Biathletes Represent GRP and USA in Oberhof Relay
Written by GRP Biathlete Raleigh Goessling
Jake Brown, Clare Egan and Susan Dunklee all featured on Team USA Relay squads this week at the IBU Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof, Germany.
Team USA’s men’s relay team was the first to compete in Oberhof, with the GRP’s Jake Brown taking the second of four legs. Brown was tagged by first leg athlete Leif Nordgren in 7thplace. Jake skied well through the first lap and executed a miss free prone stage. Brown left the range in 8th place, and over the course of the next loop formed a group with the Czech and Estonian teams. This group entered the standing stage in 6th, 7thand 8th place overall. Jake made two mistakes in his opening 5 shot effort but cleaned up the misses with three spare rounds. These shooting range errors pulled Brown back to 14th place after the standing bout. Strong skiing on the last loop advanced Jake and Team USA to 12th place at the 3rd exchange, in a virtual dead heat with 11th place Estonia.
Team USA maintained 12th place for the remainder of the race and avoided the penalty loop.
Jake Brown’s next start will come next week at the 6th stage of the IBU Biathlon World Cup in Antholz, Italy.
The GRP got the women’s relay underway with Susan Dunklee taking the leadoff leg and Clare Egan taking the second leg. Susan made mistakes shooting prone but corrected them with three spare rounds. Dunklee needed no extra rounds as she swiftly cleaned her standing targets, posting the 3rd best shooting time on her leg. Clare Egan made one mistake in her prone stage, but quickly mopped it up with a spare round. Egan made not mistakes in standing and propelled the team to 14th from 16th position.
Over the course of the remaining two legs, Team USA picked up two more spots to finish in 12th place overall. Clare Egan will be the lone US representative in the Mass Start competitions on Sunday January 16th.
For full event replays, race reports and full results from every IBU World Cup competition visit www.biathlonworld.com.