January 15, 2016 (Ruhpolding, Germany) – The U.S. Biathlon men’s relay squad of Lowell Bailey, Leif Nordgren, Tim Burke, and Sean Doherty claimed a strong sixth place finish with eight spare rounds in the 4×7.5-kilometer race at the BMW IBU World Cup 5 in Ruhpolding, Germany.

Team Canada’s Christian Gow, Macx Davies, Scott Gow and Brendan Green ralleyed to grab 10th on the day using 11 spares as Norway claimed the win using 12 spares with Russia at 14.6s back using six spares, with third going to Austria with one penalty and seven spares, 35.8 seconds behind.

Team USA at the flower ceremony © Max Cobb

Bailey opened the race for Team USA and his clean shooting put him in second place, just 5.8 seconds behind leader Erik Lesser of Germany. With the second-fastest time on the third lap of the opening leg Bailey tagged off to Nordgren in third while Canada was further back.

“Another wild, snowy day in Ruhpolding,” exclaimed Bailey. “The pace was pretty quick right out of the gate so I tried to stay focused on staying in control and hitting my targets and trying to manage my energy to have something left for the last lap. I lost a little bit in the beginning of the final loop, but I was able to gain most of it back by the tag. For some reason I just seem to do better on the second half of this Ruhpolding loop.”

Leif Nordgren © U.S. Biathlon/Nordic Focus

Nordgren used three spares in prone and another in standing handing off to Burke in 10th place, one minute and 51 seconds out of the lead. The Canadians were sitting in 17th.

“For my part I’m a little disappointed with how I performed today. Usually, I love being in the situation like I was today, at the front of the race, but today the targets didn’t go down in prone,” said Nordgren who noted his skis were not competitive and he lost more time.

Team Norway at the finish ©

Burke moved the team back up to seventh place but tagged off to their anchor Doherty in ninth place while Canada still trailed behind. Doherty, the youngest member of the American sqaud, brought the team back with a strong finish, going clean in prone and needing only one spare in standing to move up to sixth place at the finish.

Canada’s Brendan Green got to work and quickly made up ground shooting clean until the final standing session on the range where he needed one spare. In the final push to the line he claimed a solid 10th for Canada.

“Today’s race was a solid performance for the whole team,” said Doherty. “With strong shooting I was able to move up and secure sixth place. I’m very happy with the race and it’s a great result and we are looking forward to the next relay.”

Full results here.