From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
JERICHO, Vt. — Images from Day 2 of the North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships: the men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit on Aug. 11 at the Ethan Allen Firing Range. (Women’s 10 k pursuit photos in progress.)
See also: Sprint photos | Women’s weekend race recap | Men’s recap
JERICHO, Vt. — Photos from Day 1 of the North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships at Ethan Allen Firing Range: the women’s 7.5 k and men’s 10 k sprints.
See also: Women’s weekend race recap | Men’s recap
![Hannah Dreissigacker (Craftsbury Green Racing Project/USBA A-team) heads out with a 30-second lead in Sunday's pursuit after winning the sprint on Saturday at North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt. She went on to place second to Canadian Rosanna Crawford.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/08/IMGP0573.jpg")
JERICHO, Vt. – It’s not easy having a target on your back. Ask Hannah Dreissigacker, who made the US Biathlon A-team this year at age 26, just a year after fully committing to the sport. A member of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, which her parents founded, Dreissigacker previously dabbled in both biathlon and cross-country skiing, racing whenever she could and shooting on the side.
This season heading into the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, she’s going to be one of the U.S. women to watch.
Not completely accustomed to all the attention, Dreissigacker was showered with hugs and congratulations after Saturday’s opening race at the North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships. She won the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint by 31 seconds – no small feat for a relative newcomer. Sure, she’s raced International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cups and World Championships, but Dreissigacker was now one step closer to securing a trip to the US Biathlon (USBA) November camp in Sweden, where World Cup starts will be dolled out. Athletes that do well there could represent the U.S. at the Olympics.
But let’s not get too far ahead. Dreissigacker said the step-by-step qualification system – which starts with rollerski trials in Jericho and two more in October in Midway, Utah – was a “pretty fair” system. Top skiers between the four races qualify for the Sweden camp and will shoot for the World Cup from there.
“It’s not like you win this and you go to the Olympics,” Dreissigacker said. “You have to do well enough in the rollerski races in the summer, but you have to do well in the winter, too.”
![US Biathlon teammates Hannah Dreissigacker (r) and Susan Dunklee (c) in the range together with Biathlon Canada's Rosanna Crawford on the final standing of Sunday's 10 k pursuit at North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/08/IMGP0618.jpg")
Despite several chances to prove herself worthy of the USBA’s standards, the Vermont native found herself a little nervous on Saturday, then even more so before Sunday’s 10 k pursuit. She was given a 30-second head start – not a ton of time when you’ve got Canadian Olympic team member Rosanna Crawford and the top-ranked U.S. woman, Susan Dunklee, on your heels.
“I wasn’t nervous until just little bit before for the race and then suddenly I was starting to get that feeling of having people behind you,” Dreissigacker said. “That’s what makes a real biathlon race. With the shooting aspect, there’s so much potential to move around so that’s what makes it fun.”
A day after hitting 7 of 10 targets on a windy morning at the Ethan Allen Firing Range, Dreissigacker missed seven out of 20 in the pursuit, one in the first prone and two in each stage thereafter, to finish second to Crawford.
![Rosanna Crawford (Biathlon Canada) winning Sunday's 10 k pursuit by more than a minute at North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/08/IMGP0632.jpg")
On the first of five laps, Crawford and Dunklee entered the range just as Dreissigacker was leaving. Crawford, 25, gradually closed the gap before taking the lead the last time around. One of two women on Biathlon Canada’s national team, she won in 31:14, a minute and 12 seconds ahead of Dreissigacker. Dunklee struggled with shooting, missing two on the first prone then four on the first standing before finishing fifth with eight penalties (2-0-4-2).
Meanwhile, Crawford cleaned all but the second prone for 19-for-20 shooting. She skied one too many penalty loops when she didn’t realize she cleaned the first prone.
“I thought I had missed my last shot, but turns out it was a really slow split,” she explained. “I didn’t hear them tell me it went down until I was already in the penalty loop and even then I wasn’t sure what they were saying.”
She finished the loop and headed back out, not thinking too much of it. Fortunately for Crawford, the races had little implications: she’d already prequalified for Sochi and was simply measuring her progress. The day before, she’d finished second to Dreissigacker after missing three on the prone (3-0). Her first lap on Saturday had been slower than some of the U.S. women’s, so she wanted to push harder from start to finish and see if she could hang in for the duration.
It ended up working out both days, even after an intense training block culminating in Jericho.
“It’s been a tough couple weeks leading into these races so I’m glad I’m not totally dead on the skis,” Crawford said. “It was a good chance for me to work on a few things, like pushing my lap times and shooting a bit faster standing.”
