Castonguay Hits World Cup Personal Best, Six U.S. Athletes Qualify for World Cup Pursuit

Grace Castonguay (Jackson, NH/Craftsbury Green Racing Project) raced to a World Cup personal best 59th place in the women’s 7.5km sprint, her first race of the weekend at the final World Cup stop of trimester one in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand, FRA. Castonguay cleaned her prone shooting and missed just one target in standing to propel her to her first World Cup pursuit qualification. 

"I'm really excited about my personal best today," said Castonguay. "I was totally not expecting it. My skiing on the first lap felt a little bit rough, so I thought 'well, maybe this is not going to be a great day' but I got some positive splits after my first shooting and after leaving my standing shooting, I got a split from Jani our physio that I was in 56th, so I knew it was just going to be a drag race on skis to finish. It was just super exciting to cross the finish line and see my name on the results in the top-60! I couldn't have done it without some super awesome skis from the Wax Cowboys today and I'm just exciting to show up tomorrow and have fun and just soak up every minute of my first World Cup pursuit!"

Castonguay crossed the line +2:28.4 behind the leading Justine Braisaz-Bouchet of France. Braisaz-Bouchet was joined on the podium by Germany’s Franziska Preuss and Slovakia’s Anamarija Lampic, marking Lampic’s first World Cup podium. Teammate Deedra Irwin (Pulaski, WI/Army World Class Athlete Program) held a top-30 ski time, missing just one shot in both prone and standing, to cross the line in 41st. Margie Freed (Apple Valley, MN/Craftsbury Green Racing Project) crossed the line in 51st, also missing a pair of shots, to mark her second-best career World Cup result and her second-ever World Cup pursuit qualification. 

Thursday’s men’s 10km sprint saw Campbell Wright (Wanaka, NZL/Waiorau Nordic Skiing) snag another top-20 finish in 19th to hold on to the U23 blue bib. Sean Doherty (Conway, NH/Army World Class Athlete Program), missed just two targets on the day, skiing to 41st, while teammate Jake Brown (St. Paul, MN/Craftsbury Green Racing Project) bounced back from missing the pursuit in Hochfilzen, AUT to finish in 54th, putting three U.S. men into the Annecy pursuit. Maxime Germain (Chamonix-Mont Blanc, FRA/National Guard Biathlon) finished out of pursuit contention in 90th with four misses on the day. 

Of the seven U.S. athletes who raced in the sprint, six qualified for the pursuit tomorrow, December 21st. Wright, Doherty and Brown will toe the line in the men’s 12.5km pursuit, set to begin at 6:30 ET/12:30 CET. Irwin, Freed and Castonguay will race in the women’s 10km pursuit at 8:45 ET/14:45 CET. The live stream can be found at eurovisionsports.com; spectator resources can be found at usbiathlon.org/spectator-resources.