March 09, 2013 (Sochi, RUS) – Frenchman Martin Fourcade stormed to victory despite tough slow conditions that included mild temperatures around 1.6°C, light snow, and a slight breeze. But the slow skiing due to deep slushy snow did not affect Fourcade, as he took the lead from start to finish with precise, clean shooting and strong skiing to finish with a time of 25:17.3, with a comfortable 42.3 seconds over his nearest competitor, Evgeny Ustyugov of Russia.

Ustyugov missed a target in the final round of shooting to claim the silver while Norway’s Henrik L’Abee-Lund had a career-best 3rd place finish at 51s back with no penalties.

Fourcade picked up where he left of on Thursday by claiming his second victory at round 8 of the IBU World Cup in Sochi, Russia. With an eye on the 2014 Olympic Games, he was pleased with his results at the venue so far. “I am just a man with two arms and two legs, and I’m in really good shape now,” Fourcade said in a biathlonworld.com report.  “This week, my goal was to get a good feeling for the Sochi tracks.”

The USA’s Tim Burke, who finished 5th in Thursday’s 20km Individual, was the top North American finishing in 28th at 1:45.8 behind with two penalties. “The shooting was kind of my downfall today. I had two penalties which is too much for a sprint, especially on a range approach like this where my shooting is normally good.” Burke told SkiTrax. “It was really tough skiing in really deep slushy snow which took its toll today. I think my teammate Lowell [Bailey] said it best: it was more like swamp running than skiing on the uphills.”

Fellow American Bailey was close behind in 30th, while Canadians Scott Gow and Jean Philippe LeGuellec placed 49th and 52nd respectively.  Rounding out the North Americans were Scott Perras of Canada in 90th and USA’s Russell Currier in 91st place.

Women’s Sprint

The women’s race was delayed by 30 minutes as fog rolled in. Plus three degrees temperatures along with heavy wet snow that arrived when the fog finally lifted made conditions even tougher and more challenging than the men’s race.

When the dust settled it as Poland’s Magdalena Gwizdon taking her second career victory with clean shooting to win the women’s 7.5km sprint in 25:28.7. Taking home the silver was Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina, the defending Olympic Sprint champ, who suffered one penalty finishing at 10.2 seconds back. World Cup leader, Tora Berger (NOR), also had one penalty to take 3rd at 13.7 seconds behind.

Annelies Cook from Saranac Lake, NY posted the top finish for Team USA placing 18th with one penalty at 1:30.9 back. “That was a tough day out there,” said Cook in a team release. “First the fog was so thick, you couldn’t see anything. We weren’t sure if we could race, but luckily it cleared up. I was pretty excited to race today. Sometimes when conditions are a little crazy it seems like people relax a bit because it makes everything a bit more unpredictable, and you just have to laugh about it.

“I felt like it would be fun. But that course is so hard that by the time I came around for my second loop, it wasn’t that much fun anymore. It just hurt a lot. The new snow made it so hard to ski. But, it was hard for everyone and our team is tough! I was really happy to clean standing and the miss in prone was too bad. I was fighting so hard to try and make it into the top-15 again, but I just died out there to make it to the finish. That was so so hard, but I am happy to have had another strong performance! It’s always nice to have two in a row in a sport as unpredictable as biathlon,” she concluded.

(USA)

Fellow American Susan Dunklee was 25th with two penalties at 1:51.5 back while Sara Studebaker finished 51st with two misses as well at 2:59.6 behind Gwizdon. Canada’s Zina Kocher was 65th with three misses at 3:22.3 behind, Megan Imrie had two misses placing 69th at 3:41.9 and Rosanna Crawford finished 76th at 4:02.1 with one penalty.

Men’s results HERE.
Women’s results HERE.