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Tag: Erik Lewish

  • Thursday Rundown: Levins 6th, Moser 8th, Bankes 9th in Junior Worlds Individual

    Thursday Rundown: Levins 6th, Moser 8th, Bankes 9th in Junior Worlds Individual

    The top-six finishers at the junior women’s 12.5 k individual flower ceremony on Thursday at IBU Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, with Poland’s Kamila Żuk (second from l) in first, Ukraines’s Anna Kryvonos (l) in second place, Russia’s Irina Kazakevich (third from l) in third, and American Chloe Levins (r) in sixth. (Photo: Erik Lewish)

    IBU Junior World Championships (Otepää, Estonia): Junior women’s and men’s individual

    Three North Americans in the top 10, top nine even. That’s what happened in a single race at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Junior World Championships on Thursday in Otepää, with American Chloe Levins placing sixth, and Canada’s Nadia Moser and Megan Bankes claiming eighth and ninth, respectively, in junior women’s 12.5-kilometer individual.

    According to the three racers, it was another beautiful day in Otepää with steady, sometimes even gusting, wind.

    Levins was the earliest starter of the three, starting in the middle of the field in bib 37 (out of 70). Bankes headed out of the gate 45th and Moser started near last in 67th.

    Canada’s Nadia Moser racing to eighth in the junior women’s 12.5 k individual at IBU Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia. (Photo: Bryan Dickson)

    Despite the late start, Moser, 20 years old and in her second Junior Worlds, explained in an email that she wasn’t nervous. With temperatures rising to a high of -10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) on Thursday morning, she almost preferred it.

    “There were also 20 second start intervals which are shorter than the usual 30, so all of the competitors were out of the gate in a shorter amount of time than normal,” Moser wrote.

    In neither Thursday’s women’s race nor the men’s 15 k individual that followed, nobody shot clean. In fact, only one woman shot 19-for-20: Slovakia’s Veronika Machyniakova, who ended up 11th. The top-two finishers in the women’s 12.5 k, Poland’s Kamila Żuk (who placed first in 41:36.1 minutes) and Ukraine’s Anna Kryvonos (who finished 3:04.7 minutes back in second place), both had two penalties. Russia’s Irina Kazakevich placed third (+3:20.0) with three misses — which added three minutes of penalties to her time.

    “I found the wind in the range today to be fairly variable,” Bankes, the defending Junior Worlds champion in the event, wrote in an email. “It was gusting and then dying quiet significantly and also in the middle of shooting bouts which made things a little tricky.”

    At last year’s Junior Worlds in Osrblie, Slovakia, Bankes shot a perfect 20-for-20 for the first time in her career and won gold in the junior women’s 12.5 k individual.

    Thursday brought new challenges, and Bankes explained she was happy to clean her first prone. She went on to miss two in the next standing stage, then one in each of the following two stages (0+2+1+1) to finish the race with four penalties, which ultimately put her in ninth overall (+4:59.1).

    Canada’s Megan Bankes racing to ninth in the junior women’s 12.5 k individual at IBU Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia. (Photo: Bryan Dickson)

    “I’m not totally sure what happened in my first standing (when I missed 2) but when I came into my 2nd standing the wind was gusting quite a bit, and I was really happy with how I waited for my first 4 shots, but I was a little annoyed to have missed that last one,” she recalled. “Overall I think my shooting today was pretty good, but I could have been better.”

    While Bankes figured the wind was giving most others trouble as well, she didn’t think that she’d make it into the top 10 with four misses.

    “I don’t like getting splits until the last lap, so I heard Andrew [Chisholm] our wax tech tell me I was fighting for 10th when I passed him, so I really tried to give everything that last lap,” Bankes, 20, wrote. “I was super stoked to see I crossed the line in 7th, and knew I wouldn’t be bumped down too much because I started 3rd seed.

    “Coming off of gold last year, I definitely had high expectations for myself,” she explained. “But I tried to use that as more positive belief in myself to know I can be in the top women, and know that I can shoot well, instead of just focusing on the result number. My main goal going into these championships was to have races that I’m happy with, and to ski and shoot to the best of my abilities.”

    At the end of the day, Bankes wrote that she was “really happy” with her result.

