March 21, 2011 (Oslo, Norway) – Check out this great photo gallery of the action, drama, and emotion at Sunday’s Mass Start event, the final IBU World Cup of the season, in Oslo, Norway. Darya Domracheva (BLR) won the women’s 10km race – more here – while Emil Hegle Svendsen (NOR) took top honours in the men’s competition – more here.

February 05, 2011 (Presque Isle, ME) – Here are some more photos from the IBU World Cup Sprints in Presque Isle, Maine. Helena Ekholm (SWE) took top honours in the women’s 7.5km event, while Arnd Peiffer (GER) grabbed gold in the 10km men’s race. Sara Studebaker (USA) scored a personal best 14th place finish in front of her home country fans, while Lowell Bailey (USA) was the top North American man in 25th.

Click HERE for women’s story and results.
Click HERE for men’s story and results.

January 13, 2011 (Ruhpolding, Germany) – Russia’s Olga Zaitseva battled through torrential rain and sloppy racing conditions on Thursday to win the women’s 15km Individual race at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding. Zaitseva, who was one of only three racers to shoot clean on the day, grabbing the ninth win of her career, and first of the season, in a time of 41:46.1.

“I felt very good today, [I] had a good performance today both on the shooting range and skiing,” said Zaitseva in an IBU report, “Starting early was a big help. It maybe was a little bit easier for me than some of the athletes who started later. I also had good skis for this kind of weather.”

The rain, which began early in the morning and persisted throughout the competition, made the snow incredibly slushy, namely on the downhill portion of the course.

“The downhill was not the best part of my race today,” said Andrea Henkel of Germany, “In the final loop, I went out with 6 seconds to make up. By the top of the hill, it was 5 seconds; I knew when I left the shooting range that if I did not have the lead by the top of the hill I would never have it.”

Henkel grabbed her second silver medal of the season, shooting clean in all four stages for a time of 42:00.6, and Sweden’s Helena Ekholm took the last podium spot also with clean shooting and a time of 42:23.5.

Megan Imrie of Canada posted the top North American result placing 35th – a career-best for the 24 year-old Alberta native who missed just one shot on her way to a finishing time of 47:17. “I knew shooting would be critical because of the difficulty of the course and the insane amount of water dumping from the sky,” said Imrie who hails from Falcon Lake. Man. in a Biathlon Canada release, “Shooting is always the difference for me. Finally today I realized I don’t have to think about each target, but I just have to see every target and it worked out.”

Melanie Schultz, also from Canada, placed 70th after a 2-miss performance, and Zina Kocher hit 11 of 20 to finish 82nd.

The top US biathlete of the the competition was Sara Studebaker, who made 17 of her 20 shots to finish 55th. Fellow American Haley Johnson finished 62nd with 4 misses and a time of 50:21.2, and Laura Spector, who is coming off a record performance in the previous world cup, placed 67th after hitting 15 of 20 in the range.

Full Results HERE.

Results (Brief)

1. Olga Zaitseva, RUS (0+0+0+0) 41:46.1
2. Andrea Henkel, GER (0+0+0+0) 42:00.6
3. Helena Ekholm, SWE (0+0+0+0) 42:23.5

35. Megan Imrie, CAN (0+1+0+0) 47:17.0
55. Sara Studebaker, USA (0+2+1+0) 49:14.7
62. Haley Johnson, USA (1+0+1+2) 50:21.2
67. Laura Spector, USA (1+2+0+1) 50:49.4
70. Melanie Schultz, CAN (1+0+0+1) 51:02.1
82. Zina Kocher, CAN (3+2+2+2) 54:27.6

January 10, 2011 (Oberhof, Germany) – Laura Spector continued her solid showing at the Oberhof World Cup by placing 25th in Sunday’s 12.5km mass start. Spector became the first US woman ever to compete in a mass start at the IBU World Cup, which features the top 30 biathletes from the sprint .

“Laura really made a strong impression today, especially in the first half of the race,” said U.S. Biathlon Head Coach Per Nilsson in US Biathlon release. “Two clean shootings at prone were really good in a race like that.”

Spector ended the day with just two misses in four shooting stages, finishing with a time of 43:28.8.

Helena Ekholm (SWE) grabbed her second win of the season adding to her World Cup pursuit victory in Hochfilzen. The Swedish biathlete shot clean for the day, finishing with a time of 39:22.9.

Ekholm said after the race that her plan was to simply shoot well and then let everything else fall into place. “I tried to stay back shoot well and then attack,” Ekholm told IBU, “Andrea [Henkel] and Svetlana [Sleptsova] were skiing well in the final loop, and I just stayed behind them. When we came up the final hill before the finishing straight, I felt that I had more power, attacked at that point, and it worked out.”

Henkel of Germany continued her solid showing in Oberhof by posting a 2nd place finish with a pair of misses, finishing just 1.6 seconds behind Ekholm. Russia’s Sleptsova was just one of two racers, including Henkel, to shoot clean on the day, grabbing the third place finish with a time of 39:28.1.

No Canadian women qualified to compete in Sunday’s mass start event. Spector’s result puts her 36th overall in the overall IBU World Cup standings.

Full results HERE.

Results (Brief)

1. Helena Ekholm, SWE (0+0+0+0) 39:22.9
2. Andrea Henkel, GER (0+1+1+0) 39:24.5
3. Svetlana Sleptsova, RUS (0+0+0+0) 39:28.1
4. Maria Laure Brunet, FRA (0+0+0+1) 39:43.2
5. Ann Kristin Aafedt Flatland, NOR (0+0+1+0) 39:49.6

25. Laura Spector, USA (0+0+2+2) 43:28.8

January 07, 2011 (Oberhof, Germany) – Sweden took advantage of key shooting, despite heavy rain and high winds, on the final two legs of the 4x6km Women’s Relay held yesterday to execute a come-from-behind victory at Oberhof’s World Cup venue. Sweden’s team of Jenny Jonnson, Anna Carlin Zidek, Anna Maria Nilsson and Helena Ekholm suffered only one penalty, while utilizing eight spare rounds, to finish 52.3 seconds ahead of second place France, who compiled three penalites and nine spare rounds respectively. Belarus rounded out the top three with a time of 1:19:24.5.

Sweden’s team got off to a slow start, despite a solid shooting performance from Jonnson, and found themselves in fourth place after the first leg. Trailing the likes of Slovakia, Ukraine, and Finland, the second leg was no change in fortune for the team, as they remained in fourth after Zideck passed off to Nilsson.

Sweden’s third leg proved to be a spark for the team as they moved up to second placed behind Nilsson’s three spare round performance, and Ekholm brought home the victory with a no-miss final lap.

Thursday’s harsh weather conditions were undoubtedly a factor in determining the champions, as there were 84 penalties and 263 spare rounds used across all of the 21 teams who competed. The heavy rain and powerful winds made shooting no easy task for the world-class athletes.

Canada’s relay squad consisting of Zina Kocher, Megan Imrie, Rosanna Crawford, and Melanie Schultz, North America’s lone representative, was among an astounding nine teams who were disqualified as a result of being lapped in the challenging conditions.

The United States, although present in Oberhof, did not field a team on Thursday due to a lack of available racers.

Full results HERE.

Results (brief)

1. Sweden (1+8) 1:17:53.1
2. France (3+9) 1: 18:45.4
3. Belarus (1+13) 1:19:24.5
4. Ukraine (5+12) 1:20:46.3
5. Russia (8+16) 1:20:59.2

LPD Canada (4+14)