March 9, 2005 – Canada’s Robin Clegg worked his way through a mountain of falling snow to finish in the top half of the men’s 20-kilometre individual at the world championships in Hochfilzen, Austria on Wednesday.

With fierce wind and blowing snow playing havoc at the shooting range, the 27-year-old veteran on the Canadian team successfully shot 16 of 20 targets, but failed to capitalize on his success during the ski portion of the event to end the day in 50th place with a time of sixty-eight minutes 13.6 seconds.

“These conditions are difficult to ski and I know I went out way too hard at the beginning,” said Clegg, who, along with 114 of biathlon’s elite, struggled through 70-centimetres of newly fallen snow in Wednesday’s race. “I just wasn’t able to peak when I wanted to and all in all, I’m quite disappointed with my skiing.”

Roman Dostal of the Czech Republic took the top spot to grab the world champion title and gold medal when he crossed the finish line with a time of 1:00.24.5, with one shooting error. Germany’s Michael Greis followed in second for the silver medal at 1:00.33.9, executing the only clean shooting score of the race, while teammate Ricco Gross rounded out the podium to take the bronze medal at 1:00.51.4, with two shooting errors.

Three other Canadian men also suited up on Wednesday. Olympian Jean Paquet, Loretteville, Que., finished a few paces back of Clegg in 55th spot with a time of 1:08.57.0, hitting 15 of 20 targets, while Edmonton’s Gerhardt Klann ended the day in 79th place at 1:12.15.7 and seven shooting errors. David Leoni, of Camrose, Alta., who skied to his best-ever result of 37th place during the opening world championships sprint, rounded out the Canadian contingent in 80th spot at 1:12.29.5, and eight shooting errors.