|
Jan
11
|
Cook Posts Career Best Sprint Finish at 26th for Team USA
|
By Linda Jager |
Jan 11, 2012,
12:00 AM ET
RUHPOLDING, Germany
(January 11, 2013) - Annelies Cook (Saranac Lake, NY) had a career-best
race in today's 7.5k sprint at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding. Shooting clean
in both stages, Cook posted a time of 22:22.0 for 26th place, 1:24.8 minutes
back from Germany's Miriam Gossner, winning the sprint with a time of 20:57.2
(0+1), Darya Domracheva (BLR) took second (21:04.3/0+1), and Kaisa
Mäkäräinen (FIN) finished third (21:14.7/1+0).
Sara Studebaker
(Boise, ID) also had a strong race today with clean shooting, finishing 33rd
(up from a start at 55) with a time of 22:29.7. "Today was definitely
tough conditions, and I was happy to be able to capitalize on our great skis
and shoot well," said Studebaker. "This was a big step for me as I
finally felt good skiing. I feel like things are definitely on the upswing for
me, and I'm looking forward to Antholz and then heading to World Champs!"
"Today
was a good confirmation that with our training, and our goal setting we are
headed in the right direction," said Jonne Kähkönen, US Biathlon
women's head coach. "The shooting is coming together and it's good
to see that the team is performing at the level the can be and should be."
"It
was a really strong performance by the women's team, especially from Annelies
and Sara." said US Biathlon High Performance Director Bernd
Eisenbichler. " They had super shooting in very tough conditions."
Susan
Dunklee (Barton, VT) missed one at each shooting stage, finishing 53rd with
a time of 23:06.7. Lanny Barnes (Durango, CO) started with bib 89, but
did not finish the race due to illness. Extended results from today's 7.5k
sprint can be found here.
World Cup 5 racing continues in
Ruhpolding tomorrow with the men's 10k sprint starting at 12:15pm (ET). Tim
Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) will start with bib 19, Leif Nordgren
(Marine, MN) bib 25, Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) bib 37, Russell
Currier (Stockholm, ME) bib 81, and Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK) with
bib 86 among a field of 102 competitors. The men's sprint will be
webcast live here.