January 15, 2015 (Ruhpolding, Germany) – Team Norway won the men’s 4×7.5 km Relay on Day 2 of the BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon in Ruhpolding, Germany, while Canada finished ninth, followed by the USA in 10th. Emil Hegle Svendsen (NOR) escaped from Germany’s anchor Simon Schempp (GER) on the last leg to take the win by 4.6s. The Norwegian squad used eight spare rounds compared to Germany’s four spares. Russia finished third at 8.4s back also using eight spares.

Lowell Bailey (USA) © Nordic Focus

Lap one was a tight battle, with USA’s Lowell Bailey taking over the lead by the first exchange after shooting clean followed closely by the Czech Republic and Russia.

“I tried to stay conservative in the first lap and conserve energy as I was starting in the last row,” said Bailey. “It’s difficult to move up much when you start that far back, so I knew I would need to focus on shooting.” Bailey seemed to get stronger as the race wore on as he battled back and forth with the leaders, including the legendary Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (NOR), eventually taking the overall lead at the first exchange with Canada in mid-field.

Sean Doherty (USA) © Nordic Focus

“I felt good on the last lap and waited until the second-to-last hill to make my move. After I took the lead, I knew that I would have to fight up the last hill to maintain my position, but if I could stay in front over the climb, I would most likely be able to hold the lead to the tag. It was a good feeling to be able to hand Sean a top spot to start off in.”

Gaps started to open up on the second leg, with Slovenia’s Jakov Fak taking the lead with perfect shooting and quick legs, 23.4s ahead of Norway, and Germany. The USA’s Sean Doherty, 19, was excited to find himself in first but used three spares in prone falling back into eighth but recovered in standing to tag off in 6th.

“For the first prone, it was a little rough. But the key is to forget that and reset for the next stage. I had super skis and just focused on keeping a good pace on the course, then to come into the range and let the training take over and skip the spares this time,” commented Doherty.

Nathan Smith (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Peiffer took over the lead on the third leg, cleaning the prone stage. Slovenia and Norway contested hotly for second spot over the next 2.5km lap, and all three made mistakes in the standing stage. Peiffer got away first to keep Germany in the lead, while Norway took over second, followed by Alexey Volkov (RUS), who sneaked ahead of Slovenia with quicker shooting to assume third.

At the exchange, Norway had caught up with Germany as they tagged off together. Volkov came through at 28.7s back while the USA and Canada were behind mid-field

Team Norway © Nordic Focus

Svendsen took charge on the first loop, but he and Schempp entered the shooting stage together, each using one spare round and exiting together. The Russian also used a spare round, trailing by 19s. The Norwegian and the German shot side-by-side in the standing stage as well, but this time Schempp shot clean, while Svendsen missed one for a 7.9s deficit, and the Russians remained in third. Svendsen marked Schempp until the final bridge and then powered away to take victory.

Canada’s Christian Gow, Brendan Green, Scott Gow, and Nathan Smith finished ninth at 2:53.9 back, while Team USA’s Bailey, Doherty, Leif Nordgren, and Tim Burke squeaked into the top 10.

Full results here.