Slightly disappointed with her prone shooting while being patient with her new stock, Crawford picked up some tips from a Norwegian with a Master’s degree in dry firing, who presented at the Ethan Allen military base on Saturday night.
“It was an interesting talk and reminded of a few things I used to do during the race season that really helped lead to some good shooting,” she explained. “I shot really slow [in Sunday’s] prone, and I was pretty happy to come off it with only 1 miss!”
![Tracy Barnes (Twin Biathletes) finishing third in the 10 k pursuit at 2013 North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/08/IMGP0639.jpg")
Starting seventh and 1:24 behind Dreissigacker, Tracy Barnes (Twin Biathletes) rose to third with three penalties (2-0-1-0), 1:31 behind Crawford. She and her twin sister Lanny, a USBA B-team member who improved from 11th in the sprint to seventh, both cleaned the second prone in the pursuit.
Last year, Lanny swept both races in Jericho, but the two have been recovering from compartment-syndrome surgery since February, when a Colorado Springs doctor made incisions in their leg muscles to relieve pressure.
“Physically my legs are feeling better than they have in years,” Tracy wrote in an email. “I was disappointed in my result during the sprint, but not surprised that I might be a little further back than I wanted to be.”
On Saturday, she missed three prones and cleaned the standing; Lanny had one penalty in the prone and three in the standing.
“Lanny and I both knew that training had been a little slow coming into this because of our surgery and we wouldn’t be where we were normally,” she explained. “We just wanted to get back into racing and see where we were at and go from there. My game plan for the pursuit was just picking people off. There’s always an opportunity for that in a pursuit, which makes the race so much fun.”
She also spent quite a bit of time on course with her sister: one lap in the sprint and several in the pursuit.
“I love being able to do that,” Tracy wrote. “It makes me more relaxed. … We like to rumble against each other and push each other in training and racing so it makes it a blast.”
A member of Canada’s World Cup team, Audrey Vaillancourt missed just one shot on the day (0-0-1-0) for fourth in the pursuit, up from 10th in the sprint. USBA A-team members Sara Studebaker and Annelies Cook finished sixth and eighth, respectively. Canadian Claude Godbout (Courcelette) was ninth, and Biathlon Canada’s Megan Imrie placed 10th.
![Lowell Bailey (USBA A-team) finishes strong to win the 2013 North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships 12.5 k pursuit at Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, Vt. Bailey crushed the field by more than 3 minutes for the overall victory on Sunday.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/08/bailey-pursuit-win.jpg")
JERICHO, Vt. – Lowell Bailey could go around telling people he won two national rollerski titles this weekend. But that’s not exactly the biggest deal for Bailey, a U.S. biathlon champion multiple times over who’s been competing at the sport’s highest level for more than a decade.
Just over an hour after his second victory in as many races at the Ethan Allen Firing Range this weekend, the US Biathlon A-team member was changed and ready to head back home to Lake Placid, N.Y.
“I’m gonna play a little music tonight,” Bailey said.
![Lowell Bailey (USBA A-team) exits the range after missing one target on his first standing. He finished with three penalties and won Sunday's 12.5 k pursuit at North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/08/IMGP0541.jpg")
Truth be told, one of the two bands Bailey plays in, “Swimming with Champy,” has a gig at a private party. An accomplished stringed musician, he plays the mandolin for the bluegrass band. His other band, Big Slyde, is more “Indie/folk,” he said.
But before he could even think about performing, Bailey had to get through two rollerski championships first. Qualifying for the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cups was one pressure the 32-year-old didn’t have to think about at the North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships, which doubled as U.S. trials; he prequalified for the U.S. World Cup and the 2014 Olympic teams.
But Bailey wanted to do well while testing his fitness and shooting savvy at this point in the training season. After winning Saturday’s 10-kilometer opening sprint by 1 minute and 9 seconds, he started Sunday’s pursuit with a 1:10 lead on runner-up Russell Currier (Maine Winter Sports Center/USBA A-team). Bailey finished 3:10 ahead of Brendan Green (Biathlon Canada), who rose from third to second in the pursuit. Tim Burke (USBA A-team) was third, up from starting fourth, and Currier dropped to ninth with 11 penalties.
“Even though you’re that far out front, there’s still a little bit of pressure,” Bailey said.
