The IBU World Cup season opened with the Mixed Relay today in Oestersund, Sweden.

OESTERSUND, Sweden (November 25, 2012) - Team USA opened the 2012-13 IBU World Cup season today in Oestersund with a 17th place finish in the 2x6+2x7.5 km Mixed Relay. The squad, comprised of Susan Dunklee (Barton, VT), Sara Studebaker (Boise, ID), Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK), and Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), posted a time of 1:17:50.5 (0+5+2+8) and finished 5:09.2 back from Russia (Zaitseva, Vilukhina, Volkov, Ustygov) at 1:12:41.3 (0+2+0+4). Russia dominated today's World Cup opener, followed by Norway (Berger, Solemdal, Bjoentegaard, Svendsen) in second (1:13:02.4/0+3+0+7), and Czech Republic (Vitkova, Soukalova, Slesingr, Moravec) taking third with a time of 1:13:17.7 (0+3+0+5).

"Conditions were pretty good given the fact that there is not much snow, said Bernd Eisenbichler, US Biathlon high performance director. "Organizers have working hard to get the best for the athletes. It was at least winter temperatures today with - 3 C. Snow should be coming in the next few days which will be good for the conditions for the Individual races Wednesday and Thursday.

Extended results from today's Mixed Relay are available here. World Cup racing continues in Oestersund on Wednesday with the men's 20km Individual, beginning at 17:30 (CET).  A live webcast of the event will be available here.

Lanny Barnes takes top spot for Team USA with 13th in 7.5km at IBU Cup Sprint in Idre

Lanny Barnes (Durango, CO) had the top finish for Team USA at today's IBU Cup 7.5km Sprint in Idre, Sweden, posting 23:49.0 (1+0), 1:26.0 back from Norway's Bente Landheim, winning the event with clean shooting and a time of 22:23.0. Eva Tofalvi (ROU) took second with 22:43.4 (0+0) and Thekla Brun-Lee (NOR) finished third (22:54.5/0+0).

Annelies Cook (Saranac Lake) placed 25th with a time of 24:10.6 (1+2), Tracy Barnes (Durango, CO) was 40th (25:01.1/2+1), and Tara Geraghty-Moats (Fairlee, VT) finished 85th (27:40.6/3+3). Extended results from the 7.5km are available here.

Leif Nordgren (Marine, MN) finished today's 10km men's Sprint with a time of 25:48.5 (2+1), 1:24.7 behind Julian Eberhard (AUT) with back-to-back 10Km Sprint wins (24:23.8/1+2). Timofey Lapshin (RUS) took second (24:38.0/0+1), and Claudio Bockli (SUI) was third at 24:43.0/1+0. Sean Doherty (Center Conway, NH) finished 61st with a time of 26:32.7 (2+0). Extended results from the men's 10km Sprint are available here.

Following today's IBU Cup, US Biathlon has announced that Lanny Barnes, Cook and Nordgren will join the World Cup team in Oestersund to compete in the remaining World Cup 1 events.

The IBU Cup series continues in Beltostolen, Norway on November 29th. Start lists and event results will be available here.