In a relay won by Norway in 1:29:17, after a see-saw battle with second place Russia, the U.S. team of Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK), Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY), Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), and Teela, 2:27.4 back, had a breakthrough day.

“I told the boys after the ninth place in Oberhof, that they should be up there in 5th to 7th place; they are that good,” said Coach Per Nilsson following the race.

Today’s finish erases their season best from last week and the identical 9th in last February’s Olympic Winter Games, as a recent best. U.S. Biathlon Executive Director Max Cobb punctuated the importance of the day, exclaiming above the din of the stadium packed with 15,000 fans, “I do not remember ever being in seventh place in a relay. It is pretty exciting!”

The U.S. used their same order as in the Olympic Games and last week, leading off with Hakkinen. Today, Hakkinen shot aggressively in both prone and standing. He needed three extra rounds in prone and an additional two in standing to topple the 10 targets. Still, he fulfilled his job, tagging to Tim Burke in 10th position, just 50.2 seconds off the lead.

Burke’s performance today was one of the two legs key to the seventh place. Burke skied well right from the start closing the gap on the lead group of teams. In prone, he only needed a single extra round to be clean, moving up to eighth position. In standing, he dropped all five targets with a steady, confident cadence. On the final 2.5K, he passed another team while skiing just behind France’s Raphael Poiree, tagging Bailey in seventh position.

“I felt good skiing behind Poiree; that was a big help," said a happy Burke."With only one extra shot, what more can you say?”

Bailey’s effort was the second key to the team’s success. From the moment he started, the radios, were saying, “Lowell is skiing well.” In prone, Bailey shot clean with no extra rounds.

“That was the first clean prone in a long time,” he said with a bit of satisfaction in his voice. The clean prone stage pushed the U.S. up to sixth. Bailey delivered for the second time with only two extra rounds in standing, maintaining the sixth position. “My range times were not the fastest today, but I tried to be patient. I have been working hard on this and it paid off.”

The fate of the team fell directly into Teela’s hands. As he left the stadium, just four seconds ahead of Austria’s Christoph Sumann. Sumann cleaned prone rapidly and Teela needed two extra rounds to clean, as the U.S. fell back to seventh position. In the standing stage, Teela needed all three rounds to clean, but maintained the seventh place to the finish and the roar of the crowd and announcer.

“My shooting was not the best or fastest today," said Teela. "The other guys gave me a good cushion (eighth place Czech Republic was 45.5 seconds back at the finish), so I tried not to be too aggressive. We have never been in seventh before, so I thought it was the day to take that and not risk any big mistakes (like penalties). It was fun hearing the announcer and the crowd as I finished. This is a big step for us.”

Nilsson analyzed the big day for the U.S. men.

“If you look at the 13 extra rounds (but no penalties) and compare to Sweden and Austria, fourth and fifth, with four (plus one penalty), and six extra rounds, we were right with them. Each extra round takes 8-10 seconds, so do the math.

"Our boys can ski with any of them; the difference is on the shooting range. We will get better. I am very pleased with the results today.”

This is the second big day this season so far this season for the U.S. men. Burke, Bailey, and Teela all placed in the top 25 in the Hochfilzen Sprint earlier in the season for the first time ever.

Nilsson smiled and said, “I think there will be more days like this.”

Tomorrow’s competition is the Women’s 7.5K Sprint, with Lanny Barnes, Tracy Barnes, and Denise Teela the three U.S. starters. The men’s 10K sprint is Saturday.

Live streaming video coverage of Biathlon World Cup competitions for the remainder of the season is available by clicking the Biathlon World Cup logo at the top right of the page at http://www.usbiathlon.org/.