Hakkinen Slips into Top 30 with Good Standing Shooting

Oberhof, Germany, January 7. Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK), with only one standing penalty today, moved up from 32nd position before the final standing shooting stage to finish 29th in the Men’s 12.5K Pursuit competition.

 

Hakkinen was the only US biathlete to finish in the top thirty today, as Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY), who started 19th, struggled with nine penalties to finish 40th.

 

After another, rainy, windy, and slushy competition, Hakkinen had some regrets about his overall shooting (five penalties). “I would have had a good race if my prone shooting was better (four penalties). Standing is all that saved me. Today the prone was bad; skiing was good and so was my standing shooting. As soon as all three come together on the same day, I will have a good race! Despite this, it was fun being out there today. It was challenging, equally hard for everyone.”

“I admit that the organizers have done as good a job as possible with these conditions.” commented Head US Wax Technician Bernd Eisenbichler, “Still, some of the officials should ski 3K of the tracks, and I think they would realize the conditions are not good.” Eisenbichler’s comments came just prior to the start of today’s 12.5K Pursuit competition. All night rain and warm temperatures reduced the icy tracks to nothing more than 15-20 cm of crushed ice similar to what you would find in a snow cone on a hot summer day.

Organizers worked all night, yet the tracks were narrower and definitely in worse condition than Saturday. This prompted the frustrated and very tired Gerhard Kohler, Chief of Competition to comment, “I have been here in Oberhof since 1968, and have never seen this type of conditions here at this time of the year. We always have at least some snow!”

Hakkinen finished 3:33.8 behind winner Nicolay Kruglov of Russia, who won for the second time in 20 hours here. Kruglov had one penalty in a 36:18.2 win, pulling teammates Dmitri Iarochenko and Maxim Tchoudov to second and third place, 28.6 and 30.1 seconds back, respectively. Ironically, places one, two, and three had the same number of penalties as their place.

Tim Burke, despite nine penalties was the second US finisher, 4:26.3 back. He had four prone and five standing penalties. This was the first time Burke has missed the top 30 all season.

 

Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK) started 56th and finished 50th today, 5:20.6 back, with six penalties. ‘I knew I was in a bad starting position, so I decided just to work on some fundamentals, because a race is the best training. My skiing was strong, so that is a positive.”

 

Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), like his roommate Tim Burke, had nine penalties today, with five in prone and four in standing. Bailey finished 53rd, 5:53.8 back.

The US Biathlon Team now moves 4 hours southeast to Ruhpolding, Germany for the next five days of World Cup competitions, starting Wednesday with the Women’s 4 X 6K Relay.

Live streaming video coverage of Biathlon World Cup competitions for the remainder of the season is available by clicking the Biathlon World Cup logo at the top right of the page at www.usbiathlon.org.

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