December 10, 2016 (Pokljuka, Slovenia) – The USA’s Lowell Bailey held his own finishing 18th as he maintained his starting position in the men’s 12.5km pursuit with only one miss on the shooting range as France’s Martin Fourcade claimed his second consecutive victory with clean shooting. Canada’s Christian Gow skied to a personal best result for the second-straight day, finishing 31st.

Norway’s clean-shooting Emil Hegle Svensen outsprinted Russia’s Anton Shipulin to claim second, six seconds back. Shipulin matched his third place from yesterday’s sprint, 6.2 seconds behind Fourcade with one penalty.

“Conditions were the best I’ve ever seen in Pokljuka, and perhaps the entire World Cup circuit,” said Bailey. “Still don’t have the ski speed I need to compete with the top of the field. I’ve had a great year of training so I’m hoping the ski speed improves as I work through the season.”

Starting in 33rd place based on Friday’s sprint results, the 23-year-old Gow picked up two spots on the 60-man field with a strong effort on the skis, and in the range to post a time of 33:09.1.

“I’m really happy with the race in general. I felt pretty good skiing and was calm and focused on the range which led to good shooting,” said Gow. “I wish I had a little more on the track. I think there is room for me to move a couple of more spots, but this was a good day for me.”

Fellow American Tim Burke was 42nd with five penalties as Calgary’s Scott Gow suffered the same number of misses and was bumped down into 48th place.  Brendan Green also had five penalties and finished 57th.

Full men’s pursuit results are available here.