December 03, 2014 (Ostersund, SWE) – US Biathlon’s Tim Burke, a three-time Olympian, was just outside the top 10 claiming 11th with three penalties in the men’s 20-kilometer individual start won by convincingly by Emil Hegle Svendsen who was the only competitor to shoot clean. Serhiy Semenov (UKR) was second at 1:17.6 with one penalty and Michal Slesingr (CZE) was third at 2:08.3 also with one penalty.

Burke had the eighth-fastest time on the course and shot clean at the last standing session. Today’s strong performance follows Team USA’s impressive seventh-place in the mixed relay on Sunday.

Tim Burke in action © US Biathlon/NordicFocus

“I am happy with my 11th place in today’s race,” Burke said. “Going into the season, I felt like my shape was at a good level, but you never really know until you start racing. The 20k course here is known as being one of the toughest on the World Cup and the wind and warm snow only added to that today.

“It was nice to get this one done with and I am looking forward to the races this weekend. While I was happy with the result today, I definitely still have some areas that I will be looking to improve on in the next races.”

Burke’s teammate Lowell Bailey, who looked poised for a top-10 finish until the last shooting stage where he missed two shots, was 20th also with three penalties. Canada’s Brendan Green was 49th (4 penalties), Nathan Smith was 54th (7 penalties), Marc-André Bedard placed 61st (4 penalties) and Scott Perras was 73rd (6 penalties). The USA’s Leif Nordgren was 71st (4 penalties) and Russell Currier was 74th (7 penalties).

“It was challenging, for sure,” said Bailey about Wednesday’s conditions. “The weather warmed up quite a bit before the race which made for some pretty icy, mushy downhills and the track deteriorated pretty quickly. And the added wind made it even more challenging on the range. I couldn’t hold it together in the wind there. I thought I could wait it out but you never want to miss that last shot when you wait 10 or 20 seconds for the wind to die down. All is all I’m happy with the race and it was a solid start to the season.”

Complete results are available here.