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Feb
15
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Team USA Women Finish 11th at World Championship Relay
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By Linda Jager |
Feb 15, 2013,
12:00 AM ET
NOVE MESTO, CZE (February 15, 2013) - Team USA's
Women raced to an 11th place finish in today’s 4X6-kilometer relay at the 2013
IBu World Championships in Nove Mesto, CZE. The squad (Annelies Cook
(Saranac, Lake, NY), Sara Studebaker (Boise, ID), Susan Dunklee
(Barton, VT) and Hannah Dreissigacker (Morrisville, VT)) posted a time
of 1:11:15.5 (1+6+0+4). Dunklee had clean shooting at the range, and Studebaker
missed only one shot in her first standing stage.
“That broom wood helped me "clean" today-
that was my first race with perfect shooting, said Dunklee, who broke her rifle
stock during her final lap this week's 15k Individual. Dunklee worked with
and repaired the stock using wood from a broom handle. “Sara did an
awesome job catching a big pack for me to chase right before the tag off. We
matched our result from last year but our standards are higher now. We are all
hungry for more!”
“Today was a good day for me. It was a tough, short
loop without much rest, so skiing was definitely hard, but I was happy with my
feeling on skis today,” said Studebaker. “Likewise, I felt solid on the
range and it was nice to be able to not use too many extras. Relays are equally
tough and fun - we have a really positive team atmosphere right now and were
really psyched to put our best effort out there today. While we didn't quite
measure up to our own expectations, it was a solid day and a result that shows
there is a lot more possible for us! We're looking ahead to three more weekends
of racing, and pretty excited about where the team is!”
Team Norway (Fenne, Flatland, Solemdal, Berger) won
today’s relay with a time of 1:08:11.0 (0+2+1+7). Ukraine (Dzhyma, Semerenko,
Semerenko, Pidhrushna) took silver posting 1:08:18 (0+3+0+2), and Team Italy
(Wierer, Gontier, Ponza, Oberhofer) surprised the field today taking bronze
(1:08:22.6/0+2+0+2).
Extended results from today’s 4x6k relay are available
here: http://services.biathlonresults.com/results.aspx?RaceId=BT1213SWRLCH__SWRL
Team USA’s men take the course in Nove Mesto tomorrow
for the 4x7.5 km relay, beginning at 9:15am (EST). Starting with bib 13, Lowell
Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) will ski the first leg, followed by Tim Burke
(Paul Smiths, NY), Russell Currier (Stockholm, ME) and Leif Nordgren
(Marine, MN), respectively. Watch the race live at www.biathlonworld.com.
Tomorrow’s start list and race results will be available here.