December 08, 2018 (Pokljuka, Slovenia) – The USA’s Clare Egan turned in the sixth-fastest course time en route to a 15th-place finish on Saturday with one penalty in the women’s 7.5km sprint at the BMW IBU World Cup in Pokljuka. It was her second-best career finish.

Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen won with clean shooting over Italy’s Dorothea Wierer in second who also shot clean at 14.8 seconds back. Justine Braisaz of France placed third at 42.1 seconds behind with perfect shooting as well.

“After struggling on the range in the 15k Individual, I was focused on getting back into a good routine today,” Egan said. “I had to fight for my last two shots and did a really nice job with shot 9 but obviously not good enough for shot 10. Overall the shooting is there, and the skiing too, so I’m competing with the best in the world and that’s new and exciting. I’m in great shape right now so I know that anything is possible.”

Susan Dunklee (USA) was 45th with Joanne Reid 57th. Canada’s Megan Tandy was 73rd, Rosanna Crawford finished 77th, Nadia Mose was 88th and Megan Bankes was 99th.

“Our whole women’s team is in a great place; we did excellent training this summer with our new coach, Armin (Auchentaller), and it’s paying off,” added Egan. “Last year at World Cup 1, zero American women qualified for the pursuit, whereas all three of us did today. And it’s worth noting that with Susan’s 11th place in the Individual, we’ve now had two women go in the top 15 already in the first two races of the year. We are proud of ourselves and motivated to keep climbing.”

Results here.