January 23, 2011 (Anholtz, Italy) – Germany needed just seven spare rounds to claim the top podium spot in Sunday’s 4×7.5km Men’s Relay in Antholz. The foursome, consisting of Stephan Christoph (0+1, 0+0), Daniel Böhm (0+0, 0+2), Arnd Peiffer (0+2, 0+0), and Michael Greis (0+0, 0+2), was dominant all day to finish in a total time of 1:10:17.2.

“I was warming up so I did not follow the whole competition before my leg,” Greis said at the post-race interview, “However, I realized that my teammates had done a very good job and it was up to me to finish the job.” Greis did just that, shooting clean in his final lap to bring home the victory.

For Team USA it was a solid day as Lowell Bailey, Leif Nordgren, Jeremy Teela and Tim Burke delivered a 9th place finish in a field of 21 teams who battled for the last relay podium before the 2011 IBU World Championships in Russia.

Second-place Italy, shot clean with nine spare rounds to finish 18.6 seconds behind the winners in front of the partisan home crowd. The team was led by Christian De Lorenzi, who used three spare rounds to shoot clean before passing off to Rene Laurent Vuillermoz. The three-time Olympian needed just one spare round to shoot clean in both laps before handing the reigns to Lukas Hofer. Hofer utilized three spares in his last lap before Markus Windisch closed out the race with a 2-spare performance and a total time of 1:10:35.8.

“It was great feeling to be on the podium with my teammates in my home stadium,” Hofer said, “Although we were almost first, we are very happy to be second.”

Norway rounded out the podium after a no-miss, 8-spare round performance. The squad started things off with Emile Hegle Svedsen, who is currently second in the World Cup standings. Svedsen used one spare round in each lap before handing things off to the legendary Ole Einer Bjorndalen.

The 92-time World Cup winner shot clean with no spares in both laps to boost the team into podium contention. Alexander Os raced the third leg, using just two spare rounds in his final lap before passing off to current overall points leader Tarjei Boe. But Boe faltered using four spare rounds to bring Norway across the finish line in 3rd place, less than 10 seconds back from Italy.

Team USA improved upon their 16th place effort at the Oberhof relay’s to finish with an overall time of 1:12:32.1. Bailey got things off to a fast start, using just one spare in his last lap to pass off to Nordgren in 2nd place behind Russia.

Nordgren used three spare rounds before tagging Teela, who missed one shot and used 3 spare rounds. “It was really fun to race here. I missed my first extra in prone, that wasn’t good, but beside that it was a great race, “ said Nordgren. “I was happy that I still had some energy left on the last loop and stayed up front there.”

Veteran Burke served as the anchor, also missing a shot and utilizing three spares to bring the team across the line in 9th. While Burke was a bit frustrated in the end both Bailey and Nordgren delivered performances that rank among their career best which augurs well with the next two World Cups coming to Maine.

“It was the best race of my life,” said Bailey in a US Biathlon report, “For sure I had better shootings before that, but my skiing was really good. I’m actually so happy, I can’t even talk”

Full results HERE.

Results (brief)

1. Germany (0+7) 1:10:17.2
2. Italy (0+9) 1:10:35.8
3. Norway (0+8) 1:10:45.4

9. USA (2+10) 1:12:32.1