BMW IBU Biathlon World Cup 2015 (Week 6) - Women's 7,5km Sprint Race 23.01.2015, Antholz Dasha Dashes to Dominating Sprint Win Clean Shooting; Fast on Tracks Darya Domracheva of Belarus overpowered the field today in the women's sprint by shooting clean and leaving her closest rival Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen 26.9 seconds behind the winning time of 19:57.8. This was Domracheva's second win in a row after capturing the mass start last Sunday in Ruhpolding, the same as men's sprint winner Simon Schempp. Mäkäräinen had a single penalty in standing. Third place went to Germany's Laura Dahlmeier who shot clean but was 50.4 seconds back. This was the first individual podium of her World Cup career. Jana Gerekova of Slovakia was fourth, also with clean shooting, 55.2 seconds back. Local favorite, Karin Oberhofer of Italy finished fifth, with one penalty, 57.5 seconds back while Dahlmeier's teammate Franziska Hildebrand, with one penalty was sixth, 1:01.2 back. Sunny Day Another brilliantly sunny day for the women's sprint, sunny and windless with a full stadium to cheer for their favorites. Domracheva in Charge Domracheva with Bib 3 set the standard with a clean prone that held up as the fastest time until Mäkäräinen took over that top spot. These two led a parade of clean prone shooting, with more than thirty women cleaning that stage, as the wind flags stayed flat. Just ahead of Domracheva, Number 2 Dahlmeier proved to be equally reliable on the shooting range, cleaning prone. However, by the time, she reached the standing stage, Domracheva had made up the 30 second gap between them. Domracheva, moving to the standing stage shot a bit quicker and with more confidence than in prone, dropping all five targets. She flew out of the stadium, definitely hunting for a sprint win that escaped her last week in Ruhpolding. Dahlmeier followed also clean, but skiing nowhere as fast as the Belarusian. Mäkäräinen in the Hunt Mäkäräinen was also hunting for redemption after two fourth places last week. She came close on the shooting range to matching her rival, but one target escaped. That put the Yellow Bib at a deficit that was almost impossible to overcome with the tough tracks and the altitude battling against her. Mäkäräinen gave it her best shot, but came up short in getting to the top spot on the podium, crossing the line 26.9seconds behind Domracheva. From that point, Semerenko looked like she could challenge after the fastest prone stage. However, like Mäkäräinen, she had a single standing penalty and fell out of contention. Dahlmeier held on for the third podium spot. No Early Celebration Domracheva commented on her win, "Shooting clean this week and last week in the sprint is very good; I have not done anything different, but it is working...I think the sun and good conditions help. It was an amazing feeling when I realized I was winning. But I did not want to celebrate too early." Small Things Matter Mäkäräinen was more pleased today than last week in Ruhpolding, commenting, "The last three sprints have been difficult for me. I am very happy with my result today. Every competition is different and maybe it is a miss by only 1 mm, but sometimes, it is the small things matter." Regarding the missed standing shot, she added, "I felt it was not going to be easy when I came to standing. I was fighting with myself and missed my first shot. Luckily that was the only one." Big Surprise Dahlmeier said, "Today was a big surprise (to be on the podium), but it was a perfect race; I felt good on the tracks...Our team is very young and doing well right now; we have a very good team atmosphere."

• published: 26 Jan 2015
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