December 21, 2014 (Pokljuka, Slovenia) – Calgary’s Nathan Smith, 28, missed one shot in each of his first and final stops at the range en route to a 9th-place finish in the men’s 15km mass start race won by Russia’s Anton Shipulin with one missed target.

Nathan Smith (CAN) © Nordic Focus

France’s Martin Fourcade claimed second, also with one penalty only 1.2s behind, in a battle with Austria’s Simon Eder at 1.4s back and Fredrik Lindstroem (SWE) at 1.5s for an exciting finish to the weekend of racing in Pokljuka (SLO).

Shipulin takes the win over Fourcade (l) and Eder with Lindstroem behind © Nordic Focus

The USA’s Bailey had two penalties and moved up from 26th place to 19th but fell back to 22nd after a miss in the final stage to finish at 1:34.6 behind Shipulin. Bailey’s teammate Tim Burke had a tough day on the range with six penalties ending up in 27th.

Lowell Bailey © Nordic Focus

“I was actually pretty satisfied with most of my race today,” said Bailey. “I felt better on the ski course and the shooting was pretty decent. The only issue was early on in the first prone stage. I had some trouble with my rifle and probably lost an extra 25 seconds getting that figured out. This made it pretty hard to recover and catch the rest of the pack. Other than that, I’m satisfied with the race and looking forward to the Christmas break.”

Full results here.