January 12, 2012 (Nove Mesto, Czech Republic) – Canada’s Zina Kocher notched one of her best finishes placing 15th in the women’s 15km individual competition at the first World Cup of 2012 in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic on Wednesday. Her teammate Megan Imrie shot clean in the first three of four trips to the range to land a personal best finish of 20th.

With above freezing temperatures and soft snow conditions Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen came from behind in the final shooting stage to take a hard fought win with a time of 45:03.3 while Sweden’s Helena Ekholm was second at 22 seconds back. Rounding out the podium in third was Germany’s Magdalena Neuner with a time of 45:36.2.

The 29 year old Kocher shot her last two rounds clean en route to posting a time of 47:50.4, good enough for one of the best World Cup finishes of her career.

“I’m happy with the way the race went and that I successfully turned things around with two clean bouts,” said Kocher, “My legs were feeling heavy half-way into the race, but I pushed my comfort zone which may have cost me a bit in my first standing.”

It was a stellar day for Canada as her teammate Imrie, a 25-year-old Olympian from Falcon Lake, Man., shot superb until the final round where she missed two shots en route to posting her career-best World Cup result with a final time of 48:27.9.

Susan Dunklee lead the US team in 49th suffering four penalties while Sara Studebaker placed 59th with three misses as her teammate Annalies Cook was 60th missing four shots. Tracy Barnes finished in 66th matching Studebaker with three misses.

Mäkäräinen talked to Biathlonworld.com about her strategy: “I knew that these were hard tracks, so I started slowly in the first couple of loops. With all of the wet, soft snow, I thought it was a good idea not to use all of my energy in the beginning.” It was a special day for the Swedish biathlete as she celebrated her birthday, her first win this season, and her first 15km individual victory.

Full results HERE.