MN Biathlon One-Day Camp – Snowflake Nordic, Duluth, MN – Sun, Aug 15, 2021

Hosted by Duluth Biathlon and Snowflake Nordic Ski Area

Date: Sunday, August 15, 2021

Location: Snowflake Nordic, 4348 Rice Lake Road, Duluth (1/2 mile north of the intersection of the Rice Lake and Arrowhead Roads)

Registration: 9:00 AM to 9:45 AM at Snowflake Chalet (Late Arrivals go directly to range.  Way to range marked with signs.)

Cost:  $20 – Cash or checks only. Make checks payable to John Gould.

Training Schedule:

10:00 till Noon:  Shooting and Dryfire Drills at Range

Noon till 1:00:  Lunch at Chalet (Bring your own lunch.)

1:00 till 3:00:  Roller Skiing at Nearby Site

3:00 till 4:00: Two Person Relay Race/Running Biathlon

Pre-registration via email to John: jgould1952@yahoo.com necessary!

Questions? Call John Gould at 218-269-2854 

or e-mail: jgould1952@yahoo.com 

Elk River Rollerski Biathlon Race and Practice – June 27, 2021 – RESULTS

Results, thanks to Brian Wray

The photos — also from Brian Wray — from Sunday’s race can be found here: https://photo.wrocket.org/2021/june_elk_river_biathlon/

Elk River Rollerski Biathlon
9.3km – Interval Start
Overall / ClassNameCategoryClubFinishBackPPSSTotal
1 / 1Jake EllingsonSMNational Guard31:4800:0022329
2 / 1Matej CervenkaYMMount Itasca32:0500:1702125
3 / 1Cheresa BouleyJWTwin Cities35:1303:2520316
4 / 2Alex VaniasSMWisconsin Biathlon35:3503:47433212
5 / 2Matthew BrodersonYMTwin Cities35:3803:5021025
6 / 1Hunter ZupkoJMNational Guard38:0306:15334313
7 / 1Derek LindbergMMNational Guard39:1707:2921115
8 / 2Kaisa BosekJWWolfpack39:5008:0232027
9 / 1Eric AndersonU17MBluff Nordic40:2908:4132218
10 / 1Saylor LandrumYWTwin Cities43:1211:24233311
11 / 2Evelyn HudrlikYWTwin Cities43:2611:3823319
12 / 1Ella KarkelaU17WMount Itasca45:4313:55332311
13 / 3Ryan HousemanYMTwin Cities47:0715:19354416
14 / 3Lauren HuberYWWolfpack48:1516:27244313
15 / 4Maeve LindsayYWTwin Cities53:0321:15443516
16 / 1Emily BrodersonMWTwin Cities55:0123:13242311
17 / 2Keith KranzMMTwin Cities55:4523:57523414
18 / 4Owen FischerYMDuluth56:4024:52534416

Coming up on the 27th of June will be a daylong program at the Woodland Trails and Range at Elk River. In the morning, we will have a practice working on shooting skills and roller ski technique, and in the pm—the first Rollerski Biathlon Race of the season!! See the above Invitation for the race!

The program for the morning practice is as follows:

9:00 Meet at the range
9:00-10:30 shooting accuracy, rifle handling, and range procedure
10:30-12:00 – ski technique on roller skis

12:00 to 1:30 lunch on your own and race registration at 12:30

1:30 zero for the race
2:15 race start

Who: The practice is open to all who have experience with biathlon and have a rifle of their own or leased. It will be limited in the first opening round to a max of 10 participants. If more are interested, then we may open it up to as many as 10 more and split the training.

Contact: If you are interested in either the practice or the race, please contact me asap.

Cost: There will be no cost for the practice—Race entry is $10.

Another step in the Journey!
Bill Meyer, Coach

Invitation to the daycamps 8/9 May Elk River – Camps now full

Please note this camp is now full.

Please consider this to be the invitation to the two daycamps at Elk River, the 8th and 9th of May. Cost will be $10 per day.

We have invited 5 newcomers to the camp—and hope to have their rifle fitting done starting at 8:00.

