January 17, 2016 (Ruhpolding, Germany) – The final event in Ruhpolding saw the Canadian women’s biathlon squad battle to 9th in the women’s 4x6km relay as the Ukraine claimed the gold in a see-saw contest that came down to the wire as the host country, Germany, settled for second at 1.2s behind while Italy captured the bronze at 43.8s back. Team USA finished 16th.

Rosanna Crawford (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Led by 22-year-old rookie, Julia Ransom, the Canadians were as high as fifth courtesy of Rosanna Crawford, who shot clean and handed off to Megan Tandy. Using three spares in prone Tandy lost some ground but cleaned in standing to tag three-time ZIna Olympian Kocher in 10th. Kocher had a strong day on the range with only one miss in the final standing to finish ninth at 1:59.5 behind using seven spare rounds.

Megan Tandy (CAN) © Nordic Focus

“Julia got us off to an awesome start despite breaking a pole in her last lap. I think overall we can be happy with this result as there were a lot of positives and great momentum from today to take with us going forward,” said ZIna Kocher, 33. “We used less than eight spares together, and it’s a top-10. It is crucial for staying in 10th for overall nation World Cup points, which was our goal.”

The U.S. team of Annelies Cook, Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan and Joanne Reid were off to a slow start as Cook suffered one penalty and used four spare rounds tagging off to Dunklee in 21st. “I was disappointed I was unable to get the girls into a good starting position, although I had a lot of confidence in what could happen after that,” said Cook.

Susan Dunklee (USA) © Nordic Focus

Dunklee closed the gap with the fourth-fastest time on the second leg, using just two spares as the team was now 18th. Egan needed only one spare round on her 10 targets and moved up to 16th position at the final exchange as she tagged Reid. The young rookie had two penalties and used four spare rounds but maintained position for the team in 16th place.

Joanne Reid (USA) © Nordic Focus

“We fell just short of our goal to improve on our most recent relay finish of 15th,” said Egan. “We have proved many times already this winter that we each have the skills to put together a solid race, but we haven’t been able to synchronize those efforts on relay day, yet. We are grateful for another opportunity to reestablish ourselves higher up on the results page next week in Antholz.”

Pidhrushna leads Dahlmeier © Nordic Focus

Ukraine held an early lead with perfect shooting until the third leg when Valj Semerenko struggled on the range using four spares including one penalty which allowed Belarus to take over. But she regained the lead for the final hand off to Olena Pidhrushna as Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier shot and skied herself into second.

Pidhrushna forces Dahlmeier to go around her © Nordic Focus

Near the finish Dahlmeier tried to take the inside lane but Pidhrushna closed the door and headed straight to line for win as she forced her rival to take the outside lane and settle for second.

Full results here.