January 21, 2012 (Anholtz, ITA) – France’s Marie Dorin Habert held off a hard-charging Darya Domracheva from Belarus to claim the victory in the women’s 4x6km relay by 2.5s as Russia took the final podium spot +21.4 behind. Canada put on a strong show making the top ten finishing 9th while the USA was 13th.

Overnight snow continued to fall lightly as the women’s relay got underway making for a slow start. On their way to topping the podium France used nine spare rounds and completed the course in 1:17:06.5 for the win while Belarus used ten spare rounds and Russia eleven suffering one penalty as well. The Ukraine in 5th had the best day on the range using seven spare rounds. It was the French team’s first relay victory since 2007.

The Canadian team of Megan Imrie, Zina Kocher, Melanie Schultz and Rosanna Crawford used 14 spare rounds and finished 2:29.9 behind France while the US team of Sara Studebaker, Annalies Cook, Tracy Barnes and Susan Dunklee suffered 3 penalties and 13 missed rounds on their way to 13th out of 18 teams.

Full results HERE.