December 02, 2011 (Ostersund, SWE) – Lowell Bailey struck again with a career-best 5th place finish in Ostersund in the men’s 10km Sprint at 22.4 seconds behind clean shooting, winner Carl Johan Bergman (SWE), with a time of 24:22.5. Canada’s Brendan Green, 25, had a perfect day on the shooting range as well to match his career-best World Cup performance finishing in 14th on Friday.

Tim Burke rebounded with a 12th place finish (25:19.2, 0+1) giving the American squad two spots in the top 20.

“It’s not every day in biathlon that you can execute everything the way you want it to go, but today was one of those days,” said Bailey after today’s race. “It’s been a long time for me doing this sport. I look back at the last 5-6 years with the US Biathlon staff, and I feel like we have learned so much. Today is one of the times I realize how much we have learned and how far we have come. We are all really excited.”

Canada’s Green was stoked with his performance as well. “I’m definitely pumped with today’s result and it feels great,” said Green. “I was able to put in what felt like a consistent and solid effort throughout the entire race, and I felt like I was in complete control of my shooting.”

Bailey now sits 4th overall in World Cup standings following his 9th place finish in Wednesday’s 20km opener. “I’m really excited for Sunday’s Pursuit. I’ve never started that high, and I’m really excited to mix it up in that that field,” added Bailey.

Burke was also buoyed by his performance. “It was a really good day, I’m happy with my performance and results,” said Burke. “It’s my best race in a while. I’ve had a really solid year of training, and was disappointed not to show that in the first race this week, but I felt I bounced back and showed it today. I’m really excited for the Pursuit, it will be an exciting race with so many so close together. It’s one of my favorite formats.” Burke’s teammate Jay Hakkinen was 39th while Leif Nordgren finished 79th.

Three other Canadians hit the start line in Oestersund including Regina’s Scott Perras placed 69th spot at 27:12.3; World Cup rookie, Scott Gow of Calgary, finished 80th (27:35.0); and Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, of Shannon, Que., was 86th (27:45.5) after placing 14th in the individual event on Wednesday.

Full results HERE.