February 13, 2011 (Fort Kent, Maine) – Magdalena Neuner of Germany moved up from second in yesterday’s pursuit to take the women’s 12.5km mass start in 39:30.6. The legendary Neuner as well as second place Andrea Henkel of Germany and Darya Domracheva of Belarus all had a single penalty. Henkel was 23.6 seconds back, with Domracheva 28.7 seconds back. Henkel’s second place gave her enough World Cup points to take control of the Yellow Bib and the event leader’s Red Bib going into the World Championships next month.

Neuner commented on finally winning here after previously being second and third. “Yesterday I thought I could win today and I did it. It was a near perfect race for me. I used some tactics today. I went a little bit slower on the first two loops. Then after being perfect there, I pushed just before the first standing.”

The conditions for the women’s mass start matched that of the men; clear, cold and with little wind. The first seventeen women, led by Neuner cleaned the first prone stage. Kathrin Hitzer, Henkel, and Kaisa Mäkäräinen were hot on Neuner’s tail. Those four came to the second prone all together.

Neuner and Henkel were clean and got away first, while Mäkäräinen and Hitzer had a single penalty but stayed third and fourth position, 32 seconds back, just ahead of Miriam Gössner.

Over the next 2.5K, Neuner took off and opened up a gap on the rest of the field. That gamble paid off when she shot clean and extended her lead. Henkel missed one shot, but was solidly in second position as Domracheva moved up after a clean stage. Mäkäräinen had a penalty and fell back to fifth, 22 seconds behind the Belarusian.

Neuner continued to extend her lead building up over 50 seconds over Henkel and Domracheva by the final standing stage. Even though she had a penalty, Neuner left over 20 seconds ahead of Henkel who was just a bit ahead of Domracheva. Tora Berger, another 30 seconds back would not challenge the top three at that point. The battle was for second, with Domracheva getting a small edge over Henkel with 800 meters to go, but Henkel pulled out all stops and got back to second by the finish.

Henkel was all smiles despite finishing second. “I like winning, but being second to Magdalena today is fine. I am happy any time I am on the podium.”

With two first places, one second and now being in Yellow and Red Bibs; this was a big week for her. “I did not know until after the finish that I was in Yellow and Red. This is one of the best weeks in career, but I am not sure, because I have had a long career!”

After Neuner called the big hill just out of the stadium “the Mount Everest of biathlon” yesterday, Domracheva confirmed just how hard it was on their legs after tackling it 13 times in competition this week. “For the girls all of these times up this big hill so many times were very hard. My legs are very tired.”

Sara Studebaker of the USA, in the first mass start of her career performed commendably, with a 23rd place finish, 3:38.6 back. She had only two penalties, but they came in the crucial second prone stage. The general rule of thumb in the mass start is that you need to clean the prone stages or you lose contact before standing and cannot catch up.

Yet after missing the two prone shots and falling out of contention for a top 20 finish, Studebaker came back with two clean standing stages – a positive experience against all of the top women. Her recent performances should give her good momentum going into the World Championships next month.

Fourth went to Tora Berger of Norway, with one penalty, 51.7 seconds back, just 2.8 seconds ahead of Mäkäräinen, with three penalties.

Today’s Mass Start competitions wrap up the IBU World Cup events in Maine. The series resumes later in March following the  2011 IBU World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from March 3-13.

Full results HERE.