Magdalena Neuner (GER) left the door open in the women’s 10k pursuit. But Anastasia Kuzmina (SVK) couldn’t shut it.

When a penalty by Neuner in the final shooting stage left Kuzmina trailing by just six seconds, the Slovakian had a chance to reel in the leader over the final two k loop. But Neuner put the hammer down, steadily pulling away to win her second medal in three days. After hitting all 20 shots, Marie Laure Brunet (FRA) was third, moving up from sixth.

Leading Kuzmina by 25 seconds coming into last shooting stage, Neuner could have essentially ended the race by shooting clean. She hit her first four targets, but the pressure got to her on the last one.

Kuzmina skied into the range in time to see Neuner’s miss, and she took advantage, hitting all five of her shots in rapid succession. The two left the range almost together, and it looked like the stage was set for a head-to-head battle. But Neuner never gave it a chance, pulling away from Kuzmina immediately to win by a comfortable margin.

Megan Tandy (CAN) led the way for the North Americans with a 36th place finish, moving up ten places with the help of an enthusiastic home crowd. Sarah Studebaker was 46th, one spot below her start number.

Two days after a snow squall ruined the race for two-thirds of the men’s biathlon field, it is again snowing heavily in Whistler.  The good news is that the snow started before the race, not during, so the playing field should be relatively level.

As is par for the course here, the the snow is very wet, with temperatures right around freezing.

The women start at 10:30, the men at 12:45.

Two North American women qualified for the pursuit – Sara Studebaker for the US and Megan Tandy for Canada.  They start in 45th and 46th respectively.  Studebaker is 2:10 back and Tandy 2:12 behind leader Anastazia Kuzmina (SVK).

German Magdalena Neuner, sitting in 2nd, just two seconds behind Kuzmina should be considered the race favorite.  And despite a disappointing race two days ago, Helena Jonsson (SWE), should not be counted out.  She is in 12th, but just 47 seconds back.

The rest of the very strong German team is further back after poor races on Saturday.  But in the pursuit, with four shooting stages, making up 1:30 is not out of the question.

The men’s field is for from standard after the chaos on Sunday.  Jean Philippe LeGuellec (CAN) sits in 6th place just 50 seconds in back of leader Jay Vincent (FRA).  Jeremy Teela (USA) is not far behind in 9th, and after finishing 3rd at the Whistler World Cup last year, he has a legitimate shot for the podium.

The rest of the US team suffered due to the snow, Lowell Bailey and Jay Hakkinen shot clean, but still finished way back.  Tim Burke skied a bit faster, but the combination of the snow and poor shooting left him in 47th, 2:47 back.  Burke has shown an impressive ability to make up huge ground in the pursuit, so it would not be a surprise to see him climb into the top-10.  A medal is unlikely as he is starting 2:47 back, but not completely out of the realm of possibility.

Emil Svendsen (NOR) starting in 2nd, 12 seconds behind Vincent is in good position to take over the lead and claim gold.  Teammate Ole Einar Bjorndalen is 17th, 1:47 back, and will need to shoot much better to capture his 10th Olympic medal.

Women’s Start List

Men’s Start List

Liz Stephen skied the best major international race of her career, finishing 15th in the womens 15km pursuit at the World Championships in Liberec.

Stephen was 28th after the classic portion before posting the 7th fastest skate split on the day.

Her teammate Morgan Arritola also had a strong race, finsihing 32nd.

Sara Renner led Canada in 21st.

Look for a full report on the main FasterSkier site to follow.

After each race is a press conference with the top three finishers – once they have cleared doping controls. It is interesting to see the athletes up close and see how they react to their success. The men’s winner, Nikolai Pankrotov couldn’t stop smiling, clearly thrilled with his first World Cup victory. He also talked about the strong performance by the women’s team – who took second and third. All three of the top women seemed quite happy with their results. Axel Teichmann of Germany, who took third in the men’s race, was the only top finisher who seemed indifferent at best.

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