Pokljuka (Bled), Slovenia, March 8.  Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK), in his first competition since the Olympic Winter Games, said he felt “very relaxed,” during his 11th place effort in today’s 10K Men’s Sprint competition.

Hakkinen, who shot clean today, finished 56.9 seconds behind Ole Einar Björndalen of Norway. Björndalen, with two penalties covered the lightening fast tracks in 24:04.9, edging perennial adversary Raphael Poiree of France by 12.3 seconds and Sweden’s Carl Johan Bergman by 24.2 seconds.

Ten days and a world away from Cesana San Sicario and the Olympic Winter Games, the Biathlon World Cup season resumed in this spectacular setting high in Slovenia’s Julian Alps. Unlike the open mountainside setting in Italy, Pokljuka is in the middle of a pine-forested National Park. Whereas the snow was mostly manmade in Italy, this venue is almost buried in natural snow. This past Sunday, over one meter of new snow fell in 5 hours, increasing the snow depth to almost 3 meters—so much snow that the wax cabins/containers had to be dug out just to get in the door.

After very cold temperatures (minus 20) on Tuesday night, today dawned with a clear blue sky. The tracks were hard and the only gentle breezes moved the wind flags, setting up almost perfect conditions for Hakkinen.

“I did not know exactly what my shape was after the Olympics,” Hakkinen continued. “I took some time to recover and felt OK training here, but you never know until the race starts. I went out a little conservative on the first loop. I had fast skis and I picked it up after that.”

“Jay was really slow up the first hill,” commented Head Wax Technician Bernd Eisenbichler. ”But he gained a lot of time after that. His last loop was very fast, so the shape is still there. It was a very good race for Jay. The podium will come.”

Hakkinen was the second athlete to come to the prone stage today as he started with bib number 3. His prone and standing stages were very aggressive, fast and filled with confidence. “I was very relaxed and it happened automatically like it is supposed to today. That is the way good races go. It just all falls together. It seemed easy, like I was not working very hard.”

With his early start, Hakkinen had to watch as the rest of the field, including Björndalen and Olympic champions Michael Greis and Sven Fischer of Germany, competed. “I just hope I can stay in the top 15,” he wished out loud. One by one many of the top men finished behind Hakkinen. He stayed in the top seven until late in the competition when Björndalen and teammate Halvard Hanevold pushed him back, as did Michael Roesch of Germany. Despite this, Hakkinen’s 11th place is his second best of the season, with only his 10th place in the Olympic 20K Individual a better result. He now has finishes of 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th this season, topping his three top-15 finishes from last year.

In the team meeting last night, Eisenbichler challenged the athletes to go for results and put 50 Euros on the table for anyone who shot clean today. Reminded of this, Hakkinen smiled broadly as he left the finish area, looking for Eisenbichler.

Behind Hakkinen, Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK) and Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) finished 53rd and 54th, respectively, giving the US Biathlon Team three men in the12.5K Pursuit for the first time this year. Teela with one prone and two standing penalties finished 2:29.5 back, just edging Bailey, with two penalties, one in both prone and standing. 2:29.7 back. The two Maine Winter Sports Center athletes finished in a tightly packed bunch, with 20 men finishing in less than 30 seconds just in front of them.

Tim Burke (Paul Smith’s, NY) was unable to start due to illness.

The next competition here will be the Women’s 7.5K Sprint tomorrow. Friday will be a training day, with the both the Men’s 12.5K and Women’s 10K Pursuit competitions on Saturday. The Pokljuka World Cup will conclude on Sunday with the Mixed Relay (two men, two women) World Championships on Sunday.

The United States Biathlon Association is the National Governing Body for the sport of Biathlon in the United States as recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and the International Biathlon Union. The US Biathlon Association supports the US Biathlon Team and development of the sport on all levels within the United States.