Egan Leads Individuals in Oberhof- Brown and Dunklee Contribute to Team Highlights
Written by GRP Biathlete Raleigh Goessling
After a break for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, the IBU Biathlon World Cup returned to action in Oberhof, Germany. This season the iconic venue will feature back to backrace weekends as part of the IBU’s COVID-19 influenced race schedule.
The first weekend of racing in Oberhof featured Sprint and Pursuit competitions for individuals and Single Mixed and Mixed Relay team competitions.
Susan Dunklee and Clare Egan represented the GRP in the Sprint competition. Clare continued her stellar shooting form and produced a clean (no misses) race. By avoiding the penalty loop and staying speedy on the tracks, Egan secured 13th place, a mere 10 seconds from 8th place. This finish granted her a start in the Pursuit competition. Dunklee picked up two prone penalties, then added 3 more in standing. This prevented her from climbing the result sheet, and Susan ended the day in 91st position.
Clare Egan was the only GRP representative in the Pursuit competition. Egan picked up one penalty in each prone shooting stage, and two penalties in each standing shooting bout. Despite continued high speed on her skis, Clare moved back to 38thplace, but was still the top ranked US women.
In the Mixed Relay competition Clare Egan was joined by Jake Brown, who was benched for the Sprint Race, but brought back into the fold by the coaching staff for the relay. Clare kicked off proceedings on the first leg, using two extra rounds (athletes get 3 extra shots to clean in the relay) to hit her 10 targets and continued her fast form on the tracks to tag only 11 seconds from the front of the race. Jake Brown closed out the 4 person relay with 1 extra round to drop 10 targets and fought hard against the Finnish and Italian teams to bring the US crew home in 9th place. The Team USA tied for the most accurate shooting in the competition.
In the Single Mixed Relay Susan Dunklee combined with Sean Doherty to form the US Team. Susan and Sean got off to a strong start on the range, but Doherty incurred prone penalties late in the competition. After flirting with the top 5 places, Susan and Sean ended the day in 11th place.
Racing in Oberhof returns swiftly with another round of Sprint competitions on January 13th and 14th. For full event replays, news, race reports and full results visit www.biathlonworld.com.