December 18, 2017 (Annecy-Le Grand Bornand, France) – The USA’s Susan Dunklee led the North American with a 20th-place finish on Sunday in the women’s 12.5km Mass Start at Annecy-Le Grand Bornand with three missed targets as Frenchwoman Justine Braisaz gave thousands of French fans reason to cheer with clean shooting and a career-first World Cup victory.

Iyna Kryuko of Belarus matched Braisaz on the shooting range to finish second at 11.2 seconds back for her first-ever World Cup podium. Laura Dahlmeier (Ger) was third at 19.9 seconds behind with two penalties. Emma Lunder was the lone Canadian in 28th at  2:21.4 behind with one penalty.

“I’m happy to head into the break with some good results behind me. I’m very impressed with the amount of fans in such a small place,” said Dunklee. “I couldn’t hear any of my coaches in course because the roar of the crowd was so loud.”

In the men’s 15k mass start held later in the day Martin Fourcade gave the partisan French crowd exactly what they wanted with a clean-shooting performance to take the victory in 36:30.3 and sweep the mass start competitions for France.

Second place went to sprint/pursuit double winner Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway, with two penalties at 3.9 seconds back. Erik Lesser of Germany finished third, also shooting clean, 6.2 seconds back.

The USA’s Lowell Bailey finished 23rd with three penalties on the range while his teammate Sean Doherty was right behind in 24th with four missed targets. Canada’s Scott Gow finished 26th with five penalties.

The teams now have a couple weeks off for the holiday break before action resumes with the BMW IBU World Cup 4 in Oberhof, Germany, Jan. 4-7.–

 

Women’s results here.
Full results here.