Brown, Dunklee and Egan Finish Up Antholz Biathlon World Cup
Written by GRP Biathlete Raleigh Goessling
The GRP World Cup biathlon squad tackled Individual and Relay competitions in Antholz, Italy this past weekend. Clare Egan tacked on a Mass Start race by virtue of her Top 25 overall World Cup ranking.
Clare Egan and Susan Dunklee got the ball rolling in Italy with an Individual competition. The women’s Individual is 15km long, athletes shoot prone and standing twice and there is a 1 minute penalty for each missed shot. After cleaning her first prone stage, Clare picked up one penalty in each of the remaining 3 stages. Egan ended the day in 47th.
Susan Dunklee produced a season best 20th place, with 19/20 shooting. Susan said of the race, “I tried to channel my inner Chloe Levins, who inspired the team earlier this week with a clean individual on the IBU Cup. The last shot got away from me but I’m very happy with my performance.” Historically, Dunklee races very well in Antholz, last year Susan took 2nd place at the World Championships in the Sprint competition at the iconic Italian venue.
Jake Brown took the second leg for the US men’s Relay team. In the men’s Relay, each athlete skis 7.5km and shoots prone and standing once. Athletes get 3 spare rounds to hit their 5 targets in this race. Brown continued his strong skiing with the 9th best course time on his leg. Jake combined this speed with clean prone shooting and a single miss in standing, which he quickly cleaned up with a single extra round.
Unfortunately, the US team was lapped by the leaders before they were able to finish due to shooting troubles in the 3rd and 4th legs.
Jake Brown also took on the Individual competition in Antholz.The men’s Individual competition is 20km long and adds a minute for each shot missed to the athlete’s total time. The event took place under heavy weather, with low visibility on the range and snowy ski trails. Brown continued his strong skiing, producing the 38th best ski time. Jake also managed to clean his second prone stage. Jake picked up 2 penalties in his other 3 shooting stages, for 6 total misses. With each miss adding one minute to his total time, Brown was pushed back to 76th place, for 4th place on the US men’s team.
Clare Egan was the sole US athlete to race in the weekend’s Mass Start competitions. Clare qualified for the Mass Start on the back of her top 25 overall World Cup ranking. Egan missed one shot in each of her shooting bouts. Clare finished the race in 29th place. On Instagram, Egan commented that, “Somehow in the last two weeks before the Antholz World Cup I got so tired that when it came time to race, all I could do was try to survive until the finish line.”
Jake Brown, Susan Dunklee, and Clare Egan have all been selected to race for Team USA at the IBU World Championships beginning February 9th in Slovenia. In the meantime, the GRP trio prepare for the championships in Antholz, Italy. For full results, event replays, race recaps and more from the world of biathlon visit www.biathlonworld.com