December 13, 2014 (Hochfilzen, Austria) – Germany took home the women’s 4x6km relay victory today by a healthy margin using eight spare rounds at the IBU World Cup #2 in Hochfilzen in Hochfilzen, Austria. Belarus, with 10 spare rounds, finished second at 21.1s in a battle against the Czech Republic, who used 9 spare rounds, taking third at 22.2s back.

The Canadian quartet of Megan Heinicke, Rosanna Crawford, Sarah Beaudry and Audrey Vaillancourt were just outside of the top 10 using seven spare rounds at 2:11.1 behind. This was Beaudry’s, 20, IBU World Cup debut following her double victories in Canmore at the Youth/Junior Worlds Trials in early Dec. The USA did not field a team.

“Today was a decent result for our team, we had two legs with some scary standing, but no penalty loops is great! A few less spares and we could have been top 10. We were trying a different order today and it seemed like it worked out pretty well. Megan did a great job at the start of the race,” commented Crawford, “So excited for men’s team, they’ve had a bit of a bumpy start and not performing like they were hoping for. A top 6 is a great way to build some confidence into the rest of the season.”

 

Russia squandered their lead as Germany moved into second place coming into the final leg. German anchor Franziska Preuss shot clean in prone while Russia’s Ekaterina Glazyrina suffered a penalty and it was game over. Preuss needed one spare round in the final standing session as Darya Domracheva (BEL) and Veronika Vitkova (CZE) matched her with Domracheva getting the better of her Czech rival. Italy and Norway followed in 4th and 5th with Russia ending up 8th.

Full results here.