National Governing Body For the Olympic Sport of Biathlon
29 Ethan Allen Avenue Colchester, Vermont 05446
www.USBiathlon.org
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jerry Kokesh
314-434-9229
314-651-2635 (cell)
Lowell Bailey’s “ Best Day” Garners Him 8th Place in Mass Start
Forni Avoltri, Italy, January 24. Lowell Bailey, today came closer to fulfilling the promise
of his talent as he placed eighth in the Men’s 15k Mass Start competition at the Winter World
University Games.
Bailey, of Lake Placid, NY and the University of Vermont had as he described it, “the best
shooting day of my career.” As the name, mass start, implies, all 30 competitors start at the
same time; unlike most biathlon competitions, which use 30- second, interval starts From the
start, Bailey was in the mix, trying to stay out of trouble over the first 5 kilometer loop. By 2.5
kilometers, he was solidly in 7th place, and maintained his position entering shooting range,
despite breaking a pole. While others shot rapidly, he shot clean in a deliberate manner. Leaving
the range, he was passed a new pole. The second year senior athlete, who is one of the fastest
skiers on the US Biathlon Team, said he did not push too hard on the middle loops. His second
prone stage matched the first, clean and out. This was by far his best shooting day ever, even at
this point of the competition. Once again, he broke a pole and was rushed another by a
teammate, but as an experienced biathlete, he remained calm.
Standing shooting can be a struggle at times, but Bailey played it cool, taking a single
penalty on the first standing stage. He lost a place and was about a minute from third place.
On the final standing stage, he recorded another penalty, for a total of two for the day. He
stormed out of the range, trying to close a 25 second gap on the Ukrainian athlete in front of him.
Entering the final 400 meters, he pressed on, finishing only 8.1 second out of seventh, 1:45.1 out
of first place. The winner, Andriy Deryzemlya of the Ukraine won in 37:44.1, with a single penalty.
He was 38.1 seconds ahead of his teammate, Vyacheslav Derkach, who had three penalties.
Vladimir Berestnev of Russia was third, 51.9 seconds back. Bailey’s effort left him a mere 53.1
seconds out of third place.
After the competition, a smiling Bailey recapped his day, “ I tried to ski a little
conservatively after the first 5K, and then be deliberate on the range. I am really happy about the
race overall. It was my best race ever. It has taken me a little longer than I hoped to get to this
level. But it is nice that all of the training is finally paying off. This is another boost for my
confidence and I hope it will help me later in the season.”
So Lowell Bailey has now taken another step in his transition from one of the best junior
biathletes in the world 2 years ago, to the senior level. As a junior, Bailey regularly won US titles,
and was on the podium at Europa Cups. Last season, transitioning to the senior ranks, he won a
sprint competition at the US Olympic Trials, but missed the Olympic Team, and competed mostly
on the Europa Cup circuit. He had few high points and struggled on the shooting range every
week. In the past two competitions, the promise of youth is slowly turning into hopefully topflight
international biathlon competitor for the US.
Behind Bailey, his teammates Jesse Downs and Tim Burke did not have the same great
shooting days as Bailey, but still performed admirably. The difference between the two, who each
had seven penalties, is where the penalties occurred. Burke took all seven in the first three
stages, and then shot clean on the final standing stage, whereas Downs had five, then two in the
last stage. With his clean shooting at the end, Burke got ahead of Downs and maintained a gap of
11 seconds to the finish. Burke finished 14th, 3:40 out of first and Downs, 15th, 3:51.1 back. Burke
admitted that he was running scared on the final 2.5 kilometers. He said, “ I was looking back,
knowing Jesse was close. He has been skiing well and I didn’t any surprises. Shooting clean was
a good note to end on. My skiing is great and now the shooting is coming is coming. I have shot
well prone here and also standing, just not in the same race. But it is coming.”
As with Lowell Bailey’s promising eighth place in the men’s competition, the Women’s
12.5 K Mass Start gave the US Biathlon Team another glimpse of the future as Denise Whitten
Teela placed 11th and Carolyn Treacy 13th. Teela, in the first mass start of her short biathlon
career, had only six penalties. She skied into the range for the first prone stage in about 25th
place, took her time, and had a single penalty. She repeated this again on the second prone and
was steadily moving up in the field. 19th after two penalties in the first standing stage, she picked
up a few more places. Two more penalties and the recent graduate of the University of
Wisconsin-Green Bay was now in 14th with 3 women in her sights. Teela had commented
yesterday, “I know that I can ski faster than I have here.” Today, she did, picking off the three and
pressing hard to the finish.
Yesterday, she had hesitated about competing when informed that Tracey Barnes was
sitting out. The young Alaskan had taken the day off to watch her husband of 3 months, Jeremy
compete in the Antholz, Italy Biathlon World Cup. At that time, she did not expect to start and her
coach, Algis Shalna said to take a few days rest. Commenting after her strong performance
today, she said, “ I am glad that I raced. I really skied pretty slowly, especially in the middle. Of
course, I was moving up, but I was not pushing. “ Husband Jeremy beaming, added, “ Algis is
going to be excited.” Shalna said earlier in the week, “ because of Denise’s inexperience,
anything over 50% shooting is a bonus.” Today the bonus number was 70%.
The winner of the Women’s Mass Start was Oksana Kvostenko of the Ukraine, who
cruised to a 50.1 second margin over Tatiana Moseeva of Russia. The Ukrainian out shot the
runner-up one penalty to three, which was basically the margin of victory. Teela finished 3:21.9
back.
Also shooting 70% was Carolyn Treacy of Duluth, MN. For her, this was sub-par
shooting. After cleaning the first prone stage and taking a single penalty in the second, her
shooting touch slipped away. Treacy was as high as 5th after that clean prone, but she gradually
fell back to 12th after 5 standing penalties. She battled hard, but was one of the victim’s of Denise
Teela’s furious finish, crossing in 13th place, 3:34.2 back.
Both Treacy and Teela represent some of the future of US Biathlon. Stacking up Teela’s
fast skis with Treacy, and the Barnes twins’ shooting ability and there is a recipe for success and
some years of intense competition for spots on the women’s team.
After her 10th place in Tuesday’s Sprint competition, Sarah Riley has had trouble on the
shooting range. Today, was no exception, as the University of Northern Michigan athlete had 9
penalties and finished in 21st place, 5:54.1 back.
Sunday will be the final competition day at Forni Avoltri during this 2003 Winter
Universiade. There will be a 4 X 7.5K competition for men and a 3 X 6K for women. The relay
teams will be determined on Saturday.
The US Biathlon Team competes under the auspices of the United States
Biathlon Association, the National Governing Body for the Olympic sport of Biathlon. Federal
Cartridge, adidas, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and Exel Ski Poles sponsor the US
Biathlon Team.
Coach Cory Salmela’s Comments on Lowell Bailey:
“ Having to go through so many poles during the race left him out of contact with the
leaders and that is unfortunate. But Lowell stayed focused and hit a lot of targets and that is
critical in a competition like this. In this field, with all of the people who are on the World Cup
Points list, staying in the top 10 is tough, but Lowell did it. We are all happy for him.”
On Tim Burke, “ Tim is skiing very well now. If he can hit a few targets, he will be very
competitive at World Juniors in a couple of weeks.”
On Denise Teela,” One word-awesome! After her past performances here, she just had
a solid race today.”