He finished with three penalties, one in each of the last three stages, which he said would be average or a little sub-par on the World Cup. Fortunately for him, the Ethan Allen Firing Range tends to be a tough place to shoot for most biathletes. Saturday’s swirling winds didn’t help, but Bailey skied fast and stayed ahead with one penalty (1-0). He experimented with a more aggressive approach than usual on the gradual climb to the range, and it worked in the sprint.
“[I’m] trying to keep my range times down, be really efficient in the range, efficient but still be accurate,” he said. “I’m satisfied. … Overall I’m happy with the races.”
![Brendan Green (Biathlon Canada) pushes toward the finish to place second in Sunday's 12.5 k pursuit at the North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/08/IMGP0551.jpg")
Green, who’s coming off two back surgeries and 11 months away from skiing to heal a herniated disc, said he was feeling good about his progress. Like Bailey, he had just one miss in the sprint prone and went on to hit 17 of 20 targets on Sunday. He cleaned two stages (1-0-2-0).
“I’m super happy to be back training and getting back into race shape,” Green, 26, said Saturday. “It was a long and slow recovery, but it’s nice to have some confirmation that things are going on the right track.”
Out of commission for most of 2012, he got back on skis Christmas day.
“From then it was a gradual progression,” Green said. He hadn’t spent much time shooting, but those skills came back to him. Most importantly, he had a renewed focus.
“When I got injured, there was a huge question mark of whether or not I would be able to come back and recover,” he said. “Having to take a backseat for a while made me realize that this is what I really, really love to do and what I’m passionate about. I guess that kind of motivated me to really focus and be diligent with the rehab and take another crack at it.”
Green’s girlfriend, Rosanna Crawford, matched his double podium at Biathlon Rollerski Championships, placing second in the women’s 7.5 k sprint and winning the 10 k pursuit.
“It’s always great when a teammate has a good race before [your race] and even better when it’s Brendan,” she wrote in an email. “I really look up to Brendan when it comes to training. He’s an amazing athlete and really dedicated to the sport.”
![Canadian national-team biathlete Brendan Green (l) and US Biathlon's Tim Burke go head-to-head during the first prone of Sunday's 12.5 k pursuit at North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt. Green went on to place second and Burke was third.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/08/IMGP0526.jpg")
Skiing with Burke for much of the five-lap pursuit, Green finally dropped him after cleaning the second standing. Burke missed two (1-2-3-2) and fell behind after the penalty loops.
“It’s great that the Canadians came down to race; they have a really solid guys’ team,” Burke said.
Pleased with how his training’s been going on and off the range, Burke was disappointed with his shooting this weekend after missing seven targets on Sunday and five in the sprint.
“I was for sure hoping to shoot better and no excuses for today; it was easy shooting conditions,” he said. “A little rusty in the summer. I don’t know what it is but I usually have pretty low shooting percentages [in Jericho]. My shooting training’s been great, better than it ever has in years past … so I’m not too worried about it.”
Leif Nordgren (USBA A-team) rose from eighth in the sprint to fourth in the pursuit, a good note to end on, but not entirely what he’d hoped for. He missed 4 of 10 targets on Saturday, then 6 of 20 (0-3-1-2) on Sunday.
“[I’ve] had better races, but I was happy with how the skiing has gone the last couple days,” Nordgren, 24, said. “Usually in August I’m pretty rough as far as ski shape is concerned.”
He held off teammate Jay Hakkinen (USBA B-team) by two seconds for fourth place, 4:27 behind Bailey. Already qualified for the first three IBU World Cups, Nordgren said less pressure helped.
![Leif Nordgren (r) holds off US Biathlon teammate Jay Hakkinen for fourth in Sunday's 12.5 k pursuit at North American Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/08/IMGP0562.jpg")
“I’ve just been training straight through these and don’t have to worry about good results, so that’s nice,” he said.
Less of an emphasis on results is a good thing for the 24-year-old, who mulled his future in the sport earlier this year.
“I was a little burned out after the season, just mentally,” he said. “I was actually thinking about how long I wanted to do biathlon.”
As a remedy, he visited his brother in California, where he did some “fun, easy” training.
“When I got back to Lake Placid in June I was actually pretty motivated so it’s been a good year since then,” Nordgren said. “I’m probably in the best physical shape that I’ve been in ever, for sure, in the summer. I’ve trained more this year than past summers. I feel like I’m more relaxed about training than I used to be, too.”
It helps having teammates like Bailey and Burke to train with year-round.
“It’s really motivating to be able to measure your everyday training against two of the best biathletes in the world,” he said. “I’m not at their level, but I can see how close I am to them from the past and where I am now.”
