January 03, 2014 (Oberhof, GER) – Rain, wind and fog were the order of the day in the men’s 10km Sprint at Oberhof as the Emil Hegle Svendsen (NOR) scored his first IBU World Cup victory this season in a very tight battle with teammate Ole Einar Björndalen winning by only 0.4s. Both suffered two penalties with Svendsen cleaning in the final standing stage despite tough conditions on the range that helped secure his victory.

Third went to World Cup leader Martin Fourcade of France who looked like he was in control early on after he shot clean in prone, but he faltered with three penalties in standing to finish 21.7 seconds behind Björndalen.

Canada’s Macx Davies was the top North American in 42nd also suffering two penalties followed by the USA’s Leif Nordgren in 43rd (2 penalties). American Tim Burke finished 61st (6 penalties) while Canada’s Marc Andre Bedard was 78th (5 penalties). Lowell Bailey did not race due to a cold. Davies and Nordgren will race in Saturday’s 12.5km pursuit as only the top 60 athletes advance.

Clean shooting was virtually impossible as only five athletes managed to hit all targets. Björndalen took an early lead until Fourcade cleaned in prone and took over as Svendsen chased after missing two shots in prone. Then it was Fourcade’s turn to lose ground with his three penalties as Björndalen also missed another shot while Svendsen went to the hoop shooting clean to gain the edge and the victory.

“The course was quite good…the organizers did a very good job with the preparations. The win was confirmation of good and hard work in the past few weeks. I was a bit anxious since I had no wins this year, so it is nice to have at least one win before the Olympics,” Svendsen told biathlonworld.com.

In the women’s 7.5K sprint Darya Domracheva (Blr) had one penalty on her way to victory over Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen (2 penalties) followed by Olena Pidhrushna (Ukr), who shot clean, in third.

Leading the North Americans was the USA’s Susan Dunklee in 32nd (4 penalties) with the 10th best ski time in the field of 88 competitors. Canada’s Claude Godbout was 52nd with one penalty followed by Annelies Cook in 60th (4 penalties). Canada’s Audrey Vaillancourt was 61st with three penalties while teammate Julia Ransom was 82nd (5 penalties) and Emma Lodge was 83rd with four penalties.

“Oberhof is known for extreme conditions of fog, wind and rain, and today it didn’t disappoint,” said Dunklee. “On the range I struggled with the conditions and jet lag.  However my body felt much more responsive on skis than earlier in the season and that is a huge step in the right direction.”

Domracheva, who has never won at Oberfof, was a bit surprised at her victory given the bad weather. “Normally, I do not like the bad weather here, but then I thought about it and decided today could be a good race even with the bad weather,” she told Biathlonworld.com

Men’s full results here.
Women’s full results here.