December 06, 2014 (Ostersund, SWE) – Canada’s Nathan Smith shot clean to place a strong ninth in the men’s 10km sprint race as Martin Fourcade (France), also perfect on the range, took the victory. Ondrej Moravec (Czech) claimed second at 28.3s edging out Jakov Fak (Slovenia) by a mere 0.4s as both delivered clean shooting as well.

“I’m really happy to bounce back today after a disappointing individual race earlier this week. I took a couple of days to refocus and paid extra attention to being diligent on the range,” said Smith, who is also in the midst of running a unique fundraising initiative here.

Canada's Nathan Smith © Nordic Focus

American Tim Burke raced to a 17th with two misses on the range. Lowell Bailey finished 23rd also with two penalties. “Today was another solid race for me but I was definitely hoping for a little better shooting.” said Burke. “My skiing put me in a position to reach the podium, but two misses are too much for the sprint race. So far this season my shooting has been solid but I feel like I still need a few more races to really find my groove.”

Smith’s PB is 8th and we wondered how his training went and if he did anything differently. “This spring we had a former Norwegian national team coach visit us in Canmore for a shooting camp. He brought forward a bunch of new ideas on shooting positions.

“Some of the changes were pretty radical and I had a tough time with them. After a couple months of trying to get used to it I had to dial things back a bit more to my old position. I settled on a mid-point between the two.  My prone has definitely never felt more stable,” Smith told Trax.

Smith has been knocking off spots while climbing his way up the international standings on the elite biathlon circuit over the last few years.

“My race obviously went really well today, and it showed with a near PB finish.  Today was one of my best shooting days ever.  Fast, and clean, but under control. Skiing wise, I got off to a rough start and lost a lot of time on the first lap.  This is no unusual and thankfully my skiing got stronger and stronger throughout the race.

“Course conditions were terrible.  I’m thankful I got to start early but even still the technical corners were rutted and soft, with icy patches. With a handful of rocks thrown in. You just had to bomb into the corners and hope for the best,” he added.

The USA’s Leif Nordgren was 51st (1 penalty), Canada’s Marc-Andre Bedard was 61st (1 penalty), Brendan Green (Can) placed 63rd (3 penalties) and Russell Currier (USA) came in 90th (5 penalties).

Rosanna Crawford © Nordic Focus

In the women’s 7.5km sprint Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff took her first IBU World Cup victory with one penalty by a solid 4.6s margin over Veronika Vitkova (Czech Republic) who shot clean to win silver while reigning World Cup series overall winner, Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen, held onto the bronze at 7.6s despite missing two shots.

Calgary’s Rosanna Crawford, of Canmore, Alta., finished just outside the top-10 in 12th spot at 1:10.3 with two penalties. Like Smith, Crawford has been on an impressive run since making her first of two Olympic appearances in 2010.

“Right now I’m feeling quite strong and skiing technically well. We worked a lot on technique this summer and I feel that is really paying off,” said Crawford, 26. “The course was not in very good shape today. It was soft and sugary snow and the downhills were sketchy. My shooting wasn’t great but it’s also not a disaster either. A little more focus on the range will go a long way.”

“I know the potential is there, but I am really trying to not get ahead of myself,” added Crawford. “All I can control is my skiing and my shooting, and that will be the key to success.”

The USA’s Susan Dunklee had a rifle malfunction during the first shoot, causing her to miss a shot, but skied strong to log the 9th-best course time ending up 41st (3 penalties). Canada’s Zina Kocher was 66th (4 penalties), Annelies Cook (USA) was 79th (3 penalties), Hannah Dreissigacker (USA) was 81st (3 penalties), Megan Heinicke (Can) was 82nd (2 penalties) while Quebec’s Audrey Vaillancourt finished 88th (3 penalties)

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