March 18, 2012 (Khanty-Mansiysk, RUS) – In the men’s last race of the season, Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen captured an early lead by shooting clean in the first round and didn’t look back. Finishing with a time of 43:15 Svendsen suffered two shooting penalties with a convincing win as Arnd Peiffer of Germany was 23.5 seconds back also with two penalties, while Russian Anton Shipulin claimed the final podium spot.

A strong wind made for very tricky conditions on the shooting range and blowing snow added to the challenge. In a post race interview, Svendsen admitted, “It was really hard today…[but] I really enjoyed that last loop and it was great to win.”

Americans Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey were the lone North Americans with Burke the top finisher in 22nd place, with a time of 45:41 and six penalties. He was fighting for a podium position going into the final round of shooting, but struggled with the wind.

“I was incredibly unlucky during this stage with the wind, it was blowing harder than we have seen here all week,” Burke told SkiTrax. “The others who I was shooting with at the time also struggled with three or four penalties. Unfortunately, this is part of biathlon.”

Burke’s team mate Bailey, finished with a time of 45:55 and four penalties, which was good enough for 24th place and secured him 14th overall in the final standings.

“Today was a tough start,” said Bailey in a team release. “I fell in the opening 200 meters and that really put me a ways back from the field right off the bat. Then I had three misses in the first prone which put me even further back. From then on, the race went better and I was able to claw my way back up to 24th.

“Turns out that it was pretty important for me to get those extra World Cup points,” he added. “I ended up squeaking ahead of Bjorn Ferry in the overall World Cup score to finish the season at 14th! I’m ready for a little break now but after that, I’m looking forward to another season starting in a few weeks!”

With the final round of the World Cup complete, France’s Martin Fourcade was the big winner taking the overall World Cup Globe along with the Sprint, Individual and Pursuit titles. Norway’s Svendsen finished 2nd overall and while Germany’s Birnbacher was 3rd also claiming the Globe for the Mass Start.

Following Bailey in the final WCup rankings was Burke in 20th with team mate Jay Hakkinen in 36th. Jean-Philippe Le Guellec lead the Canadian men placing 37th in the overall WCup standings. The U.S. men moved up from 12th to 9th in Nation’s Cup standings, earning one additional starting spot for the 2012-13 season (new total of 5 spots).

Full results HERE.
Final WCup Overall HERE.