March 10, 2013 (Sochi, Russia) – In front of a hometown crowd Team Russia prevailed to win the Men’s 4×7.5 km Relay by a whopping +38.3-second margin on Sunday in Sochi, a preview of the 2014 Olympic course. Ski conditions remained tricky with slow soft snow and the course was modified for the relay with the elimination one of the long climbs and a fast downhill where many athletes crashed in prior races.

Evgeny Ustyugov (RUS) soloes in for gold... © Nordic Focus

The Russian team of Anton Shipulin, Alexandr Loginov, Dmitry Malyshko, and Evgeny Ustyugov delivered when it counted as Malyshko shot clean in his final standing session during the 3rd leg, to take over the lead as Germany’s Arnd Peiffer used a spare and was forced to chase at 5s behind.

Malyshko tagged Ustyugov who got the job in style shooting clean as DOLL Germany’s Benedikt Doll faltered using five spare rounds as his Russian rival soloed in with a time of 1:09:50.8 as Team Russia suffered one penalty and used six spare rounds. “I wanted to hold the good position that I had when I started,” Ustyugov told biathlonworld.com. “My only goal was to shoot clean and hold the lead.” He did that in spades.

Arnd Peiffer (GER) © Nordic Focus

Germany’s Erik Lesser, Andreas Birnbacher, Peiffer and Doll claimed the silver at 38.3 seconds back with 10 spare rounds while 3rd went to the Czech Republic’s Michal Slesinger, Jaroslav Soukup, Vit Janov, and Ondrej Moravec at 42.9 seconds behind the winners with 13 spare rounds.

Team USA started strong with Lowell Bailey shooting well and skiing in 4th place. He used a spare round in the standing session but still tagged Tim Burke in 5th.

Lowell Bailey (USA) put in a strong leg in 4th © Nordic Focus file photo

“I was glad to have a decent start today,” said Bailey in a team release. “The first initial climb was brutal with everyone scrambling to get a decent position on the next downhill. I was able to move up near the front of the group by the first prone and shot clean. I felt better and better as the race went on, and after using an extra round, I was able to ski into a good position by the tag. Tim had a great leg too. It was nice to be up at the top of the field for a while!”

Burke used a spare in prone and dropped to 8th but regained his composure as he cleaned in standing and tagged Russell Currier in 4th at 4.8s behind the leaders.

Burke fighting for position... today was an ok result © Nordic Focus

Burke, who was 5th in the Individual start in Sochi, wanted more from Sunday’s effort. “Today was an O.K. result for us, but of course we were hoping for more,” commented Burke. “We definitely learned that the relay will stay super close here and shooting will be even more important if you want to have a chance at the top-5.”

Currier was in a tight battle as Austria was leading with Sweden, Slovakia and Germany all in the hunt while the Ukraine and Norway chased from behind. Using one spare round in prone put the US in 9th and three spares in standing meant tagging Leif Nordgren in 10th as Russia and Germany battled for gold.

Jean Philippe Leguellec (CAN) in action - Canada ended up 15th © Nordic Focus file photo

Nordgren battled with Slovakia’s Matej Kazar using four spare rounds to Kazar’s six as they finished with the same time with Slovakia in 9th and the USA 1oth once the dust settled.

Team Canada with Jean Philippe LeGuellec, Scott Gow, Kurtis Wenzel, and Scott Perras finished in 15th overall at 3:57.0 back with 10 spare rounds.

With the conclusion of events in Sochi, the IBU World Cup moves to Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia for the final round of the 2012-13 season.

Full results HERE.