Challenging Start for U.S. Biathlon Team at Ruhpolding World Cup
Biathlon World Cup: Ruhpolding
Fri, Jan 15, 2010 - By US Biathlon Team
RUHPOLDING, Germany - The U.S. Biathlon team faced a challenging opening to the Ruhpolding World Cup. The women’s results did not meet the team's expectations, but the women kept their positive attitude and look forward to making improvements as they prepare for Vancouver. Haley Johnson (Lake Placid, NY) had the top finish for the U.S. team in yesterday's 7.5km Sprint, 56th place, with one miss at the very last target. “The fault was that I started thinking I could hit them all, but I never hit them all,” said Johnson. Simply put by Johnson, and a good example of the mental challenges of biathlon at the shooting range.
Echoing Johnson's statement, USBA Executive Director Max Cobb commented on today’s men’s race that was dominated by Norwegians Emil Hegle Svendsen and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, “In biathlon some days are just like that!”
Today's 10km Sprint proved to be a big hurdle for most of the U.S. men’s team. Jeremy Teela (Heber City, UT) was the top finisher for the U.S. with his season’s best ranking at 17th place. “I am quite satisfied with my race today, “ said Teela. “I felt especially strong in my prone shooting. I changed some things over Christmas, and today it just worked.”
Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) finished in 31st place, missing two targets at the standing shooting, but tried to not be too hard on himself. “That’s biathlon, things like that happen,” said Burke. “I had some trouble standing there at the range because the mats were so slippery and the ski material wasn’t the best today. Things like that should not happen if you wear yellow!” The coveted yellow bib of the overall World Cup leader went back to Evgeny Ustyugov (RUS) with Burke now ranked third overall,19 points behind Ustyugov.
World Cup racing continues tomorrow from Ruhpolding with the women’s relay at 11:20 am (EST). Watch racing live online at http://tiny.cc/u96nv. Please visit www.biathlonworld3.de/en/ for a complete list of race results.
IBU World Cup Schedule - Ruhpolding, Germany (all times EST):
DATE START DISTANCE DISCIPLINE CATEGORY
1/15 11:20 a.m. 4 x 6 km Relay Women
1/16 9:15 a.m. 15 km Mass Start Men
1/16 11:10 a.m. 12.5 km Mass Start Women
1/17 9:15 a.m. 4 x 7.5 km Relay Men
Ruhpolding World Cup Sprint Results:
Women’s 7.5km Sprint 1/13/10
56 JOHNSON Haley 0+1 26:42.7 +2:53.1
88 STUDEBAKER Sara 1+2 27:53.0 +4:03.4
93 BARNES Lanny 0+1 28:15.1 +4:25.5
101 SPECTOR Laura 3+1 28:39.9 +4:50.3
Men’s 10km Sprint 1/14/10
17 TEELA Jeremy 0+1 24:53.3 +1:25.8
31 BURKE Tim 0+2 25:18.4 +1:50.9
80 HAKKINEN Jay 3+0 26:39.6 +3:12.1
93 BAILEY Lowell 4+0 26:59.8 +3:32.3
113 ROBERTS Wynn 3+2 28:07.4 +4:39.9