Author Archives: Minnesota Biathlon - Ben

Y Jr Worlds- Biathlon- Youth Sprints

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Garrett Beckrich top US Youth Biathlete again.

In the 7.5 km Youth Men’s Sprint, Garrett Beckrich, Mt Itasca/MN Biathlon, again lead the US team with a 45th place finish shooting 1,2 and ending up 2:42 behind winner Alex Cisar, Slovenia, who shot 1,0 and finished in 20:27. Alex spent a couple of months training at Mt Itasca this spring.

Bjorn Westervelt shot 2,2 and finished 2:53 back for 54th place; Maxime Germain shot 3,1 and finished 3:22 back for 66th and Vincent Bonacci shot 4,0, finished 3:52 behind for 74th place, out of 110 finishers.

Garrett and Bjorn advance to the Pursuit race on Sunday.

In the Youth Women’s 6.0 km event, Emma Stertz, Mt Itasca/ MN Biathlon missed 3 shots to finish 62 nd, 3:37 behind Maren Bakker of Norway who cleaned and finished in 17:31. The top 60 advance to the Pursuit.

Helen Wilson, Anchorage, finished 55th with 1 penalty, 3:17 back; Lena Farra, Salt Lake City, had 5 penalties, finished 70th 4:03 back and Lexie Madigan, Truckee Calif, had 5 penalties and finished in 73rd 4:15 back out of 103 finishers.

Tomorrow the Juniors have their Sprint races followed on Sunday by the Pursuits for all classes.

Bill Meyer, Coach
MNBiathlon

Junior Relays- YJr World Championships

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This morning saw the Junior’s in their respective relay races, 4 x 7.5km for the Men and 3 x 6km for the Women.

In the Men’s event, Russia finished first with 9 total extra rounds and 1 penalty loop, finishing in 1:20:35. Germany was 1 sec behind using 4 extras, and Italy was 3rd using 3 extras and about 2 sec behind. Sounds like an exciting finish up front.

The US struggled on the range—using 16 extra rounds and still needing 3 penalty loops. Finished in 19th- 9:47 back of first.

In the Women’s race France took the top honors using 1 extra total for the 3 athlete legs, and finishing in 54:26. Germany was 2nd using 3 total extras, and finishing 15 sec back. the US Women had similar problems as the Men, using 7 extra rounds total, but needing 3 penalty loops in the standing shooting stages, to finish in 21st 7:04 behind.

Tomorrow is a break day—with the Youth Sprint races coming up on Fri and the Juniors on Saturday. All classes will do the Pursuit races on Sunday.

Y Jr World Championships- Youth relays this morning

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Today saw the Youth class relays at the Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships in Orsblie, Slovakia.

In the Youth Men’s 3 x 7.5 km event the USA finished 15th, 4:47.9 behind winner Germany.
Germany’s 3 athletes used only 5 spare rounds total [in a relay each athlete must use up to 3 extra single rounds after the 5 round magazine in each shooting stage, if all the targets were not hit] and the team finished in 1:01:50.6. The USA’s team used 14 extras and still had to do 2 penalty loops.

Garrett Beckrich will be skiing tomorrow with the Junior Men in the 4 x 7.5 event as one of the Junior athletes has been sick all week.

In the Youth Women’s 3 x 6.0 km event, the US finished 19th, 7:22 behind winner Norway, who only used 3 extra rounds and finished in 57:19.2
Emma Stertz had a good first leg—using only 3 extras and handing off in the middle of the pack. Lina Ferra struggled in standing using a total of 4 extra rounds and still needing 2 penalty loops before heading back to the course. Helen Wilson finished up using 3 extras.

So the next events will be tomorrow am with the Junior Men followed by the Junior Women. Then after a day break, the Youth Men and Women will do the Sprint events on Friday, the Juniors on Saturday and then all will do pursuit events on Sunday.

It’s a long tough week!!
Bill Meyer, Coach
MNBiathlon

Y Jr Worlds- Slovakia

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Junior Men’s 15 km Individual event

Vasek Cervenka, Grand Rapids, Mt Itasca Biathlon/MN Biathlon finished 32nd in this morning’s 15 km Jr Men’s Individual missing 2 targets [at 1 min penalty per miss] and finishing 3:23 behind Martin Bourgeois Republique of France who had 1 miss and won in 44:30.

US teamate, Lars Leopold actually tied Vasek for 32nd with one more penalty.

Cody Johnson of the National Guard was 79th with 6 penalties and 8:13 back.

Bill Meyer, Coach
MNBiathlon

YJr Worlds — Emma Stertz

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Emma ended up in 56th with 5 penalties—at 45 sec apiece also. Got pushed down a bit by some later finishers.

There are 34 countries at least in the Championships—That is how many I counted in the Y Men’s race.

Other US Youth Women [ages 15 thru 18 in 2018]

Helen Wilson—Anchorage AK—69th with 5 misses
Lexie Madigan—California—83rd with 7
Lina Farra—Utah — 88th with 10 penalties

Tomorrow is the Junior Individual races [ages 19 thru 21 in 2018] —Vasek’s class

Enjoy!

Bill Meyer, Coach
MNBiathlon