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Minnesota Biathlon Fall Fest 2002 The annual Fall Rollerski Biathlon Festival moved to Camp Ripley from Elk River to accommodate the growing size of the event. The first day of competition was an "Individual" format race- 12.5 km rollerskiing with 4 bouts of shooting and time penalty for misses. This primary goal of this race series is to prepare athletes for the upcoming winter biathlon races, most notably the Jr and Sr National Team Trials to be held at Mt Itasca, Coleraine, MN, December 30-Jan 2. Bjorn Bakken of Duluth took first overall in the men's competition, shooting 16 hits out of a possible 20. Ben Kremer of Minneapolis finished in 2nd. The top shooter of the day finished 3rd- Kevin Patzoldt of Grand Rapids hit 18 of 20 targets. In the women's field, Lanny Barnes took first place, hitting 16 for 20. Lanny has the top international result of any US junior woman, with a bronze medal at the 2002 World Junior Championships. She was closely followed by her Jr National Biathlon teammate Carolyn Treacy of Duluth. Julie Warneke of Elk River placed 3rd with 9 penalties. Mark Johnson of Grand Rapids finished 1st in the Boys category (age 15-16). Mark has dominated the Boys category this season, with very consistent shooting results. Brandon Ostroot of Columbia Heights finished 2nd and Wynn Roberts of Battle Lake was third. In the Girls category, Ellen Anderson of Ely placed first with 7 penalties. Rebecca Mueller and Megan Dyson, both from Brainerd, finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. This years Fall Festival has been the first where we
have had a substantial Masters Men's field. Masters competitors included
Dale Thompson of Woodbury, Lou
Chinouard of Minneapolis, Phil Rogers
of Duluth, and Ion Senchea of St Cloud. A light snow fall kicked of the second day of competition at this years Fall Rollerski Biathlon Festival. Today the competition was a Mass Start format, 12.5km for men and 10km for women of rollerskiing with 4 bouts of shooting and 150m penalty loops. The head to head format makes for a great spectator event, and a pressure cooker for the athletes. Carolyn Treacy skied off the front of the pack in the first loop, and never looked back. She shot 16 for 20 and won by a convincing margin of 3:13. In second was another member of the Jr National Women's team, Annalies Cook, from Saranac Lake. Julie Warneke repeated her 3rd place performance from Saturday, making the podium with 8 penalties. The level of competition in the Women's field was visibly enhanced by the presence of the Women's Junior National team which is based in Duluth. The men's race was won with a surprising performance by master's competitor Ion Senchea. Ion is an ex World Cup biathlon racer from Romania, now living and coaching in St Cloud. Ion hit 15 for 20 and was followed closely by 17 year old Kurt Farchmin of Duluth, shooting 14 for 20. Ben Byrne of Grand Rapids finished 3rd with 7 penalties. Both Kurt and Ben were members of last years World Junior Championship team and they will be focused on qualifying for the 2003 Jr World Championship team at the Jr World Team Trials coming up this December at MT Itasca in Coleraine, MN. The Boys Mass Start was a classic biathlon battle- shooting accuracy versus ski speed. The top 4 athletes stayed within seconds through the 3rd shooting stage. Mark Johnson of Grand Rapids was able to pull away with solid standing shooting. Brandon Ostroot of Columbia Heights and Wynn Roberts of Battle Lake were skiing faster than Mark but were unable to ski off the extra shooting penalties they accumulated late in the race. In the Girls event, Sierra
Jefferson of Duluth put in the most impressive shooting performance
of the weekend, hitting 18 for 20 targets and finishing first in her category.
What makes this so impressive is that Sierra has only been competing in
biathlon for 6 months! Sierra was followed by another biathlon rookie,
Rebecca Mueller of Brainerd with 8 penalties,
and in third was Ellen Anderson of Ely
with 9 penalties. |
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©
2002 Minnesota Biathlon
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