GRP Biathlon at World Cup & US Champs

Hannah racing in the pursuit last Saturday at World Cup 9 in Khanti-Mansiysk, Siberia, Russia, wearing bib 14 after setting a new personal best result of 14th place in the previous day's sprint. Hannah raced in her first World Cup mass start on Sunday.

Last Updated: 25.Mar.2015

Last weekend marked the season finale for American biathletes both at home and abroad (...that is, until Craftsbury's Spring Super Sprint Biathlon Race!). Hannah Dreissigacker and Susan Dunklee were the lone female members of a selective US contingent competing at World Cup 9 in in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, Russia, while Clare Egan and Mike Gibson represented the GRP at US Biathlon National Championships in Truckee, California.  

In Friday's World Cup sprint, Hannah Dreissigacker led team USA with a new personal best result of 14th place, missing just one single shot in prone. Susan Dunklee suffered four misses on the range, but skied the fifth-fastest course time to finish 26th. In Saturday's pursuit competition, both US women missed five shots, which caused Hannah to slide back to 38th place, while Susan continued her trend of top ski times and managed to move up to 23rd place with the 2nd-fastest time of the day. Based on the results from the sprint and pursuit, both US women qualified for Sunday's mass start- Hannah in bib 30 and Susan in bib 17. Hannah's inaugural appearance in the World Cup mass start got off to a rough start with three misses in the first stage, but she stayed in control for the remainder of the race, missing just one shot per stage. Going into the final lap, she found herself in last place, but passed German Louise Kummer in the final kilometers to finish 27th (three of the original 30 did not finish). Susan also had six misses (2,2,1,1) and slid back two places to 19th. She finished the World Cup season ranked 17th overall. 

On the other side of the globe, Clare Egan and Michael Gibson represented the GRP at US Biathlon National Championships in Truckee, California. Clare won both the sprint and pursuit, shooting 0,3 in the former and 1,1,2,3 in the latter. Michael Gibson was third overall and second in his age group in the sprint, shooting 3,2. In the pursuit he was fourth overall and third for his age group, shooting 2,2,3,2.