Susan Dunklee Medals and Clare Egan Achieves Personal-Bests at World Champs
Susan crossing the line second in the World Champs mass start (photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Clare racing to 24th in her first-ever World Cup mass start (photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)
Last Updated: 21.Feb.2017
This past week, IBU World Championships continued in Hochfilzen, Austria with an individual race, a relay, and a mass start.
Individual:
Susan Dunklee was the first U.S. woman across the line with an impressive 6th place finish. After missing one shot in the first stage and cleaning the next two stages, she was in a podium position. However, she missed one shot in her final standing stage which bumped her back to 6th. She had the fourth fastest shooting time and the 7th fastest ski time. Her result made her the first U.S. woman in any sport to qualify for the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang, Korea. Clare Egan also had a very strong race placing 22nd with only 2 misses. This was a personal-best result for her in this event. On the men's side, Clare and Susan's USBA teammate Lowell Bailey notched a historic win as the first U.S. biathlete to earn a World Champs medal.
Relay:
In the relay, Clare and Susan were joined by USBA teammates Joanne Reid and Maddie Phaneuf. Clare scrambled for the team using one spare in prone and three in standing. She tagged off to Susan in 16th. Susan then skied the fastest second-leg time cleaning prone and using two spares in standing to move the team up to 7th. The team ultimately finished 14th with no penalties and 13 spares. The mats during the relay were quite slippery due to the falling snow making them difficult to stand on.
Mass Start:
Susan had the race of a lifetime this past Sunday cleaning all four stages and skiing to a silver medal which was the first World Champs medal ever won by a U.S. woman in biathlon. Susan had the fastest shooting time in each stage leaving the range in the lead. On her last loop she couldn't quite hold off eventual race winner, Laura Dahlmeier of Germany. Clare had a strong race in her first World Cup mass start event placing 24th with four misses.
Racing action resumes on March 2nd in PyeongChang, Korea at the pre-Olympic World Cup. Results and live streaming can be found at biathlonworld.com. Thanks for following!