October 25 and 26, 2008 Elk River Biathlon Range

Minnesota Biathlon and Twin Cities Biathlon hosted the 12th Annual Fall Festival roller ski biathlon races this weekend.

Saturday’s race was the Individual format (PSPS) – the long race in biathlon. Men skied 15 km while Women skied 12 km. Athletes were penalized 45 seconds for each missed shot. Conditions were ideal with temperatures in the 50s with calm / light winds.

The range and roller ski trails were in great shape thanks, in large part, to the outstanding efforts of the City of Elk River and the Woodland Hills Trail Slaves.

Leif Nordgren (Mt. Itasca/Junior National Team) was the Junior Men’s and Overall Men’s winner with the best shooting of the day (3 misses). (Three other skiers had only 4 misses – Brandon Ostroot, Brian Wray, and John Neal.)

Addie Byrne (Mt. Itasca / Junior National Team) was the Youth Women’s winner with 7 misses.

Sunday’s race was the Mass Start format (PPSS). The Men and Senior Women skied 12 km while Women skied 10 km. Athletes skied one penalty loop for each missed shot. Conditions were challenging with temperatures falling into the 30s with strong gusty cross winds and snow!

Leif Nordgren (Mt. Itasca/Junior National Team) repeated his dominance by winning the Junior Men’s and Overall Men’s title. Leif also repeated with the best shooting of the day (2 misses) by edging Lou Chouinard by one shot on the final standing stage. The hard fought battles of Saturday in the Youth and Master’s Men’s categories continued on Sunday as well. Raleigh Goessling (Esko/Junior National Team) repeated as the Youth Men’s Winner.

Carolyn Bramante (Twin Cities and former Olympic and National Team member) was the Senior Women’s division winner with 5 misses. Addie Byrne (Mt. Itasca/Junior National Team) repeated as the Youth Women’s winner with 5 misses.

One very encouraging statistic – over two days of racing, 40% of the athletes met or exceeded 75% shooting accuracy.

Results Results pdf