Egan Leads GRP at World Cup III in Hochfilzen, Austria
Written by GRP Biathlete Raleigh Goessling
The IBU Biathlon World Cup in Hochfilzen Austria hosted Pursuit and Relay competitions this past weekend. In a Pursuit competition, the top 60 athletes from the Sprint race qualify, and start in the order of their finish in the Sprint race. For example, an athlete who placed 38th in the Sprint, 1:40 behind the winner, would start 40th, 1:40 after the first athlete took to the course.
In a Relay competition, each nation fields a 4 person team. Each athlete skis 3 loops and shoots once prone and once standing. Should the athlete miss, they have 3 spare rounds to clean their targets, if there are still targets standing after the spare rounds, the 150m penalty loop must be skied once for every miss.
In the Pursuit, Clare Egan again posted the top Team USA and GRP individual result. After making two mistakes in her opening prone shooting bout, Egan only accrued in single miss in the next 3 stages and posted a speedy last lap to finish in 13th place.
Susan Dunklee began the day with bib 53 and improved her ranking at the conclusion of the competition by finishing in 48th place. Susan had 3 prone and 3 standing misses, but solid skiing allowed her to move up over the course of the race, and finish 3rd best among the American Women.
In the Relay competition, Susan, Clare and their US Biathlon teammates came back from 21st place after the first leg to finish the day in 12th position. Susan used 3 spare rounds and fast skiing to start the American women’s recovery on leg number 2. In the anchor leg position, Clare Egan used no spare rounds and solid speed on the tracks to complete the fightback and bring the team in for 12th place.
Jake Brown was part of the US men’s Relay team which finished 15th. The American men produced some of the best shooting in the race with no penalty loops and only 6 spare rounds. Jake took the anchor leg for Team USA and posted swift ski times. On the range Brown required 2 spare rounds to clean his prone targets but make no mistakes in standing.
For full race replays, detailed results, and more from the Biathlon World Cup, visit www.biathlonworld.com.