December 07, 2014 (Ostersund, SWE) – Canada’s Nathan Smith was the top North American again finishing 16th with three penalties in the men’s 12.5km Pursuit on the final day in Ostersund, SWE as Martin Fourcade (France) proved unstoppable claiming another victory despite four penalties.

Men's Podium © Nordic Focus

Anton Shipulin (Russia) shot well with only one penalty in tough conditions that featured swirling winds finishing 10 seconds behind the winner while Norwegian star, Emil Hegle Svendsen, had two penalties placing third at 26.3 seconds back. American Lowell Bailey moved up six spots from his 23rd position at the start to place 17th with three penalties.

Smith was on pace with the leaders mixing good ski speed with perfect shooting until his final stop at the range where he missed three shots.

“I knew to be competitive today I would have to shoot nearly flawlessly.  While my skiing had been decent this week, it is still not on par with the best I’ve done,” said Smith. “Pursuits are also really a shooting-dominated event.  Even though I was ranked mid-pack in ski speed, thanks to fast range times and accuracy I managed to stay in the mix until the last standing shooting.

Nathan Smith © Nordic Focus

“Even though I’m pretty disappointed about the final shooting, I’m actually very pleased with the overall race.  It was another chance for me to experience a high pressure situation where a medal is possible.  My skiing still has a little ways to go, but shooting feels crisp and confidence inspiring.”

Bailey cleaned both prone stages, and missed two shots in the first standing shoot and one at the last standing. “It was a challenging race, quite a lot of wind to deal with. I had a gameplan to stay aggressive in the range and not waste a lot of time. I knew the field as a whole would be missing a good deal of shots, so I planned to not wait out the gusts and go for it,” he commented.

Lowell Bailey © Nordic Focus

The USA’s Tim Burke was 35th with six penalties after starting 17th while Leif Nordgren moved up to 46th after beginning in 51st suffering four penalties.

Fourcade told Biathlonworld.com that the competitions answered some questions for him. “The most important thing I am taking away from here is confidence; I wanted some personal answers and now I have them. We are supposed to be the best skiers in the world, so we should be able to deal with these conditions.”

Makarainen Wins – Crawford Solid 14th

Rosanna Crawford of Canmore, Alta., delivered another consistent World Cup finish placing 14th at 1:48.3 with four penalties behind winner Kaisa Makarainen from Finland who had three penalties. The real battle was for the silver as Valj Semerenko, of Ukraine (4 penalties), edged out Italy’s Dorothea Wierer who also missed four shots and settled for the bronze a mere 0.4s behind Semerenko.

Women's Podium © Nordic Focus

“Missing one target isn’t that bad, but when you miss one every time it can be pretty frustrating. In 20-shot races – you need to shoot 85 per cent if you are starting behind,” said Crawford who also finished 16th on Thursday to start the World Cup season.

“My legs were tired from four races this week. It always takes a bit to get used to racing this much,” added Crawford, who sits in 12th overall. “Overall I’m happy with how the week went. I know there is so much potential this year so I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.”

Rosanna Crawford © Nordic Focus

Susan Dunklee was the lone American and had an exceptional race, moving up 22 places from her 41st starting position to finish 19th at 2:30.1 with three penalties. She posted the 10th-best net time and sixth-best course time, the fastest of any athlete in the first lap. Dunklee went clean at the first prone to move up to 25th. After two misses at the second prone, she dropped to 31st but climbed back to 25th after the first standing with just one miss. After going clean in the last standing, Dunklee jumped up to 19th and held that position through the finish. She is now 22nd in the overall world cup ranking.

Susan Dunklee © Nordic Focus

“I wasn’t very nervous going into today,” Dunklee said after the race. “I was starting a lot further back than I would have liked and I didn’t feel much pressure. I knew it would be a fun race. I love chasing people down. I wanted to move into 30th place by the first shooting and skied like crazy to do so. There was significant wind today, but the leftmost shooting points are protected by a big wall. Shooting on point 30 rather than point 1 was a worthwhile advantage; I cleaned my first stage. I couldn’t maintain that first-loop pace for the rest of the race, but I still turned in a great ski time and the shooting felt more normal and in control today. I’m already looking forward to Hochfilzen next week.”

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