OBERHOF, Germany -- The Czech Republic won a women's World Cup biathlon relay on Wednesday. Eva Puskarcikova, Gabriela Soukalova, Jitka Landova and Veronika Vitkova missed only seven targets and avoided any penalty rounds before winning the 4x6-kilometre race in 1 hour 16 minutes 56 seconds.
France was second, 8.9 seconds behind, with eight missed targets between Marine Bolliet, Marie Dorin Habert, Justine Braisaz and Anais Bescond. The Belarus team led by three-time Olympic gold medallist Darya Domracheva was third, 1:06.8 behind. Nadzeya Pisareva had to complete one penalty round for Belarus.
Megan Heinicke of Prince George was flawless in four shooting bouts and finished her 6 km lead leg fourth-fastest, 8.8 seconds behind leader Ekterina Glazyrina of Russia. Her Canadian teammate Julia Ransom of Kelowna had just one miss on the range but was 1:49 off the pace when she tagged Emma Lunder of Vernon, who was competing in her first World Cup event. Lunder missed eight of 20 targets. Canada was nearly five minutes off the lead when Lunder tagged Zina Kocher of Red Deer, who was lapped before she finished the race. Kocher had three misses and Canada finished 17th out of 21 teams.
In the men's relay, Anton Shipulin pulled away from eight-time Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen to give Russia the win in a race that was in danger of being called off because of rain and fog.
Evgeniy Garanichev, Timofey Lapshin, Dmitry Malyshko and Shipulin missed 12 targets and completed one penalty round before completing the 4x7.5 kilometre race in 1 hour, 15 minutes, 24.1 seconds.
Shipulin overtook Bjoerndalen on the final leg to leave Norway 2.3 seconds behind.
Bjoerndalen and teammates Vetle Sjastad Christiansen, Alexander Os and Johannes Thingnes Boe had 10 missed targets and one penalty round.
France finished 1 minute, 32.3 seconds back in third.
The Canadian team of Christian Gow of Canmore, Nathan Smith of Calgary, Marc Andre Bedard of Saint-Croix, Que.,and Macx Davies of Canmore combined for an eighth-place finish, 5:31 behind the Russians.
The women's 7.5 km sprint is scheduled for Friday morning, followed by the men's 10 km sprint on Saturday. Mass start races are on Sunday's schedule.
With files from The Citizen
