November 30, 2011 (Ostersund, Sweden) – The E.ON IBU Biathlon World Cup got underway in Ostersund, Sweden with round one, the men’s 20-kilometre individual start, and Two-time Olympian Lowell Bailey from Lake Placid, NY, lead the North American charge with a strong top-10 finish ending up in 9th place as France’s Martin Fourcade drew first blood with the win in 53:29.8.

Canada’s Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, the 26-year-old, seven-year veteran from Shannon, Que., also had a competitive start to the season placing 14th.

Bailey was 2:57.4 behind the winner with just misses during his last trip to the range while Fourcade had one miss on his final shooting session. “I’m really happy with the way the race went,” said Bailey. “We had really good preparation here in Sweden the last two weeks, and I’ve had a really good year training.  Everything came together today. I’m really happy today as I tied my personal best. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season, but today was a good way to start,” he added.

Le Guellec at 3:12.4 behind Fourcade also had two misses like Bailey. “I focused hard on my training this summer and everything indicated that I was in good shape, but without racing, it is so hard to measure where you are at because there is no indicator so I had no expectations today,” said Le Guellec who missed one shot standing and one in prone in his four rounds of shooting. “We had fast conditions and my skis were bombing today. It was good today.”

Three-time Olympian Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK) finished 18th today, posting 56:27.2 (0+0+0+2) matching Bailey’s performance on the range. Tim Burke and Leif Nordgren. both recovering from a cold, finished 58th and 64th respectively.

For Canada Scott Perras was 68th, Brendan Green ended up in 72nd and Scott Gow finished 101st at his first-ever World Cup race.

Full results HERE.