February 07, 2016 (Canmore, AB) – Team USA saved the best for last as they vied for the podium in the Mixed 2×6+2×7.5 km Relay at the BMW IBU World Cup 7 in Canmore with a stellar 4th-place result courtesy of Susan Dunklee, Hannah Dreissigacker, Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey.

Lowell Bailey battles for the podium © Angus Cockney

Canada was on fire as well racing to a strong sixth-place finish as Rosanna Crawford, Sarah Beaudry, Macx Davies and Brendan Green delivered a thrilling result for local fans, matching their career-best mixed relay finish.

Brendan Green © Pam Doyle

After a blustery day on Saturday, it was blue-bird and sunshine as photo-worthy Canmore showed her face for the grand finale of the biathlon World Cup. Thousands of spectators were on their game, lining the race course and sending booming cheers from the stands and the American and the Canadian mixed relay teams did not disappoint.

Susan Dunklee set the tone by shooting clean in prone and in spite of using three spares in standing, she was a rocket on her skis and tagged Dreissigacker in fifth place at 16.3 seconds out of the lead. “I had a lot of races last year where I was right in the mix, skiing with the leaders, and that is my favourite style of racing, and what a great way to finish off the Canmore world cup,” said Dunklee.

Susan Dunklee © Pam Doyle

Crawford set the tone for the Canadian squad with her best performance at the Canmore round, skiing to sixth as she tagged Beaudry while Switzerland and Italy were leading. A raucous crowd chanted Crawford’s name at the start, and she delivered despite feeling under the weather this week. “That start was pretty special. I could pick out my mom’s voice from the crowd. It’s so nice to have such an amazing fan base in Canmore,” said Crawford.

Rosanna Crawford © Angus Cockney

Dreissigacker hit nine of 10 targets to move the American squad up to fourth as Burke headed out for his leg. Competing in her first mixed relay this year, Beaudry held Canada’s position over the 6km before handing off to Davies.

“I’m very happy with my race and the performance of the rest of the team too,” said Dreissigacker. “I had awesome skis, good people to ski with, and I finally feel like I’ve recovered my confidence in the shooting range. It was a really really fun race!”

Hannah Dreissigacker  © Angus Cockney

On how she felt about a clutch performance in front of a home crowd, Beaudry said she used the energy of the spectators. “The crowd practically broke my eardrums, but I loved it. Taking that and using that was super exciting today.”

Sarah Beaudry © Angus Cockney

At this stage Germany was now in charge as the hometown boy dropped two spots, but kept the Canucks within striking distance of the top-five. Despite one penalty and needing to use three spares, Burke skied with panache and kept his team entrenched in fourth as he made the final exchange with Bailey.

Burke tags Bailey © Pam Doyle

Never one to bow to pressure, rookie Davies used a total of three spares for Canada, and tagged anchor Brendan Green in 7th place. “It is definitely a different feeling when you are closer to the front in a relay,” said Davies. “You know that if you want a good result you need to set up the last guy to do it and I’m really happy I was able do that today. I think overall it was an awesome day for all of us.”

MacxDavies shoots prone © Pam Doyle

Germany’s Simon Schempp was unstoppable as he headed to the finish while Green started his anchor leg in eighth spot, charging up and down the rolling terrain before bringing the crowd of nearly 7,000 to its feet with perfect shooting. Green bolted into fourth spot as he headed out on his final lap, but the Canuck ran out of gas and dropped to sixth place.

After cleaning prone, Bailey needed two spares in standing and left the shooting range in fifth place. In the final stretch, Bailey chased down Canada’s Green and nearly caught Norway’s Haavard Bogetveit at the line, finishing just 1.7 seconds back of the bronze medalists in 4th.

“We’ve always believed we could pop a top result in the mixed relay and today we did it,” added Dunklee.

