amazing effort in today's competition, moving up through the field in fantastic form from her thirty-fifth start position, over two minutes behind Pyleva.  She missed two targets in her first stage, maintaining the position she started in, but moved up into fourteenth position after missing only two targets in the next two stages.

She entered the range for the final bout in tenth place, but quickly hit all five of her targets down, leaving in seventh place, 1:31.3 down to Pyleva, and 16.4 seconds behind fourth place.  Disl quickly passed her teammate Katrin Apel, but made a dash for Sandrine Bailly and Svetlana Ishmouratova on the final stretch to claim fourth place!

Finish results Olga Pyleva crossed the finish line in first place with two penalties and a time of 35:48.2.  Ekaterina Dafovska of Bulgaria was arrived 10.5 seconds later with only one penalty.  Home-favorite Liv Grete Poiree was third with five penalties, 45.4 seconds back.

Season concludes tomorrow The regular World Cup season will conclude tomorrow with the standard running of the mass start competition.  It has taken place in Oslo-Holmenkollen as the final World Cup race for the past six seasons.  A mixture of rain and light snow is forecasted for the venue, with temperatures hovering above freezing.  No Americans are scheduled at the moment to start, though if two competitors drop out in the morning, Rachel Steer will be given a start spot.

The Americans will now split into two groups, with those members of the team in the military proceeding to Ostersund, Sweden, for World Military Ski Championships.  Steer will be joined by Sarah Konrad (Laramie, Wyoming), Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, Alaska), and Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, New York) on a week-long trip to Siberia.  Khanty-Mansiysk, just east of the Ural Mountains, will host the IBU Grand Prix with three competitions scheduled for later next week.

Women's 10K Pursuit

1. Olga Pyleva RUS 1,0,1,0 35:48.2

2. Ekaterina Dafovska BUL 0,0,0,1 +0:10.5

3. Liv Grete Poiree NOR 1,1,2,1 +0:45.4

16. Rachel Steer USA 0,0,1,1 +2:42.9