March 11, 2012 (Ruhpolding, GER) – France’s Martin Fourcade roared back from two mid-race shooting penalties to capture his third gold medal of the 2012 IBU World Championships in the Men’s 15km Mass Start event on Sunday. Fourcade finished a mere three seconds ahead of Sweden’s Bjorn Ferry and Fredrik Lindstrom. Ferry shot clean to capture the silver while Lindstrom missed two targets on his way to the bronze.

Above zero temperatures and a light rain made for challenging racing conditions and a conservative approach to shooting was taken by the lead group, as 13 men lead by Fourcade exited the shooting range together for the second loop.  In each of the second and third rounds of shooting, Fourcade suffered a penalty, and he had to use his fast skis to make up the difference. In the final round, he shot clean and closed the gap to the leaders, as six men left the final round of shooting within six seconds of each other, to set up an exciting finish.

As the finishline approached for the finale, it was Ferry and Fourcade duking it out for the gold. With 1,100m to go Fourcade attacked with the surge to create the gap he needed to seal the deal for his third gold medal of the championships.

Only two North American’s qualified for Sunday’s Mass Start, both from US Biathlon, but it was not their day as Tim Burke finished 23rd at 1:42 back with four penalties, while his teammate, Lowell Bailey placed 25th at 1:52 back suffering five penalties.

“The Mass Start was not such a good race for me. I started off with two penalties in the first shooting so I was pretty much out of the race from that point. I was able to climb up a few spots in the last few laps but overall I was not so happy with my 23rd place,” Burke told SkiTrax.

“Overall these championships were a little disappointing for me. I was happy with my 10th place in the sprint, but other than that I was not satisfied with the results. I knew coming into these Championships that it would be tough for me here because Ruhpolding is by far my least favorite course on the World Cup.

“But in the end, it was my shooting that held me back. Now I am looking forward to Russia and the last few races of the season. I really like the tracks in Russia and I feel that I am still in good shape so I am hopeful that I can end the season on a high note this week.”

In a biathlonworld.com interview, Fourcade spoke about  how he knew what he wanted from Sunday’s race. “I went hard from the start today and never slowed down. My only goal was to win…I was a bit stronger than Bjorn on the last uphill and that was the only difference.”

“This was more than I expected in my life. It is wonderful, I know that my performance in the World Championships is a very big thing; not many sportsmen will ever do this. It was wonderful to compete in front of all of these fans this week,” said Fourcade in a post-race interview. “I think we will have to wait for another World Championships like this one.”

Full results HERE.