February 4, 2007 – Less than satisfied with her 33rd-place finish in Saturday’s sprint event, Canada’s Zina Kocher was on target today with only one miss, shooting her up the standings into 18th-place in the women’s 10-kilometre pursuit in Italy.

Kocher, who hails from Red Deer, Alta., had trouble with the wind during Saturday’s race and found herself in a less than ideal position, nearly two minutes behind the leaders heading into the pursuit. With nothing to lose, the 24-year-old took a deep breath, relaxed and went for it.

“Yesterday was tricky with the wind,” said Kocher. “I was not very happy with my overall performance and being almost two minutes behind going into the pursuit is never easy. But we have this saying on our team, ‘no expectations, no limitations’, and I tried to live by that today. I had no expectations and that allowed me to relax, especially in the range, and just ski my own race.”

Kocher was not the only Canadian who moved up in the ranks. Calgary’s Sandra Keith equaled her teammate’s performance on the range with only one miss, moving up nine places to 44th.

In men’s action, Edmonton’s Jaime Robb was the lone Canuck to suit up for the men’s 12.5-kilometre pursuit. Difficulty on the range left him out of the running for top-spot, completing the race in 55th-place, well over seven minutes off the leading pace set by Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who claimed his second consecutive gold medal. Ottawa’s Robin Clegg did not start the race.

Women’s top-five results:

1. Magdalena Neuner, GER, 33:01.61; 2. Linda Grubben, NOR, +7.1; 3.Anna Carin Olofsson, SWE, +7.6; 4. Natalia Guseva, RUS, +47.8; 5. Tadeja Brankovic, SLO, +1:03.3

Canadian results:

18. Zina Kocher, Red Deer, Alta., +2:34.2; 44. Sandra Keith, Calgary, +5:18.1

Men’s top-five results:

1. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, NOR, 26:18.8; 2. Maxim Tchoudov, RUS, +1:09.8; 3. Vincent Desfrasne, FRA, +1:09.9; 4. Michal Slessingr, CZE, +1:14.7; 5. Emil Hegle Svendsen, NOR, +1:17.2

Canadian results:

55. Jaime Robb, Edmonton, +7:40.0; DNS. Robin Clegg, Ottawa