December 18, 2016 (Nove Mesto, CZE) – The USA’s Lowell Bailey finished 21st in the men’s 15km mass start on Sunday with three missed targets as the BMW IBU World Cup 3 came to a close in Nove Mesto, CZE. Fourcade won the men’s mass start with one penalty giving him a hat trick sweep at the popular venue.

Germany’s Simon Schempp finished in a season-best second place, with two penalties, 8.3 seconds back. Third place went to Russia’s Anton Babikov, with one penalty, 9.4 seconds behind Fourcade.

A clean first prone put Bailey in fourth place, 6.2 seconds back of the lead and stride for stride with World Cup leader Martin Fourcade of France. However, a miss in second prone dropped him back to 15th, but still just one second behind Fourcade.

After cleaning again in first standing, Bailey was in ninth exiting the range, just four seconds out of sixth place with five shots and six kilometers remaining. But two costly misses in the final standing stage knocked him all the way down to 20th and he crossed the line in 21st with a time of 37:36.

“Today was a solid race until the end,” said Bailey. “Sometimes things just don’t go your way and today was one of those days. Still satisfied with the start of the season and looking forward to some down time at home.”

For Bailey, he finishes a very successful start to the season that sees him currently in ninth place in the overall World Cup standings.