RUHPOLDING, Germany (March 1,2012) - Spring-like temperatures marked the opening of the 2012 IBU World Championships today in Ruhpolding, Germany with the 2x6+2x7.5 km Mixed Relay event. 

Team USA (Sara Studebaker (Boise, ID), Susan Dunklee (Barton, VT), Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) and Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) finished 12th, posting a time of 1:15:08.7 (0+2+1+7), 2:39.4 minutes back from today’s winning team from Norway (Berger, Solemdal, Bjoerndalen and Svendsen). The Norweigen team posted a time of 1:12:29.3 (0+3+1+8). Slovenia (Mali, Gregorin, Bauer and Fak) took second (1:12:49.5/0+5+0+2), and Team Germany (Henkel, Neuner, Birnbacher and Peiffer) finished third with a time of 1:13:02.1 (0+4+1+6).

Bailey led Team USA today with clean shooting at the range. “I was happy with the race today. Anything can happen in a relay - good and bad,” said Bailey. “I think we all kept our heads in the race and we came away with a decent result. The course held up nicely in the 60-degree weather, something I was a little worried about looking at the upcoming forecasts. It's nice to see that the race committee was able to keep the conditions stable throughout the race. It's good to have the first race under my belt here in Ruhpolding and I'm looking forward to the Sprint on Saturday.”

Please visit here for a link to extended results from today’s Mixed Relay. 

Competition continues at 6:30 am (EST) Saturday with the Men’s 10K Sprint, and will be webcast live at http://www5.biathlonworld.com/en/. Please visit here for a link to the complete 2012 IBU World Championship schedule and results.