Tim Burke 18th in Östersund
Biathlon: Östersund
Mon, Dec 6, 2010 - By Viktoria Franke
The US team finished the sprint races under the Biathlon World Cup in Östersund, Sweden with some solid results.
The best US man of the day was once again Tim Burke who finished 18th with two misses at the standing stage. “Tim performed really good on the tracks today, I’m impressed how he presented himself despite the stomach problems of the last days”, said head coach Per Nilsson.
Lowell Bailey on rank 38 also collected some world cup points. With a clean shooting Bailey was 2:08.5 minutes behind the – once again – unbeatable Emil Hegle Svendsen from Norway. “Normally my skiing shape during the past years was already good in the fall; this year I’m trying a different strategy. So the skiing will get better with more races. As for the shooting: I’m happy about that. I struggled a bit in the trials in Canmore but this range here with the downhill approach seems to fit me quite well”, said Bailey after the race.
While Burke wants to get “away from the Swedish water as fast as possible”, Bailey hopes for some warmer weather over the next races.
For Russell Currier (80th place/3 misses) and Leif Nordgren (84th/4) the race was about gaining more experience and confidence on the shooting range so for them it was an important race as well. Jeremy Teela on the other hand took a chance by starting today. He was weakened a lot by the stomach parasite but as an ambitious athlete he still started as this race was the qualifier for tomorrow’s pursuit.
“I think Jeremy was right by starting. He felt better but of course you only can know how bad the problems still are when you go full speed in a competition. So we hope he gets better soon”, said Nilsson.
Women miss pursuit
Sara Studebaker and Laura Spector both missed the pursuit as only the 60 best biathletes qualify for that race. Spector, who wrote her final exam in biology on Friday and Saturday in Östersund, finished 80th with three misses. Studebaker finished eight places behind her team mate. “I felt a bit better but I’m still lacking energy after the stomach problems. And the shooting range was quite rough as well yesterday, so that didn’t help”, said Studebaker about her race.