December 18, 2014 (Pokljuka, Slovenia) – Rosanna Crawford edged one step closer to becoming the third ever Canadian woman to win a World Cup biathlon medal with a fourth-place finish in the 7.5km sprint competition in Pokljuka, Slovenia today.

The U.S. Biathlon Team also got off to a strong start with Hannah Dreissigacker and Susan Dunklee both posting top-20 finishes with Dreissigacker ending up tied for 17th and Dunklee right behind her in 19th.

Gabriela Soukalova, of the Czech Republic, shot clean to take the gold with a time of 20:17.3. Italy’s Dorothea Wierer was also perfect in shooting en route to winning the silver medal with a time of 20:35.7, while Valj Semerenko, of the Ukraine, grabbed the bronze at 20:42.0 (0+0).

Feeding off the fastest time of the day that propelled her to a fifth-place finish in last weekend’s pursuit race, the 26-year-old Crawford one bettered herself to start the third World Cup of the season, placing fourth with a time of 20 minutes, 54.1 seconds in the 7.5-kilometre sprint. Crawford was also fourth nearly one year ago with her teammates in a World Cup relay in France.

“I can definitely feel that a podium is within reach, but I’m staying focused on the process,” said Crawford. “Wishing and hoping for a top-three won’t get me there. Skiing well and hitting targets will be the key to success.

“The mats were quite slippery for standing shooting, so I really had to take my time and reset a few times. I might have lost some time there (in standing), but I was happy to leave having hit them all,” added Crawford, who was battling a sore throat heading into the race.”

Hannah Dreissigacker was one of only 15 competitors in the 98-woman field to go clean on the shooting range, hitting all 10 targets en route to her best-ever World Cup finish. She crossed the line at 59.7 seconds behind Soukalovain tied for 17th position with Austria’s Lisa Theresa Hauser.

“It was a personal best for me, and also knocked off a few of my goals for the season – to get a top-20, and to clean a sprint,” said Dreissigacker. “Now I will have to set my goals higher I guess. I was having a pretty rough start to the season this year, and so this was a huge step forward, and also just a relief – both my shooting and skiing were a lot better than the last two weekends. And I think that the skiing will continue to get better as the season progresses and I have more races. But right now I’m just so psyched to be starting the pursuit on Saturday, and in a great position.”

Dunklee’s 19th puts the two Americans in great position for Saturday’s pursuit where they will start mere seconds apart. “In the starting pen, I watched a lot of the early starters shooting prone and there were plenty of misses, so I knew it was a day full of opportunities,” Dunklee said. “I got lucky out of the start gate and caught a ride behind Kaisa Makarainen. I felt relaxed going her pace, which was great.”

“Hannah is a talented athlete who has worked very hard for several years now, and she is very deserving of the way things came together for her today,” said Dunklee. “I’m looking forward to skiing with her in the pursuit.”

Full results here.