January 13, 2019 (Oberhof, GER) – Russia dominated winning both team relays in Oberhof in tough conditions as the US women finished 12th followed by Team Canada in 13th, while in the men’s relay it was Canada 18th and the USA 19th.

The U.S. women’s team of Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, Joanne Reid and Emily Dreissigacker suffered five penalties and used 16 spares while Canada’s Sarah Beaudry, Emma Lunder, Megan Bankes and Rosanna Crawford had four penalties and used 15 spares.

Germany was second in the women’s 4×6-kilometer relay with two penalties and ten spares while the Czech Republic surged in the last two legs to finish third with one penalty and six spare rounds at 36.7 seconds behind Russia. Gusty wind, heavy snowfall and slushy tracks made for challenging shooting conditions on the range and resulted in several falls during the competitions.

“Today was a very challenging day for every team, as evidenced by the many penalty loops, extra bullets and crashes,” said Egan. “We had our fair share of all of those but still managed to earn 12th place, one better than our rank going into the race. We know what we need to work on to get into the top 10 and we are moving in the right direction.”

In the men’s 4×7.5km relay Team Canada’s Scott and Christian Gow, Jules Burnotte and Brendan Green were lapped as was the US squad of Leif Nordgren, Sean Doherty, Travis Cooper and Max Durtschi.

The Russian men’s team of Maxim Tsvetkov, Evgeniy Garanichev, Dmitry Malyshko and Alexander Loginov used just eight spare rounds to claim the win in 1:20:54.3. France, with one penalty and eight spare rounds, finished second at 1:01.1 back while Austria was third at 2:18.6 behind with a single penalty and seven spares.

Results here.