December 11, 2015 (Hochfilzen, Austria) – American Lowell Bailey shot clean and skied the 12th-fastest time in the IBU men’s 10km Sprint in Hochfilzen, Austria to finish 12th at 40.9s behind winner, Simon Schempp of Germany, who also shot clean with a time of 23:52.3. Calgary’s Nathan Smith missed one shot in his final round of shooting to end up 18th at 50.4s back.

Lowell Bailey (USA) © US Biathlon/NordicFocus

France’s Martin Fourcade landed on the podium in second with a single penalty as he finished 9.9 seconds back, while Norway’s Tarjei Boe also shot clean to claim third at 18.9 seconds behind.

For Bailey, it was a welcome bounce back after failing to qualify for last week’s pursuit at World Cup 1 in Oestersund, Sweden. “I was happy with today’s race coming off last week’s disappointing start,” said Bailey who started 48th.

“The course was really fast and the corners were about as icy as I’ve ever seen. The shooting range conditions were nearly perfect and it was a nice change from the gale-force winds of Oestersund. Looking forward to tomorrow,” he added as he leads five Americans who all qualified for tomorrow’s 12.5km pursuit race.

Canada’s Smith commented, “I was really happy with how my shooting felt. I finished a bit further back than I would’ve expected with the quality of my race, but with such fast, icy conditions the time gaps were smaller than usual so I’m still in a great spot for tomorrow.”

“The snow conditions were firm, but really icy on all downhill corners. It was difficult staying on my feet and I saw a few spectacular crashes. I took it easy and used caution on these turns. Tomorrow in the pursuit it will be especially important to be vigilant while skiing in close groups of skiers.”

Nathan Smith (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Sean Doherty (USA) finished 25th (25:05.4/+2), Tim Burke (USA) was 30th (25:19.2/+3), Scott Gow (Can) shot clean to finish 33rd, Brendan Green was 35th (1+1), Leif Nordgren (USA) placed 55th (2 misses), Calgary’s Christian Gow finishing 59th (1+0), and Macx Davies was 93rd (1+3).

In the women’s 7.5km sprint Rosanna Crawford led the way for the Canadians missing one shot in standing en route to finishing 39th (0+1) as Germany swept the podium with Franziska Hildebrand setting the time to beat at 20:04.1 with a perfect day of shooting. Maren Hammerschmidt was also clean on the range to claim the silver at 20:19.2, while Miriam Goessner completed the sweep with a time of 20:25.1 (0+1).

The USA’s Dunklee finished 53rd with a time of 21:52.7 and four penalties, Canada’s Julia Ransom was 54th (0+1), Megan Tandy (Can) skied to 56th (1+1), the USA’s Annelies Cook was 65th with two misses, Clare Egan (USA) was 83rd (2 misses), Hannah Dreissigacker (USA) finished 99th (5 misses), and Emma Lunder (Can) had a tough day of shooting in her first World Cup start of the year, missing five shots to finish 101st.

“Tough day for the team with none of us showing our full potential,” said Dunklee. “We’ll be hungry to make amends in Sunday’s relay. My legs felt heavy skiing and I am still working through some minor problems with my standing shooting, but tomorrow is a new day. I love to chase people down and the pursuit is the perfect race for that.”

The BMW IBU World Cup 2 continues on Saturday with the pursuit events. The women’s 10k event starts at 5:30 a.m. EST, and the men’s 12.5k pursuit follows at 8:30 a.m. Live streaming coverage of the races can be seen here.

Men’s results here.
Women’s results here.