Nathan Smith (Can) scores 5th place at the IBU World Cup in Nove Mesto ©Nordic Focus

February 08, 2015 (Nove Mesto, CZE) – Canadian Nathan Smith’s precision clean shooting to clean all 20 targets for the second straight day, was his ticket to setting a new career-best 5th in the IBU Men’s 10km Pursuit at Nove Mesto (CZE), the day after placing 7th in the Sprint.

Canada's Green all smiles @ Flower ceremony ©

“These are my first back-to-back cleans of my career. I came close last year in Sochi (29/30), but today is extra special because it is the first 20/20 clean of my biathlon career,” said Smith, who was also perfect on the range in Saturday’s sprint. “It feels awesome to have that success. It makes skiing less of a chore, and you’re excited to get back to the range after the next lap.”

Slovenia’s Jakov Fak held off all chasers to win the gold for the second straight day, clocking a time of 37:24.9 despite being forced to ski the 150-metre penalty loop for missing one shot in his final trip to the range. Germany’s Simon Schempp also missed one shot en route to winning the silver medal with a time of 37:29.3 (0+1+0+0). Martin Fourcade, of France, was clean in shooting, winning the bronze medal with a time of 37:38.2.

Final podium ©

For the men’s pursuit, the sky had cleared for the start but the snow returned intermittently throughout the race. The USA’s Leif Nordgren came in 20th with three penalties while is teammates, Tim Burke and Sean Doherty placed 38th and 41st, respectively – both suffered four penalties.

“Today’s race was pretty messy,” Nordgren said. “We received about 4-6 inches of snow overnight, and the whole day it was snowing on and off, with pretty gusty winds. I think during the women’s race before ours they got about three inches of snow during the race. I was happy with where I finished, it wasn’t a catastrophe, but at the same time I was disappointed. Of my three mistakes on the shooting range, two of them were stupid mistakes that I shouldn’t have made.

Nordgren ©

“On the tracks I felt good for about three loops, but in the later stages of the race I could really feel some fatigue coming on from the last few days of racing. We had good skis again today thanks to our techs, in just about every condition from bright sunshine some minutes, to total whiteout blizzard a few minutes later. Definitely some of the craziest conditions I’ve ever had for a race before. I’m really happy with how this week has gone. My best-ever finish, and two top-20 results as well as a good relay leg. Hopefully I can keep this momentum going into next week’s races in Oslo.”

Nathan Smith (Can) on his way to 5th place at the IBU World Cup in Nove Mesto ©Nordic Focus

Starting behind the leader in seventh spot based on Saturday’s career-best sprint finish, the 29-year-old Smith completed the best weekend of his life, shooting clean for the second straight day.

“Today was a little unlucky for me as the top-three men were basically the Overall World Cup leaders,” added the 2014 Olympian. “If a couple of them faltered I could have been there, but it is tough to beat the best when they are on 100 per cent. I know though if you’re only a couple of places off the podium enough times, one day it will happen.”

Full results here.