We are excited to announce that Bjorn Westervelt has qualified to race at the Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships Obertilliach, Austria. The Championships will take place February 27 through March 6, in Obertilliach, which is in the southwestern part of the country, at about 4,500 feet of elevation and often has sunny skies and beautiful skiing!

Bjorn is no rookie to the Junior Worlds circuit, having participated in two previous Championships. Last year he finished an excellent 9th in the Sprint race in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. He has also raced in Slovakia (where this article is being written from!) and Norway.  Bjorn is “most excited for the opportunity to have this racing experience in a year of extremely limited racing opportunities.” 

Bjorn has been a long time CNSC member and is currently in his freshman year at the University of Vermont, on the ski team and majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He explains that “this semester I am still taking a full course load and due to the mostly online nature of the courses, I will be able to compete in Europe.” I think we call this a COVID silver lining!

We’ll provide racing updates here, but also check out biathlonresults.com.