March 05, 2015 (Kontiolahti, FIN) – Team USA got off to a strong start at the IBU World Championships on Thursday with an eighth-place finish in the 2×6+2×7.5-kilometer mixed relay as the Czech Republic claimed the victory with France in second and Norway third. Biathlon Canada’s team was outside of the top ten finishing 12th.

The American squad consisted of Susan Dunklee, Hannah Dreissigacker, Lowell Bailey and Leif Nordgren. Deep, soft snow and temperatures above freezing made for deep ruts on the track as the 26 teams in the field assembled for the start.

Susan Dunklee (USA) © Nordic Focus

The conditions didn’t seem to affect Dunklee, however, as she quickly moved up from the seventh-place start position to second place at the 1.3km time check. With one miss in prone, Dunklee dropped to eighth place, but quickly regrouped to ski herself back into third behind Japan’s Fuyuko Suzuki and the Czech Republic’s Veronika Vitkova as they entered the standing stage.

Another miss in standing pushed Dunklee back to fifth place, but again she used her powerful skiing to trudge through the deep snow and elevate the team back into third place as she tagged off to Dreissigacker at the first exchange, just 10.7 seconds out of the lead.

The Canadian team made up of Audrey Vaillancourt, Rosanna Crawford, Nathan Smith, and Brendan Green were relatively clean on the range, but battled the course conditions. Vaillancourt gave the team a decent start, before tagging who battled back to move them up to 15th position.

Rosanna Crawford © Nordic Focus

Dreissigacker was passed by Darya Domracheva of Belarus and held on to fourth position as they entered the prone shooting, but she struggled to find her rhythm at the range, using five spares and needing one penalty loop before exiting the range in 13th place. Two more spares at the standing stage put the U.S. back to 15th place, 1:51 minutes off the pace, but Dreissigacker dug deep and passed Canada and Poland to regain 13th position as she tagged off to Bailey.

“I definitely didn’t have the race that I was hoping for today,” said Dreissigacker. “I’m really disappointed with my prone shooting, but I guess that is biathlon. I wish it didn’t happen in a race that affected my teammates as well.”

Bailey, who is rounding back into form after dealing with an illness last month, cleaned both prone and standing on his third leg of the relay to turn in the second-quickest range time and briefly move the Americans up to 10th place before exchanging with Nordgren in 11th place for the final leg. Canada’s Smith gained an extra three spots in his fast leg using only one spare round.

Lowell Bailey on his way to 3rd place in Kontiolahti, Finland © Nordic Focus

“It was a challenging day on the course this evening,” Bailey said. “The conditions are warm and slushy with huge ruts and heaps in the trail. I just tried to focus on staying relaxed and not floundering too much in the deep snow. I was aggressive in the shooting range and was happy with the shooting performance. It has been a long month of recovery and training, trying to bounce back from the sickness I had in early February. I’m confident with the three weeks of training preceding these races and I hope to feel better on the tracks as the series progresses.”

Nordgren got out fast on the final leg, passing teams from Slovakia and Ukraine to move up to ninth place before the first shooting stage. After using one spare in prone, Nordgren hung on to ninth place and found himself just nine seconds behind the host team Finland as the second loop began. He maintained that position into the standing stage where he shot clean with the third-fastest range time, vaulting him past Finland and into the eight spot. A strong finishing loop by Nordgren secured the top-10 placing for Team USA as he skied across the line in eighth place with a time of 1:22:13.8.

Nordgren ©

Canada’s Green shot clean was able to hold on to 12th-place at the finish as the team used only four spare rounds on the day.

The Czech Republic team of Vitkova, Gabriela Soukalova, Michal Slesingr and Ondrej Moravec claimed the mixed relay gold medal in a time of 1:20:27.2, with eight spare rounds. France, also with eight spare rounds, claimed the silver medal, 20.2 seconds back, while Norway, with one penalty and three spares, finished third, 27.7 seconds behind the Czech Republic.

Dunklee feels the U.S. team rises to the challenge when faced with adverse weather conditions like they had today. “We slogged through slush today; conditions that can make the best in the world look clumsy skiing up a hill,” said Dunklee. “Luckily, as a team, I think we excel at challenging conditions. It wasn’t a perfect performance for us on the range, but there were lots of great elements. The result was remarkably consistent with where we have finished in other mixed relays over the past year.”

Full results here.

Team Czech Republic © Nordic Focus