January 10, 2016 (Ruhpolding, GER) – American Susan Dunklee skied to a career-best sixth place in the women’s 12.5km mass start at the BMW IBU World Cup 4 in Ruhpolding, Germany on Sunday with just one miss on the shooting range. Her previous best  mass start finish came at the 2014 Olympic Games where she was 11th and on the World Cup finish it was 16th on the same Ruhpolding course a year ago.

Susan Dunklee (USA) © Nordic Focus

Clean-shooting Laura Dahlmeier of Germany won the race in 33:17.7 giving her four wins this season. France’s Marie Dorin Habert was second with one penalty at 15.3 seconds behind. Tiril Eckhoff of Norway, with two penalties claimed third in a photo-finish with France’s Anais Bescond, both at 21.9 seconds behind Dahlmeier.

Susan Dunklee (USA) © Nordic Focus

“I have felt great on skis in past years but I had never fully felt in control in head-to-head shooting situations,” said Dunklee. “This year I’ve taken a huge step in speeding up my shooting times and in maintaining my same calm mental approach on the range no matter what craziness is happening around me. Today was a great performance for me. I didn’t quite have enough gas left to fight for third place on that last loop and I lost a couple places, but I’m confident my skiing will get a little sharper later in the season. Once again, our staff put together some blazing fast skis and I’m thankful to be a part of this team.”

Check out IBU Biathlonworld’s interview with Dunklee here.

Women's podium (USA) © Nordic Focus

In the men’s 15km mass start held earlier in the day the USA’s Lowell Bailey finished 16th with three penalties at 1:15.2 behind France’s Martin Fourcade won the men’s mass start in 34:07.2, with one penalty. Canada’s Nathan Smith finished 25th with an uncharacteristic six penalties at 2:23.4 behind.

Lowell Bailey (USA) © Nordic Focus

Ondrej Moravec of Czech Republic, the only clean shooter in the field, finished second, 13.7 seconds back. Norway’s Tarjei Boe, despite three penalties, finished third at 29.7 seconds behind.

Men's podium (USA) © Nordic Focus

Bailey cleaned the first prone to move up to eighth place, just 5.7 seconds back of the lead pack. Another clean round at the second prone stage moved him up to fourth, only 2.5 seconds out of third. However, a miss at the first standing stage set Bailey back to ninth, but still only eight seconds our of fourth place. Two more misses at the final standing stage pushed him out of the top 10 and he hung on to finish 16th, still just 45 seconds from third place.

Women’s results here.
Men’s results here.