On January 11th and 12th, more than 60 biathletes came to the Outdoor Center for the third stop of the North American (NorAm) Cup tour. The NorAm moves around the US and Canada and provides biathletes with domestic racing opportunities. Saturday was a sprint competition while Sunday was a short individual. 

Sprint day dawned with much better weather than expected, with only a little bit of rain during the zeroing period. In the 4.5k U13 boys’ division, where athletes shot prone two times assisted by a block, Thomas Kehler led the way hitting all the targets, followed by Zebediah Whitlock who also “cleaned” the race, and Liam Vile was 3rd. In the 4.5k U15 girls’ division, where athletes shot prone twice with a sling and cuff, Amelia Circosta was 1st and Ruth Krebs was 2nd. In the U15 boys’ division, Leo Circosta was 1st and Charlie Krebs 2nd. In the 7.5k youth boys’ division, Bjorn Westervelt was 1st, missing a total of three targets. 

On Sunday, everyone did individual races. In this format, there are four shooting bouts and a time penalty is assessed for each miss. The distances were “short individual,” which is slightly less than regular individual distances. In the 5k U15 girls’ race Amelia won and Ruth was 2nd. In the 5k U15 boys’ race, Leo was 1st and Charlie was 4th. In the 12.5k youth boys’ race, Bjorn was 2nd. The individual is a new and challenging race format for these youngsters! 

Congratulations to these athletes on a great weekend of racing! Best wishes to Bjorn as he heads to Lenzerheide, Switzerland for Youth and World Junior Championships taking place at the end of the month. 

See full results here.