December 19, 2015 (Pokljuka, Slovenia) – The USA’s Tim Burke moved up five spots to claim ninth in the men’s 12.5km Pursuit with one missed target as clean-shooting Simon Schempp of Germany took the win with a time of 30:46.5 at IBU World Cup 3 in Pokljuka, Slovenia.

Tim Burke © NordicFocus

Martin Fourcade of France was second at 16.6 seconds back, with one penalty, while Russia’s Anton Shipulin was third at 23.4 seconds behind Schempp with two penalties.

Burke’s teammate Lowell Bailey started 15th and finished 29th after shooting clean in prone but had two penalties in standing. The top Canuck was Green who charging up the standings from 46th climbing 16 spots to 30th missing two shots in his final round of standing shooting.

“Today I was finally able to match good skiing with solid shooting,” Burke said. “I’m really happy with my entire performance today and I am looking forward to the mass start tomorrow. Today was an interesting race for me because I ended up skiing most of the race by myself, which is very unusual for a pursuit. Normally, I would expect to move up more with only one penalty but the guys at the front were not missing.”

For Bailey it was an ok result. “Not a bad day for me, but without near perfection, it’s hard to compete with this field,” said Bailey. “There was great overall shooting in the men’s field today so I lost a few places with penalties in each of the last three stages. Looking forward to tomorrow. Congrats to Tim and Susan on some great races today.”

Nathan Smith (Can) finished 35th with teammate Scott Gow in 45th, the USA’s Leif Nordgren moved up three spots to 49th, while Canada’s Macx Davies fell back into 57th while Christian Gow did not finish.

Full results here.