January 21, 2011 (Antholz, Italy) – America’s Laura Spector placed 23rd in Friday’s 7.5km Sprint in Antholz, qualifying for her second consecutive mass start just a day after team mate Lowell Bailey accomplished the same feat. Spector, whose finish marks the second best of her career after a 19th place effort at this year’s Oberhof Sprint, shot clean for a time of 21:37.9 – just 0.3 seconds behind current World Cup leader Kaisa Mäkäräinen (SVK).  Tora Berger of Norway posted the best result of the day, hitting every shot to finish in a time of 20:08.1.

“It’s super exciting to race in the mass start again. At the end of three tough racing weeks like that I knew I had to relax a bit because it is mentally and physically exhausting,” Spector said in US Biathlon report, “So today I didn’t even think about the race and just treated it like normal training…I avoided getting nervous and instead just went out there and had fun”

Second place went to Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia, who won gold in the Sprint at the Vancouver Olympics. Kuzmina hit nine of her 10 targets to finish 29.1 seconds behind Berger. Olga Zaitseva captured 3rd place to post her best result since winning the Individual in last week’s World Cup in Ruhpolding. The Russian missed one shot to finish with a time of 20:44.5.

Haley Johnson of the United States missed a shot in each stage to finish 37th. Her time of 22:08.7 earned the biathlete her first World Cup points of the season. Sara Studebaker also missed 2 shots to finish 56th with a time of 22:46.5.

The Canadian Team is not present at the Antholz World Cup. According to the Executive Director for Biathlon Canada, Joanne Thomson, the Team has headed back to North America to get situated with the time difference in preparation for the US World Cup’s in Presque Isle, and Fort Kent.

Full results HERE.

Results (brief)

1. Tora Berger, NOR (0+0) 20:08.1
2. Anastasiya Kuzmina, SVK, (0+1) 20:37.2
3. Olga Zaitseva, RUS (0+1) 20:44.5

23. Laura Spector, USA (0+0) 21:37.9
37. Haley Johnson, USA (1+1) 22:08.7
56. Sara Studebaker, USA (0+2) 22:46.5