February 02, 2012 (Oslo, NOR) – Magdalena Neuner of Germany was perfect on the shooting range on Thursday as she scored her 6th victory of the 2011-12 season winning the women’s 7.5km sprint in Olso with a time of 20:41.9. Neuner lead from the start as sunny skies and ideal weather made for superb skiing and shooting conditions. In 2nd place at 38 seconds behind was Darya Domracheva of Belarus with Norway’s Tora Berger finishing in third.

The North American women faired well with Canada’s Megan Imrie, 25, also nailing a perfect day in her two trips to the range posting a personal best 17th-place result. The USA’s Sara Studebaker following in 23rd while Canada’s Zina Kocher was 25th. Just out of the points were Annelies Cook & Susan Dunklee of the USA in 33rd and 35th respectively.

“I was a little sick last week so I knew my skiing wouldn’t be as strong as I’d like so, I focused solely on the shooting process, taking each shot one breadth at a time,” said the 2010 Olympian in a team release, whose previous best was 20th. “It was cold today but like a good Manitoba girl I employed every hand warming strategy in the book. The targets just wanted to fall today and I hit them all.”

Neuner was also a little under the weather for the race and like Imrie tweaked her strategy for today’s race. “Shooting is often the key, but it was especially important to shoot well today. I tried to focus on that since I did not know how I would feel on the tracks,” Neuner said in a post-race interview.

It was stellar day for the entire Canadian squad (men and women) with all five athletes placing in the top-30 for the first time in the history of the sport, qualifying each of them for Saturday’s pursuit competition.

“It is clear our team flicked their performance ‘on’ switch for this final weekend before heading home,” quipped Imrie, who added that hot Norwegian waffles fueled the Canadian squad’s success. “We are happy with the direction we’re heading. Watch out Saturday, it is about to get Canadian.”

Full results HERE.