EPIC LAST LOOP ! Biathlon World Cup 1 (2015-2016) - Women's Pursuit Race

EPIC LAST LOOP ! BMW IBU Biathlon World Cup 1 (2015-2016) - Women's 10km Pursuit Race 06.12.2015, Ostersund Kaisa Wins Pursuit with Last Loop Heroics 1.2K Before the Finish Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen took the lead for the first time at the 8.8K mark today and held it to win the women's 10K pursuit in 30:45.1, with two penalties. Second went to the 15K winner, Dorothea Wierer of Italy, with one penalty, 1.9 seconds back. Germany's Franziska Hildebrand shot clean but finished third, 3.3 seconds back. Marie Dorin Habert of France finished fourth, with three penalties, 12.5 seconds back. Sprint winner Gabriela Soukalova of Czech Republic was fifth with two penalties, a mere .3 seconds behind Dorin Habert. Sixth went to Hildebrand's teammate Franziska Preuss, with one penalty, 20.7 seconds back. The same good conditions prevailed for the women in the afternoon as for the men in the morning today. Soukalova and Preuss Soukalova held a 30 second lead after shooting clean in the first prone stage over Eckhoff. Preuss was just behind the Norwegian with a clean stage. In the second prone, Soukalova missed on shot by a small margin and went to the loop. Meanwhile Preuss cleaned again and was on her heels for the next loop to the standing stage. With five women all together, Preuss cleaned again, as did Hildebrand while Soukalova, Dorin Habert and Wierer all had single penalties. Hildebrand was just 14 seconds behind her teammate, while the French, Czech and Italian women were another 11 seconds back as they headed towards the final standing stage. As they covered the 2K loop, Mäkäräinen moved up to make four all battling for the podium. Podium Up for Grabs Hildebrand cleaned the last standing stage, as did Soukalova and Wierer; Preuss and Dorin Habert went to the penalty loop. The top three were separated by just 8 seconds with Preuss and Mäkäräinen just 5 more seconds back. All of the podium spots were up for grabs. Mäkäräinen showed up with her ski speed and closed the gap on the front quickly, taking the lead by 8.8K, ahead of Wierer and Hildebrand. They carried those positions to the finish line. The winner said, "I did not find out that the gap was only 12 seconds when I was going up the first hill. I was surprised it was so small, so I just did my best." Few Races Mäkäräinen commented on her first win of the new season. "I felt really good this morning; I knew I needed few races to get ready since I am an old girl. I am happy to get a win before Hochfilzen, now I can relax a bit for a couple of days. I hope that I will be faster; I trained right up to Östersund because I lost some days due to sickness earlier in November." Better on Skis Wierer with two podiums this week admitted that after being sick last week. "Today I felt better on the skis; I had more speed. I never thought about the podium today, I just focused on the shooting." 20-for-20 Hildebrand tried very hard to battle the two fast skiers, "I wanted to ski fast on the last loop. I knew Doro was there, but not Kaisa, so when I saw her, I tried to follow her. Still I am so happy about the shooting, 20-for-20."