February 13, 2015 (Oslo, Norway) – The USA’s Susan Dunklee placed 11th with two missed targets with clean-shooting Canadian, Megan Heinicke, in 12th in the women’s 15km individual at the IBU World Cup in Oslo at the famous Holmenkollen.

Susan Dunklee (USA) © Nordic Focus

Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen dominated all contenders taking the win with perfect shooting. Darya Domracheva (Belarus) followed in second at 1:18.3 behind with one penalty while Veronika Vitkova (Czech Republic) also cleaned to claim the bronze at 1:20.9 back.

“My plan going into the race was to be patient,” said Dunklee at 4:07.1 off the winning pace. “I felt tired after the Nove Mesto races and wasn’t sure how my body would respond today. I started conservatively and sped up. Going into the last shooting stage, I knew I was doing well. After a disappointing miss on the first shot, I realized my biggest challenge for the day was to regain focus for those next four, and I think I did that well.”

Megan Heinicke (CAN) © Nordic Focus

This was Heinicke’s second 12th-place individual result of the year and the team hopes to peak for the Biathlon World Championships later this month.

“This was another fabulous result for Megan. She has been battling back from illness last week so her skiing was a little slower, but perfect in shooting made it a great day,” said Chris Lindsay, high-performance director, Biathlon Canada.

Rosanna Crawford, of Canmore, Alta., put together steady skiing and shooting to finish 28th with three penalties at 6:07.2 behind while Quebec’s Audrey Vaillancourt put down a career-best performance shooting clean to claim 30th at 6:37.2 behind.

The USA’s Hannah Dreissigacker was 33rd with three penalties, Annelies Cook was 55th suffering four misses, and Maine’s Clare Egan placed 82nd with six penalties.

Men’s here.
Women’s here

Women's podium © Nordic Focus