December 10, 2016 (Pokljuka, Slovenia) – Susan Dunklee matched her best-ever performance in a World Cup pursuit race on Saturday with a fifth-place finish in the women’s 10km event at the BMW IBU World Cup 2 in Pokljuka, Slovenia.

Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier rebounded after losing the lead following two penalties in her the second prone closing a  37-second gap to claim her second consecutive win. Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen also had two penalties to finish in second, 24.5 seconds back. Czech Republic’s Eva Puskarcikova hit the podium for the first time in her career, finishing in third, 25.1 seconds back with one penalty.

Dunklee, who was in second place after cleaning her first standing, was in the lead pack of six as they entered the final standing stage together. But only Dahlmeier would go clean out of that group. Dunklee missed her first target of the day on the final shooting stage, which sent her to the penalty loop with the other contenders.

“Ski speed is not 100 percent there yet this season, but it often isn’t sharp until February,” said Dunklee. “I need to be patient. I was skiing in no-man’s land during a couple of loops which is an extra challenge.”

Julia Ransom was the top Canuck and shot clean through the first three rounds closing in on the top-20, before her last shooting where she missed two shots to end up in her start position of 34th.

“Everything was great on both the skis and in the range until my focused unraveled a little bit, and I found myself in the penalty loop,” said Ransom. “The field is so tight right now that those mistakes are hard to recover from to get back into the top-30. My second straight 34th place finish is bittersweet. I’m really itching to be in that top-30 regularly.”

Dunklee, who started in 11th, got off to a blazing start by clocking the fastest opening loop in the 57-woman field and calmly knocked down her first 15 targets.

“During all the stages I felt very aware of what was going on around me but at the same time I was emotionally detached,” Dunklee said. “The miss on the last stage was a well-executed shot, just like all the others, but it landed just outside the target.”

After dropping back to seventh on the final loop to the finish line, Dunklee dug deep and rallied for fifth place, 24.1 seconds back of Dahlmeier who recovered after missing two targets in the second prone to finish first in 30 minutes, 43.1 seconds.

“I love this course with its finishing camel’s hump hills,” added Dunklee. “I was hurting for much of that last loop, but I knew that if I tried sprinting early I might be able to hang on to the lead of my pack because tactically it is very difficult to pass in the last half kilometer.”

Canada’s Rosanna Crawford moved up 11 spots on the field of 60 into 49th spot while Team USA’s Clare Egan finished 56th. Megan Tandy (Can) did not finish.

Full women’s pursuit results are available here.