OSLO, Norway — Clare Egan capped her breakthrough season on the Biathlon World Cup circuit with the first podium finish of her career, taking third place Sunday in a 12.5-kilometer mass start race.

Egan, a Cape Elizabeth native, hit 19 of 20 targets and finished just 10.4 seconds behind Hanna Oeberg of Sweden. Tiril Eckhoff of Norway was second, 1.3 seconds behind Oeberg.

Egan’s only missed shot came in the final shooting stage, when most of the leading racers struggled with windy conditions. She was in third place after skiing her penalty loop, then overtook Eckhoff for second place before Eckhoff made a late surge and nearly caught Oeberg.

It was the third top-10 finish of the season for Egan, 31, whose previous best was sixth in a pursuit race in December. She ended the season with three strong performances in Oslo, including 12th in a sprint on Thursday and ninth in a pursuit on Saturday.

Egan, in her fifth World Cup season, recorded the top eight results of her career and finished 18th in the overall standings. She was ranked 63rd in 2018 and considered retirement after competing in the Olympics for the first time.

“I decided that I wanted to do one more year, just for fun, just to see how much I could learn and how good a biathlete I could become,” Egan said during Sunday’s postrace press conference. “I had the assistance of my new coach, Armin (Auchentaller), and I had a lot of fun and I became a great biathlete.”

Egan attributed her improvement to smarter training.

“I skied much faster this year than I have in the past, and I think that was due to finally finding a good balance in my training, between working hard and resting,” said Egan. “I did not train more, but the quality was much higher.”

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