Lanny Barnes Leads US Women in 7.5K Sprint Biathlon

Sat, Dec  2, 2006 - By US Biathlon Association

Ostersund, Sweden, December 1. Lanny Barnes (Durango, CO) led the US women for the second consecutive competition with a 58th place in today’s 7.5K Sprint.  

Spring-like conditions continued to dominate the winter in Ostersund today for the Women’s 7.5K Sprint. After a brief dip back to colder temperatures yesterday, today’s dawn (or gray haze) brought plus six temperatures and light drizzle. This gave the women with almost identical conditions to the 15K Individual on Wednesday.

Lanny commented at the finish, “Even though I hate to say it, conditions were a bit better today than Wednesday. The men were extremely lucky yesterday with the colder conditions. Now the snow is very dirty. In some places, it is so thin that you can see the pavement.”

Barnes, in 58th place, had one penalty today in standing, just as on Wednesday. She finished 2:58.4 behind the surprise winner, Magdalena Gwizdon of Poland. Gwizdon has never won a Biathlon World Cup prior to today. Gwizdon finished in 24:05, with perfect shooting on a breezy day. She topped Olympic Champion and the pre-competition favorite Kati Wilhelm of Germany by 21.4 seconds. Wilhelm had one standing penalty, which possibly cost the victory. Her teammate, Martina Glagow, also with one penalty, was 35.2 seconds back.

“Lanny shot well on a tough day. Many of the women will struggle on standing,” according to US Biathlon coach Mikael Lofgren. The breezes were steady from the right for most of the competition.

 

Tracy Barnes had a better day than in the 15K Individual, but with a 63rd place finish failed to advance to Sunday’s 10K Pursuit competition. She had two standing penalties today, finishing 3:09.6 back. ”I felt a thousand times better today than Wednesday. I could actually move out there today. As for those two penalties, I should not have missed them.”

Sarah Konrad (Laramie, WY) finished 78th today, 4:20.2 back with five penalties.

The men take the stage on Saturday in the 10K Sprint with Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY), Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK) and Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK) starting for the US Biathlon Team.

The United States Biathlon Association is the National Governing Body for the sport of Biathlon in the United States as recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and the International Biathlon Union. The US Biathlon Association supports the US Biathlon Team and development of the sport on all levels within the United States.

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