Pokljuka (Bled), Slovenia, March 9.  Tracy Barnes (Durango, CO) ended her disappointing season today with a clean shooting performance, but missed making Saturday’s 60-competitor Pursuit field with a 65th place finish in the Women’s 7.5K Sprint.

Today was another perfect biathlon day with clear blue skies, light winds and temperatures just above freezing. Under these conditions, Barnes did everything possible to have a good race, but her body was not cooperating. “I felt good on the first loop. On the second I started to lose some time to the field despite a fast shooting time and on the third, I had nothing left,” she commented at the finish. “I am happy to shoot clean, but this could be my last race of the season. I have been sick a lot during the season, so I am going home next week to find out what is wrong. After being sick when we did the relay in the Olympic Games, I took off the whole next week to recover. Then I trained one day and felt bad and tired again, so I need to find out what the problem is,” she added.

Despite clean shooting, as Barnes indicated, she was struggling on the tracks, finishing 3:35.4 behind Norway’s Linda Tjorhom, who also shot clean on her way to victory. Tjorhom covered the slightly sun-softened course in 21:07.9. Her win denied the French team a one-two finish, pushing Sandrine Bailly and Olympic Champion Florence Baverel-Robert to second and third. The two French women both shot clean, with Bailly 3.2 seconds back and Baverel-Robert, 27.1 seconds back.

Tracy’s twin sister Lanny did not match her sister on the shooting range as she does many times. Lanny had one penalty in prone and finished 73rd, 4:00.3 back. Her single penalty loop (which takes 20-25 seconds) was probably the difference between her and Tracy finishing in a virtual tie.

Rachel Steer (Anchorage, AK) the top ranked US woman, finished 79th today, behind both Barnes sisters. Steer, 4:30.7 back had five penalties on the day with four coming in the prone stage. “Rachel seemed to have over adjusted her sights (due to wind conditions) in prone. That is the only explanation, because the shots were pretty far off the mark; very unusual for her, “commented US Biathlon Development Coach James Upham.

With all three US women above 60th place, none qualified for Saturday’s 10K Pursuit competition. The US Biathlon Team will have three competitors, Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK), Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK) and Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) in the Men’s 12.5K Pursuit that day.

The United States Biathlon Association is the National Governing Body for the sport of Biathlon in the United States as recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and the International Biathlon Union. The US Biathlon Association supports the US Biathlon Team and development of the sport on all levels within the United States.