March 18, 2012 (Khanty-Mansiysk, RUS) – Canadian Zina Kocher ended her 2011-12 World Cup Season with a strong top-ten result in the 12.5km Mass Start event on Sunday finishing 9th place with 4 penalties as Darya Domracheva (BLR) scored a come-from-behind victory over Norway’s Tora Berger in 2nd and third place finisher Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland.

It was an emotional day for all skiers knowing this was the last hoorah of the season with legendary Magdalena Neuner hanging up her skis following an incredible career along with other top biathletes like Helena Ekholm from Sweden.

Neuner is the most successful woman of all time at the Biathlon World Championships and is a two-time Olympic gold medalist as well. This was her third overall WCup victory and she takes home the Sprint Globe as well – read more on Neuner here or on her official web site here.

Canada’s Kocher was pleased with her final race and her season as she caught up with SkiTrax. “I’m really happy with today. I felt great skiing today, better than yesterday and my skis were flying,” commented Kocher.  “The snow pack was better, hardened up and more my type of condition.”

Shooting is critical in the mass start event, and Kocher was fighting for a top-8 finish. Her prone sessions on the range started our well with zero misses, however, she suffered a setback with two penalties in the 1st standing round of shooting, “Those two misses in the first standing cost me,” she admitted.

The other North American in the field on Sunday was USA’s Susan Dunklee who finished her rookie World Cup season in 28th spot with a time of 43:10 suffering seven penalties.“I had been hoping to finish my last race on a more spectacular note, but I am proud to have given it my best effort,” Dunklee told SkiTrax. “My skiing felt strong and our wax tech wizards gave me some of the fastest skis in the field, but my shooting wasn’t there today.”

Today’s result for Dunklee was humbling and a reminder of just how challenging and difficult the sport of biathlon really is. But her spirits are high as she closes the season finishing 34th overall in the World Cup ranking. “I’ve achieved far more than I dared to dream and I’m going home happy.”

Kocher feels that this has been a great season – one of her most consistent. “I’ve never finished this high in overall world cup points (19th) and so I’m very satisfied.” This has been the Canadian’s best season since 2006-07, and although she did not achieve her goal of a podium finish this year, she was fighting for it every single race.

“My physical shape in skiing was awesome and I am confident I can improve once again for next season,”  she added. With today’s result, Kocher finishes the 2011-12 season 19th overall in World Cup points.

With the Mass Start victory by Domracheva she clinched her second crystal globe of the 2011-12 season, having locked up the Pursuit crystal globe earlier. “All I was thinking about on the last loop was another crystal globe,” said the talented Belarus biathlete in a biathlon.com interview. “I had one last year and two this year, which is progress for me. It was very good season.”

Domracheva finished 2nd overall in the WCup rankings with 1,188 points to Neuner’s 1,216 with Tora Berger in third overall.

Full results HERE.
Final WCup Overall HERE.