Tracy Barnes 19-for-20 at Pokljuka Biathlon

Fri, Dec  14, 2007 - By US Biathlon Association

Pokljuka (Bled), Slovenia, December 13. Tracy Barnes (Durango, CO) hit 19 of 20 targets, finishing in a season best 40th place in the 15K Individual here today.

Barnes toppled every target except one in the second prone stage. This was a huge improvement from her opening 15K in Kontiolahti, Finland two weeks ago where she recorded seven penalties and a 96th place result. Today, Barnes finished 5:53.4 behind Ekaterina Iourieva of Russia who scored a 43:47.3 victory, with perfect shooting. Italian Michaela Ponza, crossing the line 55.1 seconds later, also shot clean. Third went to Martina Glagow of Germany, with one penalty, 1:18.2 back. With the third place, Glagow scored enough points to regain the yellow bib as the Overall World Cup leader.

In the Men’s 20K individual, Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) was the top US finisher in 50th place. Bailey had three penalties in the first prone stage, but recovered to hit 14 of the next 15 shots. He finished 6:38 behind Emile Svendsen of Norway who shot clean on the way to his first World Cup victory in 51:58.1. Alexander Wolf of Germany skied a bit faster than Svendsen, but had one penalty which left him 48>6 seconds from the top of the podium. Russian Sergei Sednev, followed him also with one penalty, 1:55.9 back. US Biathletes Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK) and Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK) finished 73rd and 79th, with seven and eight penalties, respectively.

The next competitions will be Saturday with the Men’s 10K and the Women’s’ 7.5K Sprints.

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