January 18, 2014 (Antholz, Italy) – The USA’s Lowell Bailey lead the North American charge today placing 12th at 30.3s with two penalties in the men’s 12.5km Pursuit won by Germany’s Simon Schempp, who also suffered two penalties but prevailed over France’s Jean Guillaume Beatrix in second (1 penalty), and Norway’s Henrick L’abee-Lund (2 penalties) in third. It was Schempp’s second career World Cup victory.

Brendan Green was the top Canadian in 18th at 1:03.9 with four penalities followed by teammate Nathan Smith in 26th who missed three targets and finished 1:35.2 behind the winner. American Russell Currier moved up from 60th to finish 47th with four penalities while Tim Burke (USA) did not race tweeting “not feeling 100%,” this morning.

 

Germany’s Arnd Peiffer took an early lead but soon reliquished it to Beatrix who shot clean for the first three stages as Schempp remained in contention. Bulgaria’s Krasimir Anev, who also shot clean was in the mix, with Peiffer and Simon Fourcade just behind as Sweden’s Bjorn Ferry took over second with Norway’s Ole Einar Bjørndalen in the fight as well.

Beatrix faltered in the final standing session but Schempp cleaned to take the lead as Ferry also missed. Bjørndalen was now in second but Beatrix recovered and passed him near the finish as did L’abee-Lund who also cleaned the final targets giving him the opportunity to vie for the podium.

Bailey’s clean shooting in prone put him in a good position but missing a target in both standing sessions was costly. “I was really happy with the race today given that I was disappointed with the last stage of the sprint yesterday,” said Bailey. “I went into today’s race with the sole purpose of sticking to an aggressive game plan. I would have liked to clean the last stage, but I’m happy I stuck to the plan. Next time I’ll clean that last stage!”

Full results here.