FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bailey Wins Europa Cup Final!
Chapex-Lac, Switzerland --
Lowell Bailey, Lake Placid, NY, combined perfect shooting with solid skiing
to win the final Europa Cup competition of the year in Champex-Lac,
Switzerland. This victory was the United States' first since 1997 and only
the fourth ever. Bailey finished 5th and 9th in last week's competition in
Gurnigel, Switzerland and 8th in yesterday's individual competition. Bailey
defeated Nikolai Kruglov of Russia and Andreas Birnbacher or Germany who had
been dominating the competition thus far. Bailey will try to continue his
success in two weeks at the Junior World Championships in Russia.
"All the top guns were here today. It will really give Lowell some
confidence going into the Worlds, said Coach Cory Salmela. Bailey's time was
2nd overall among the Senior Men. It has been the standard this year for the
international junior level. "In my nine years on the Europa Cup, the top
junior is usually the 10th to 15th fastest time among the senior athletes.
This year Birnbacher is almost always in the top 5 and has won a couple
races. That's what it takes this year to win junior races. This group will
be the biathlon stars of the future, like Bjorndalen and Pioree. They will
push each other, like great rivalaries always do," said Salmela.
Bailey on the Race:
"I was so happy about my shooting. All I could do was smile the whole last
loop. I didn't ever think about cleaning the race. I just focused on the
process. It was a big breakthrough mentally for me".
Tim Burke of Paul Smiths, NY lead the rest of the American team hiting seven
of ten and skied well to finish 15th. Bill Snellman of Stillwater, MN also
hit seven and finished 27th.
The women's team had a difficult time in the ankle deep slush. Both had
major falls on the s-turn downhill. Both were uninjured, but lost several
minutes. Lanny Barnes of Durnago, CO was 17th followed by Carolyn Treacy of
Duluth, MN in 18th hitting seven and five respectively. The team will be
joined by three more women and two more men for a week of training in Germany
before traveling to the Junior World Championships in Russia.
10 km Junior Men Sprint (prone, standing) 32 Competitors
1 BAILEY, Lowell USA 0 0 30:01.5
2 KRUGLOV, Nikolai RUS 0 2 30:12.3
3 BIRNBACHER, Andreas GER 0 1 30:19.4
4 GRAF, Daniel GER 0 0 30:25.4
5 SOLOVIEV, Alexei RUS 1 0 30:28.6
15 BURKE, Tim USA 1 2 32:26.5
27 SNELLMAN, Bill USA 0 3 33:53.9
7.5km Junior Women's Sprint 19 Competitors
1 KIELTYKA, Beata POL 0 0 25:40.5
2 MOLLER, Hanna GER 1 1 25:54.0
3 MAKAROVA, Ylia RUS 1 1 25:58.7
17 BARNES, Lanny USA 1 2 30:31.3
18 TREACY, Carolyn USA 2 3 31:18.9
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