January 12, 2014 (Ruhpolding, GER) – In the men’s 12.5km Pursuit today in Ruhpolding Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen was untouchable again matching women’s winner, Gabriela Soukalova (Cze), with clean shooting and back-to-back wins in Germany. Jakov Fak (Slo) was also perfect on the range but 18s behind the winner with Russia’s Evegeny Garanichev in third suffering one penalty at 21.4s behind.

Nathan Smith (CAN) places a strong 16th © Nordic Focus

Canada’s Nathan Smith lead the charge for the North Americans with a strong 16th and one penalty at 1:14.3 while the USA’s Lowell Bailey placed a solid 21st at 1:21.1 also with one penalty. It was a great day on the range for Canadian Jean-Philippe Le Guellec as he shot clean to end up 32nd at 2:13.8 behind while American Tim Burke also shot well with one penalty finishing 34th at 2:26.9 behind Svendsen. Following Burke was Scott Perras (Can) in 35th with three penalties at 2:29.6 back while Leif Nordgren (USA) was the final North American in 46th with two penalities at 3:51.3.

Men's Pursuit podium (l-r) Fak 2nd, Svendsen 1st, Garanichev 3rd. © Nordic Focus

“I feel good about the race today,” said Bailey. “I spent a little extra time in the last stage to make sure I hit my last shot, but I got the hit! There was incredibly good shooting overall from the field today which seems to be the norm for Ruhpolding over the last few years. Overall, I’m happy with this weekend coming off of the New Year’s cold I had. I’m looking forward to next week’s races in Italy.”

Full results here.