February 16, 2019 (Soldier Hollow, Utah) – Canada’s Christian Gow delivered perfect shooting for a career-best 8th while the USA’s Sean Doherty claimed a best-ever 10th with three missed targets in the men’s 12.5km Pursuit on Saturday at the BMW IBU World Cup in Soldier Hollow.

“I couldn’t be happier with how today went. The skiing was good enough and hitting 20 for 20 today counted for a lot,” said Gow securing his first top-10 World Cup result. “It’s a dream goal of mine so to achieve it in Canmore and now here again I’m ecstatic. I felt the best I have since Pokljuka in the range – very controlled and sure of myself. The last standing was especially tricky with high winds, but I took my time and made each shot count. Canmore was really special with all of the fans and family that were able to go and watch. Here it feels a lot more like a normal world cup.”

Doherty was equally pleased with his performance. “I am very happy to crack that top-10 barrier today. Conditions were tough but we had great skis, which was huge. After that little mishap in prone I remembered one of my favorite sayings…’all the greats have short memory’…and refocused for standing. A big thanks to the home crowd for the big push on the last lap,” said Doherty who regrouped after missing three targets in the second prone stage.

Canada’s Scott Gow was 25th as Quentin Fillon Maillet of France shot clean to post the winning time of 30:55.8. Norway’s Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen was 25.9 seconds back with one penalty. Simon Desthieux of France, with three penalties, finished third, 47.3 seconds back of Fillon Maillet.

In the women’s 10km pursuit held earlier in the day, Susan Dunklee and Clare Egan finished within a second of each other in 26th and 27th, respectively. Dunklee was clean through her first three shooting stages and had just one miss in the final standing stage to cross the line at 2:34.5 behind winner Denise Herrmann of Germany. Egan, with three penalties, all in standing, was 2:34.9 off the pace.

Canada’s Rosanna Crawford was 34th with three penalties while Joanne Reid  came in 40th with two penalties. Sarah Beaudry (Can) was 44th with two penalties and Emma Lunder (Can) was 51st with six missed targets.

Franziska Hildebrand (Ger) was second on the day with one penalty while third place went to Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen, with three penalties at 16.5 seconds behind Herrmann.

Results here.