Darya Domracheva (BLR) © Nordic Focus

March 21, 2015 (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia) – Canada’s Rosanna Crawford fought her way back into 13th spot in the women’s 10km Pursuit in Khanty-Mansiysk with one missed target at 2:18 behind winner Darya Domracheva of Belarus with one penalty as well.

Rosanna Crawford (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier shot clean to win the silver at 15.7s behind while her teammate Franziska Preuss was also perfect on the range finishing together with Dahlmeier for the bronze.

The women’s 10k pursuit proved to be a tale of two halves at the shooting range for the two American athletes.

Susan Dunklee (USA) © Nordic Focus

For the USA Susan Dunklee started strong but faltered on the range in standing while Hannah Dreissigacker struggled early but finished strong. Dunklee’s day was saved by her continued strong skiing of late as she put up the second-fastest course time behind Domracheva, en route to a 23rd-place finish with five missed targets. Dreissigacker missed four targets in prone but only one in standing to place 38th as both qualified for Sunday’s 12.5k mass start.

Final podium © Nordic Focus

“I had a plan to treat this race like a biathlon race, not just a ski race,” said Dunklee. “That meant finding 100 percent mental focus for the range and I think I executed that well. Prone came together really nicely, but some small thing was slightly off in standing causing a lot of close misses. Tomorrow is a special day. It will be the first time in a few years that we will have two American women in a mass start together.”

Full results here.