The camp for experienced athletes will start at 9:00 on both days. and run until approximately 4:30.

You can sign up for both days—preferred- or one day. We have only 15 open slots each day. The preferences will be to allot those to Youth and Junior athletes first and only those with their own or leased rifles. A very limited amount of ammo will be available in 500 rd cans for $42.50 per can—limited to one per athlete. {and expected to last into mid summer minimum!!} Only Youth and Juniors will be eligible for ammo purchase. If anyone finds a retail source for target ammo—[not high velocity or hollowpoint] please let me know. CCI has been problematic in our rifles.

You should bring your training clothes, ski boots, roller skis—preferably skate roller skis-, poles with road tips, running shoes, short poles for hill bounding, water, lunch and etc. If you feel unsure on roller skis you might want knee and elbow pads also. Helmets are mandatory when skiing!! Gloves are recommended!!

Be sure to check the weather and bring appropriate clothing. Shorts and tees are not appropriate for 40 deg rainy days!! If you bring gloves, be sure they are like ski gloves that you would wear in competition so you can feel the trigger. And beware you can’t shoot in bulky jackets or even warmup jackets with loose sleeves. Ditto with sweatshirts—they don’t work. Vests are good, or snug sleeves.. Race tops are the best.

The goals of the camp are:

  • Touch up the rifle fit on all rifles, especially raising positions as much as possible for stability in prone and getting level on the targets in standing, plus adjusting cheekpieces.
  • Going back to the basics of taking a shot, range procedure, and rifle handling
  • Going back to the basics of skiing—balance, movements, timing and general form
  • doing some basic accuracy tests for baseline for the year

The plan:

  • Fit rifles to novices first before 9:00
  • Set up two groups of 10 at 9:00 at the range
  • one group working on range while other is working on skiing
  • Switch midmorning

This will be repeated Sat pm and Sun morning. Sun pm to be announced

So please sign up asap if you are interested! We are lining up coaches and range help as we plan out the weekend.

Three more notes:
A] there will also be a camp at Mt Itasca for those interested the following weekend. I will forward that invitation when it comes in. That is optional. No food or camping/housing will be provided.
B] Many of you have received log forms for the coming training year. These do not fill themselves out!! Get in the habit of making a daily entry!! And for those who have not shared, you can share it with me and your coach by saving the log to google sheets and sharing it. If to me, please use wmeyer1041@gmail.com.. Otherwise I need to get your permission.
C] Last but not least by any means: Covid vaccinations are available for those 16 yrs and up. Please get it done!! MN is currently at about 40% with their first shot—but in the 20’s % done and probably fewer who have waited out the 14 days after the second shot or the Johnson shot. It has been indicated that the state needs 70% completely done to achieve herd immunity. If we don’t get there shortly, I fear the mutations will override the vaccines and we will be right back to last year again!!

So masks and distancing will be required at the camps unless you are shooting or on skis. That applies to all parents and coaches also. We need to drop the mask a little to scope [or they fog up] but otherwise lets all be compliant!!

The Journey begins again!!
Bill Meyer, Coach

Last day of 2021 Nationals

On Sunday, it continued with a 5 km Super Sprint with 4 shooting stages for all athletes. The wind continued to rise- estimate in the high 20’s or low 30’s mph—but the penalty loop was only 75 meters for that format.

Sam Stertz, Grand Rapids, took 1st place in the Youth Men’s division with 2,1,3,1 shooting! Another National Championship for MN!!
Kaisa Bosek continued her run with a 2nd in the Youth Women’s class with 1,0,1,1 shooting! And Evelyn Hudrlik moved up to 7th, shooting 3,2,4,3. Nice result for a 1st yr in Biathlon!!
Saylor Landrum finished in 10th, shooting 1,1,4,2.

On Tues, Marc Sheppard sent out the overall shooting results. Kaisa Bosek was the top shooter for Nationals this year with 83.3% Avg, followed in 20th place by Sam Stertz at 63.3%, Saylor Landrum in 26th at 60%. Cheresa Bouley only was able to do two races, but her average was 70% –about in the top 10.