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Jan. 25, 2009 Summary: Antholz, Italy. As the final World Cup event comes to a close this weekend, both Burke and Hakkinen put in respectable performances. In his final race before the World Championships in Korea three weeks from now Tim Burke showed he is ready. Race Analysis: First the bad news - Burke missed three of his twenty shots today. Now the good news. Thanks to his sixths best ski time Burke moved up from his 15th start position and posted the eighth best net-time in the pursuit, even with his three penalties. "The races this week showed that his [skiing] capacity is there. This was really important for his head." said Head Coach Per Nilsson. "The next phase for him, and the rest of the team, is to have a solid two week training block before the World Championship. It has been a pretty long time since we had the opportunity to have some "normal" training." The team will do that training in central Europe before heading to Korea for the World Championships. Hakkinen who is the top ranked US athlete in the overall World Cup ranking (32nd after todays race) put in a good performance and finished 24th in the Mass Start. After a very strong December and early January, where Hakkinen logged many top 25 finishes, he has been feeling a bit fatigued this week and is looking forward to the training camp. The next big event on the biathlon calendar is the Youth and Junior World Championships in Canmore Alberta Canada. That event opens with the Individual competitions on January 28th. |