Jan 09

Team USA Women 13th in Ruhpolding Relay Opener

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RUHPOLDING, Germany (January 9, 2013) - Team USA's women opened World Cup 5 in Ruhpolding today placing 13th in the 4X6k relay. The squad - Annelies Cook (Saranac Lake, NY), Susan Dunklee (Barton, VT), Sara Studebaker (Boise, ID) and Lanny Barnes (Durango, CO) - posted a time of 1:12:42.4 (0+3+0+5), 4:29.2 back from Team Norway (Fenne, Flatland, Solemdal and Berger) winning the relay with a time of 1:08:13.3 and four spare rounds. Team Russia (Glazyrina, Vilukhina, Shumilova and Zaitseva) finished second at 1:09:07.9  and just one spare round in the final stage. Team Czech Republic (Vitkova, Soukalova, Cerna and Zvaricova) took third with a time of 1:10:05 (0+3+0+4). Extended results from today's 4x6k relay are available here.

“ This has been my second time starting the relay and I was definitely less nervous about it, but excited,” said Cook. “You have to be smart because so much happens in the first leg and athletes are quite bunched together. The main goal is to tag off to your team without a large time deficit and it doesn't necessarily matter what place as long as you are close to the leaders. There are a couple of big turns at the bottom of each of the large hills, so I had that on my mind and I wanted to stay out of trouble. I did break a pole right at the start when a Romanian kicked it, but it was no problem to get a new one easily. I cleaned prone, which kept me within range of the pack and in standing, I had two misses and used two extra rounds. Standing has been a challenge for me in races, so I was pretty slow and deliberate to make sure I got them. And it was such a relief to hit them! And then I just went for it and tried to pass as many girls as possible in that last lap and it was nice to have the feeling that that was possible.”



"I was really happy with the women's shooting today, said US Biathlon Women's Coach Jonne Kähkönen. "Annelies on the first leg had a strong performance, staying relaxed even with a broken pole after the first couple of hundred meters. Also a positive signal was Susan's performance coming back from sickness. This was a good confirmation that the women are on track towards the World Championships, and I'm looking forward to a good team performance on the sprint on Friday."



World Cup 5 racing continues tomorrow with the men's 4x7.5 k relay at 12:15pm (ET). Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) will race the first leg for team USA, followed by Leif Nordgren (Marine, MN), Russell Currier (Stockholm, ME) and Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK), respectively. Tomorrow's start list and results will be available here. The men's relay will be webcast live here.