Burke Fourth, amazing Team result at Summer Biathlon WCHs

Today the US men's team took part in the first race within the ongoing Summer Biathlon WCHs. The sprint race in Oberhof, Germany turned out to end with an amazing overall result for the team.

Tim Burke had quite some problems during the last training weeks over in Europe. Problems with the rifle made him struggle for quite some time at the shooting range, just this week he had to cope with stomach ache and dizziness. Nevertheless Burke came back strong as usually at today's sprint competition during the Summer Biathlon WCHs in Oberhof

With an amazing performance on the track he took the lead after the first shooting but had to settle for fourth place behind the strong Germans in the end. With Germany’s men taking the podium spots, Burke was 23 seconds behind today’s winner, Christoph Stephan. “After all that time training I feel kind of tired already. But nevertheless it’s a great chance to finish those training weeks with some races. I am quite satisfied with my result today although one miss less would have been great. But I was pumping pretty hard when I came to the standing shooting and had to fight a lot for every hit”, said Burke after his race.

Tim Burke

Seventh Place for Teela

Jeremy Teela came in on seventh place with just one penalty – an outstanding result for him as well. “I didn’t expect that much before the races and I also didn’t feel that fast on the skis today. But I am really happy to make the Top10. I expected something like Top20 or something like that. So I am pretty surprised!”

Lowell Bailey with two misses on 11^th and Jay Hakkinen with four on 28^th also ranked within the Top30 at the end. Hakkinen, who lives close to the town of Oberhof with his small family, was cheered by the audience enthusiastically. “It’s amazing to hear that how the people support you!” 5.000 spectators followed the sprint races today, even more people are expected for tomorrow’s pursuit competition. “That’s a good practice for us in front of all those spectators and also a good chance to compare our performance to the other nations. After the disappointment at the German Champs in Ruhpolding that brings quite some confidence to the team”, explained Team Leader Bernd Eisenbichler. Head Coach Per Nilsson was quite impressed by the team’s performance: “That really was one amazing race we saw here. The guys showed super strength on the track today and the misses at the shooting ranges were quite tight. That’s promising for tomorrow’s pursuit competition!”

High Motivation for Tomorrow's Pursuit

Tim Burke is sure that although he is tired, the motivation for tomorrow is high enough to show yet another great result: “I saw that I can compete with those guys up front there and we will see how it goes tomorrow. But I am hoping for the best! A spot on the podium is actually not that far away”

Here are Sunday’s starting times:
Tim Burke: 23 seconds after today’s winner Christoph Stephan
Jeremy Teela:  40.3 seconds back
Lowell Bailey: 1:22.1 seconds back
Jay Hakkinen: 2:33.0 seconds back

Follow the races live at: http://services.biathlonresults.com/datacentersl_en.aspx