The United States men’s biathlon relay team capped off the World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria with a ninth-place finish Sunday in the 4×7.5-kilometer race.

The squad of Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid), Leif Nordgren (Marine, Minnesota), Tim Burke (Paul Smiths) and Sean Doherty (Center Conway, New Hampshire) finished three minutes, 38.3 seconds back with three penalties and 13 spares against a field of 26 teams.

Two days of heavy snow turned into overcast skies for the men’s relay, with temperatures at minus 10 Celsius. The wind was gusty at first but picked up dramatically from the left, making shooting extremely difficult. This led to 56 penalties for the 17 teams that finished and an additional 47 penalties for the eight teams that were lapped and did not finish.

  Bailey got things going with a strong start, cleaning from prone before using three spares in standing. He made the exchange to Nordgren with the team in third place, just 23.8 seconds back of the lead.

Nordgren used three spares and had one penalty from prone but rebounded to clean from standing and tagged off to Burke in seventh position. Burke maintained that position with one spare in prone and three spares plus a penalty in standing.

Doherty went clean in prone and finished with three spares and a penalty in standing to secure the top-10 finish for the American quartet.

The Norwegian team of Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, Henrik L’Abee-Lund, Erlend Bjoentegaard and Lars Helge Birkeland battled the windy conditions to win the men’s relay with nine spares in 1:21:21.8. The Norwegians crossed the finish line with a huge winning margin of 1:54.9 over second place Germany who had 17 spares. France finished third, with three penalties and 13 spares, 2:34 behind.

The teams now travel to Annecy-Le Grand Bornand, France, for BMW IBU World Cup 3 taking place Dec. 14-17.

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Saturday

A day after placing 22nd in the 10-kilometer sprint, Sean Doherty followed up with a 17th place in the men’s 12.5k pursuit Saturday at the IBU World Cup 2 in Hochfilzen. Doherty had just two penalties on the shooting range and finished 2 minutes, 12.8 seconds behind winner Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway.

“I am very happy to follow up my sprint with a good pursuit,” Doherty said. “It was fun to be in the thick of the action and be able to shoot my way up. Hopefully the conditions tomorrow will be a little bit better and we can have a good relay.” 

Lowell Bailey also moved up the pursuit standings with 17-for-20 shooting on the range. Starting 53rd, Bailey jumped up to 36th at the finish, 3:20.6 back of Boe.

Friday’s snow continued off and on throughout the night and returned with a new intensity in the morning for the men’s pursuit. Accompanying the heavy snow and falling temperatures was a steady wind that buffeted the wind flags from left to right on the shooting range.

Boe backed up his sprint win on Friday with a 5-for-5 final standing stage to win the pursuit in 36:41.1. Despite three penalties, Boe finished 58.8 seconds ahead of Slovenia’s Jakov Fak, who had just one penalty. Martin Fourcade of France, after three final standing stage penalties, outsprinted Germany’s Simon Schempp for third place, 1:10 back.

The snow that the men battled in the morning continued for the women’s pursuit later in the day, with a bit less intensity. However, the tracks remained slow and deep with a stiff breeze complicating shooting.

Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia won for the first time since March 2014, cleaning the last two standing stages and cruising to victory in the women’s 10k pursuit in 34:31.2.

Her only penalty came in the first prone stage. Kaisa Makarainen of Finland passed sprint winner Darya Domracheva of Belarus in the final meters to take second place, with two penalties, 10.2 seconds back. Domracheva, with a single penalty, finished 11.8 seconds behind Kuzmina.

Clare Egan (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) finished 53rd with seven penalties, 5:21.6 off the pace.