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December 19, 2009

Burke on verge of historic first



POKLJUKA, Slovenia (AP) — Russia won the men's and women's biathlon World Cup sprints on Saturday, while American Tim Burke placed eighth in the men's event to move up to second in the overall standings.

Svetlana Sleptsova led Russia to a 1-2 finish the women's 7.5-kilometer race, while Ivan Tcherezov claimed the men's 10K.

Tcherezov finished in 28 minutes, 10 seconds without missing a target. Austrian Dominik Landertinger was second, missing one target and finishing 11.1 seconds back. Thomas Frei of Switzerland was third.

Burke, of Paul Smiths, finished the race in eighth, 1 minute behind Tcherezov with two targets missed. He has 215 points in the overall standings and trails Christoph Sumann of Austria by 10 points.

Sumann finished out of the top 60 Saturday and did not qualify to start in today's Pursuit, setting the stage for Burke to take the yellow bib and make U.S. history. No American biathlete has ever held the top World Cup ranking.

While Sumann shot himself out of the pursuit competition with eight penalties, Burke stayed focused on the shooting range, with just two mistakes.

"The conditions weren't easy at all," Burke said. "In prone, I was just laying there waiting to finally start with my first shot. But the rifle was just dancing around in the wind."

Burke missed just one target in prone.

"I am really impressed how Tim handled the situation. He stayed calm and did not get distracted by the windy circumstances at the range. That shows how much he worked on himself, and how much he learned these past months," U.S. Biathlon Head Coach Per Nilsson said.

The biggest challenge for Burke was the cold temperature (-14°C) coupled with strong winds. "I felt strong and I had good skis but nevertheless, it was just really, really hard to ski through the cold," explained Burke.

Finishing in 26th place, two-time Olympian Jeremy Teela (Heber City,UT) met the Olympic qualification criteria

Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid) will also will have the opportunity to directly qualify for the Olympic team today. Finishing 38th Saturday, Bailey will start just 1:52.8 minutes after Tcherezov in the Pursuit.

"With that time everything is possible in biathlon. They are really on fire," said Nilsson.

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