Australian Biathlon’s dynamic duo, Damon and Darcie Morton (NSW/AUS), had an outstanding first race of 2017 in the IBU Junior Cup 3 single mixed relay in Pokljuka, Slovenia, mixing it with the World’s best U21 Junior Biathletes. 

In a high class field the pair were solid on the shooting range to finish in a commendable 8^th position, using just 6 spare rounds to hit all 20 targets. It was Australian Biathlon’s best ever relay result internationally and shows the progress being made in the junior biathlon ranks against powerful Nordic nations including Russia and France.

The mixed relay is a fixture for Australia to target in the future for potential top 10 results at major international competitions.

Darcie began the race well shooting clean in her first prone, but had some problems in her standing and needed to use all her 3 spares to hit down all five targets. She tagged off to Damon in 12^th position out of 18 countries.

Damon had a very strong first leg in both skiing and shooting to lead the team into 9^th position. Shooting clean in both the standing and prone positions without the need for any spares and in the same time as the leading Russian athlete, Damon was able to overtake a number of quality teams including Estonia and Romania and pull away from Canada. Damon lost only 25 seconds to the fastest male before handing off to Darcie for Leg 3.

Darcie was consistent in her final 3km leg again shooting clean in prone and just needing one spare for standing and was able to put Damon in a good position to ski Australia into 8^th .

It was a great result for the duo to heading into their big races in February which includes for Damon the WCH (pending qualifying wild card to be announced overnight) and for both of them wearing the green and gold at the Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan.

Results 

Ist – Russia 41.56,7

2^nd – France + 0.2

8^th – Australia

18 Nations started / Australia ranked # 15 at the start