Category Archives: Recent Events

Recent Events

Eleven high school biathletes make Nordic Skiing State Meet

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Eleven High School age Minnesota Biathletes were successful at their respective section meets and will move up to the State Nordic Skiing Meet next week.

Name, Club                            Grade  Place at Sections            
Garrett Beckrich, Mt Itasca Biathlon  12th   1st [2018 State Champ]
Kaisa Bosek,  Wolfpack Biathlon       10th   4th
Cheresa Bouley, TC Biathlon,          12th   4th
Jackson Grant, NNW                    10th   4th
Connor Grant, NNW                     8th    27th [team member]
Stormy Hegg, Wolfpack                 12th   8th
Maj Lis Helmer, Duluth                11th   14th [team member]
Clara Kramer, Duluth                  11th   3rd
Sam Stertz, Mt Itasca                 10th   4th
Elsa Viren, Mt Itasca                 10th   2nd
Annika Viren, Mt Itasca               12th   11th

Our congratulations to all, and our best wishes for your State meet races!
Bill Meyer, Coach
MNBiathlon

Youth and Junior World Championships

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Today saw the completion of the YJr World Biathlon Championships in Slovakia with all 4 classes in their respective Pursuit races. Only the top 60 from the Sprint races advanced to the Pursuit—and the start time is not given back, so if you were 2 min behind in the Sprint—you start 2 min back in the Pursuit and the first one across the line wins.

Of extra note was Chloe Levins in the Jr Women’s event who moved from 29th starting 1:16 back based on her sprint results—up to 10th today 1:06 back shooting 0,0,1,1. Very nice!

In the Youth Men’s Pursuit, Garrett Beckrich of Mt Itasca/MN Biathlon moved up from 45th starting 2:42 back to 31st finishing 4:52 back with 1,1,1,1 on the range. Very nice way to finish the Championships!!

Garrett’s races both on Friday and today were won by Alex Cisar of Slovenia. Alex spent a couple of months training at Mt Itasca early this summer..and I grabbed a little video on him during a time trial on the Mesabi trail. Alex is in the white helmet doing V2 up a long pretty steep hill. Note how long he stays on his left ski as he initiates poling from a high forward position before he pushes across. Strong guy!! Really good technique!

Enjoy. Later this week the World Cup moves to Canmore, Alberta, then the following week to Soldier Hollow where we just had the US Youth and Junior Trials. Replays of those races are available on the IBU webpage under live broadcasts…Eurosport.

https://www.biathlonworld.com/competitions/youth-world-championship/events/ibu-youth-junior-world-championships-osrblie-1819/bt1819jwrlch__/race/ymen-10-km-pursuit/bt1819jwrlch__ympu/

Bill Meyer, Coach
MNBiathlon

Y Jr World Championships- Junior classes Sprints

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Leopold and Levins advance to Pursuits

Lars Leopold, and Chloe Levins will join Garrett Beckrich and Helen Wilson in the Pursuit races for the US tomorrow to conclude the 2019 Y Jr Biathlon World Championships.

Leopold finished todays Jr Men’s 10 km Sprint 2:59 behind Vebjoern Soerum, Norway, who shot clean and finished in 25:42. Lars shot 0,2 and finished in 54th place.
Vasek Cervenka shot 1,1 and was 3:08 back for 63rd; Cody Johnson shot 1,1 and finished 3:20 back for 72nd; and Camren Nielsen shot 1,1 and finished 5:48 back for 92nd.

In the Jr Women’s 7.5km event, Chloe Levins shot 0,1 to finish 29th, 1:16 behind winner Ekaterina Bekh of Ukraine who shot clean and finished in 21:03. Maja Lapkiss was 62nd shooting 1,1 and finishing 2:40 back; and Ariana Woods was 88 th shooting 2,5 and finishing 6:37 behind.

The top 60 in each race advance to the Pursuit races.

Good shooting and fast skiing to all !!

Bill Meyer, Coach
MNBiathlon

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

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

MNCup revised schedule

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After spending most of the week trying to put together a race this coming weekend, we have decided that wasn’t going to work. The Elk River venue didn’t get enough snow to revive the trails, and the northern venues are forecast to be in the low single digits at best with wind chills in the teens below zero. Not a lot of fun for anyone.

Accordingly, here is our revised MNCup Schedule:

  • #4 Saturday the 2nd of March—Elk River with Nisswa as a backup
  • #5 Saturday the 9th of March—Snowflake
  • #6 Saturday the 16th of March—Mt Itasca finale..

We probably will have a novice race with each of these events. Watch the Invitations that come out for each individual race for details.

Nationals will be starting the 28th of March in Jericho VT..

Meanwhile, this coming Sunday is the Youth Individual races in Slovakia at the Youth and Junior World Champs. Garrett, Vasek and Emma are all in Europe presently. You can pick up some video clips and the results on the IBU webpage.

http://www.biathlonworld.com/

Also, starting tomorrow will be full race videos on replay for the World Cup now in Antholz Italy. The past World Cup races are all available as well. 20,000 fans at the Sunday mass start races in Germany.

Enjoy the Journey!
Bill Meyer, Coach
MNBiathlon