December 08, 2012 (Hochfilzen, AUT) – American Lowell Bailey had an outstanding race with just one penalty placing 10th on Sunday in the men’s 12.5km Pursuit as Slovenia’s Jakov Fak claimed the first World Cup win of his career in 31:45.5 with two penalties.

Fak finished 0.9 seconds ahead of Russia’s Dmitry Malyshko, who only had one penalty while Martin Fourcade of France finished in 3rd, with three penalties at 8.6 seconds behind Fak.

“Most of my podiums before have been in big events and I said that I wanted to be on top of the podium in a World Cup next,” Fak told biathlonworldcom. “Today, my dream came true…I have been waiting for this almost since I was born…approaching the finish line was a very emotional experience for me.”

Bailey, who started with bib 36, was tied for 5th fastest on the range and was 1:11.9 back from today’s winner. From Bailey’s perspective, it was a much better race for him today.

“I went into the race with the plan to be aggressive on the shooting range and to try and ski within my level at the moment,” Bailey told SkiTrax.  “I was able to work into the race and after two clean prone stages I found myself up in the top twenty-five.”

By the time Bailey entered the final standing stage, he was in 13th with his sights on 10th place. “It’s interesting because pretty much the exact same thing happened in the Pursuit here last year. Except last year, I missed two in my final stage and fell out of the top fifteen. Today the targets went down and I left the range in eighth but only a few meters ahead of Landertinger and Ustyugov.”

Bailey did his best to stay with the two but he couldn’t quite hold the pace. “I’m happy with the race and happy glad to have bounced back from a disappointing Sprint.”

Fellow American Tim Burke finished 23rd and Canadian’s Jean Philippe Legeullec & Scott Perras were 31st and 43rd respectively, while Russell Currier finished in 52nd place.

The second round of World Cup action concludes tomorrow in Hochfilzen with the men’s 4×7.5k Relay and women’s 4x6k Relay.

Full results here.