Brendan Green © Angus Cockney

“I can’t give enough props to my teammates,” said the 29-year-old Green. They all did a perfect job to set me up for a good last leg like that,” said Green. “I was definitely more nervous today than I normally am with so many family here. The crowd was so enthusiastic so fortunately I was able to handle it well today. The last loop was tough. But on the second loop, I was definitely already red lined. The form hasn’t been quite what I’ve wanted this week, but we’ll get there.”

Team Germany © Pam Doyle

“Every time you get a good result is important. Today having two veterans with two of the youngest on the team shows the depth, and a glimpse of our potential in the future. It was such a great day. I think Canmore put on its best face with a blue bird day. And we are at point now with our program where we can put any two men and women together and have a good result,” Green concluded. “Eventually we’ll get that podium.”

The German team of Franziska Hildebrand, Franziska Preuss, Arnd Peiffer and Schempp dominated the mixed relay, winning in 1:05:38.8, over 1:12 ahead of second-place Italy and 1:23.8 ahead of third-place Norway.

Mixed Relay results here.

Single Mixed Relay

Earlier in the day World Cup rookie, Julia Ransom, teamed up with veteran Nathan Smith as the Canadian duo combined to post a 12th-place time of 39:53.3 using 10 spare rounds in the relatively new race format on the World Cup. The US team of Annelies Cook and Leif Nordgren placed 16th with a time of 41:19.1, with one penalty and 14 spare rounds.

Nathan Smith and Julia Ransom © Pam Doyle

The French team of Martin Fourcade and Marie Dorin Habert, with just four spare rounds, easily won the race in 37:59. Austria (Lisa Theresa Hauser and Simon Eder) finished second, with four spares, 45.2 seconds back, while Norway (Hilde Fenne and Lars Helge Birkeland), with seven spares, was third, 55.3 seconds back.

“It was hard, very hard,” said Ransom, of Kelowna, B.C. “I haven’t done that format before. I felt that one for sure. This is the first time I’ve done a relay with Nathan so it was lot of fun for me, and a great experience.”

Smith also commented telling Trax, “It was probably my best race this week. It wasn’t amazing, but I was pretty happy with it. I tried to keep up with Rastorgujevs on the last lap, who is one of the fastest skiers, so that was tough.”

Leif Nordgren © Pam Doyle

The Canadians bounced around between 10th and 12th for the majority of the race. Ransom struggled to settle into her shooting during the opening two rounds of shots where she required four spares to knock down all the targets.

“I was bouncing around at the start and maybe nerves got to me a little bit (during my first leg) because I didn’t know what to expect. The techs just told me to ‘reel it in,” said Ransom.

“Unfortunately, neither of us had a great shooting day today,” said the USA’s Nordgren. “In this shorter relay format the shooting is so much more important. Since the loop is so short I really tried to push the pace in shooting today to see if I could gain some time there, but I was always just a little off, especially in prone, so I didn’t manage to catch anyone until my final loop. I know Annelies and I were hoping for more, but that’s just the way biathlon goes sometimes. It got plenty cold overnight so the tracks were in perfect condition, and our wax techs did a great job to deliver us some really fast skis.”

Fourcade and Habert © Pam Doyle

“The single mixed is a super fun race and I enjoyed it a lot,” added Cook. “I would have enjoyed it even more if I had not had such bad standing shooting. I underestimated how hard I was breathing to come in, but I felt good skiing and had a hard time holding back. It was a perfect course for me and I was proud of Leif for chasing people down after I tagged off to him too far back.”

“I think it was a fantastic week,” said Eric De Nys, high-performance Director. “I know everyone is tired and I have yet to see one grumpy person. Even the weather couldn’t bring the spirits down of the Europeans.

“For our team, maybe our veterans struggled a little bit, but our young guys really stepped up. This was the perfect way to finish it and Canmore should be very proud of all the work they did to stage such an awesome event. It is so big for the growth of our sport, and I just hope we don’t have to wait 22 more years to bring it back.”

The World Cup now shifts to America and Presque Isle, Maine, for BMW IBU World Cup 8, Feb. 11-14.

Single Mixed Relay results here.