February 11, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – The USA’s Susan Dunklee posted another strong performance in the women’s 10km pursuit as she raced in the top-5 until the final standing session when three penalties pushed her down into 18th place. The gold went to Belarus star Darya Domracheva with one penalty and final time of 29:30.7. Norway’s Tora Berger (NOR) also with one penalty   took home the silver trailing the winner by 37.6s. Picking up the bronze was Teja Gregorin (SLO) also with one penalty at 42.0 behind Domracheva.

Starting 14th Dunklee’s result was the best Olympic pursuit finish by a U.S. woman. “I didn’t realize where I stood in the race until I came into the range for the last shooting stage,” said Dunklee. “I tried to stay focused on shooting and not the ‘what if’ thoughts. Unfortunately it was a tough stage, but I know I can be there and we still have more races to come.”

Zina Kocher was the top Canadian in 25th with four penalties at 2:44.4 behind while teammate Megan Imrie was just behind in 28th suffering two misses. Rosanna Crawford had a tough time on the range with seven penalties placing 45th followed by the USA’s Sara Studebaker in 51st with five misses, and Annelies Cook in 54th also with five misses. Canada’s Megan Heinicke DNF’d.

“It felt great to move up today…I felt more confident going into this race and more relaxed,” commented Kocher. “It was still frustrating that I went zero-2, zero-2 especially missing those two shots in the last standing, but I’m skiing really strong and I need to focus on that and focus on what went well in the individual race.”

Olympic biathlon racing continues February 13th with the men’s 20k individual.

Results are available here.