    “I felt like I really held myself together on skis, and kept my technique under control, while also pushing myself to the limit throughout the race,” she wrote. “I’m super stoked to see that the youth women are totally crushing it, and to be right behind Nadia today was also super exciting (also to see Chloe Levins in 6th was fantastic – 3 North Americans in the top 10!)”

    From left to right: Megan Bankes, Nadia Moser and Emily Dickson after the junior women’s 12.5 k individual at IBU Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia. (Photo: Bill Gilliland)

    One place ahead of her, Moser scored her first non-relay top 20 at Junior Worlds, leading Canada in eighth (+4:18.9) with three penalties (1+0+1+1). Two days earlier, Moser, Bankes and their teammate Emily Dickson placed ninth in the junior women’s 3 x 6 k relay.

    “I knew I could get a top 10 finish if I could pull my shooting together,” Moser wrote after Thursday’s individual race. “After my third shooting I had missed 2 targets total and I thought then that my top 10 chances were over. On may last loop I had 3 misses and was not even thinking about top 10 anymore. I realized that I must be doing better than I initially thought when everyone who was cheering me sounded really excited. I definitely got lucky today because no one cleaned their shooting. I was extremely happy to have finished in the top 10, especially since I was sure that I had no chance after missing 3 targets.”

    She was pleased to see all of her training over the last year validated on Thursday.

    “I tried really hard to improve over the summer and fall because I really wanted good results this season,” Moser wrote. “I think that the best thing I did today was to stay calm, and take my time in the range. I shot really slowly but that paid off in the end.”

    Chloe Levins (third from r) with the U.S. team staff (from l to r) wax tech Travis Voyer, coach Algis Shalna, assistant coach Danika Frisbie, wax tech Max Bergmann, wax tech Mattias Halquist, and head coach Erik Lewish, after Levins placed sixth in the junior women’s 12.5 k individual at IBU Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia. (Photo: Erik Lewish)

    The lone American junior woman at this year’s IBU Youth/Junior Worlds, Levins, 19, finished sixth (+3:37.4) with three penalties (0+1+0+2). At last year’s Youth Worlds, Levins notched fourth place in the 7.5 k pursuit.

    “There’s a big difference between youth and junior competition,” Levins wrote in an email. “A lot of juniors have IBU Cup experience, World Cup experience, and a handful even attended the Olympics. Fortunately, there’s also a big difference between the youth athlete I was last year and the junior I am now. I’ve been fortunate to compete in more winter biathlon races than ever this year, which has really helped me up my game. It’s a good feeling to see that I’m prepared to compete at this level.”

    She explained that she had one goal on Thursday: “smile no matter what,” she wrote. “The hay is in the barn. Now it’s just time to get out of my own way and focus on one thing at a time.”

    While Levins had experienced the rush of being near the front of the race in a pursuit, actually contending for a top result in an individual-start race was a new experience for her, she explained.

    “As always, I tried not to let thoughts of my position distract me from thinking tactically about the course or my shooting process,” Levins noted. “Every lap, every corner, every shooting remained an opportunity for me until the finish line.

    “A lot of my friends finished their races around me, so I did not even see my standing at the finish,” she continued. “When I finally looked at the board and saw that I was more than three minutes back of the leader, I thought that this result, with three penalties myself, was okay. I didn’t expect it to be good enough for sixth place.”

    The race was Levins’s first of the week and she presumably has two more to go — as do Moser, Bankes and most of the other junior women — with a sprint on Saturday and, if they place in the top 60 of the sprint, a pursuit on Sunday.

    As the only American junior woman in Otepää, Levins wrote that she was fortunate to have a significant amount of team support behind her on Thursday.

    “My skis today were incredibly fast,” she emphasized. “Our wax guys made the fastest skis on the track today. … I can’t thank them enough.”

    The U.S. team’s head coach and trip leader, Erik Lewish, pointed out that Levins had the seventh-fastest overall ski time and one of the best shooting performances of the day.

    “It’s great to see that she is right in the mix with this very competitive field (2 of the starters today were competing in the Olympics),” Lewish wrote. “1 more hit and she would have finished in 2nd place today, this is very exciting looking forward to the Sprint and pursuit (sat and Sunday) where she will have another chance to get on the podium.”

    “There are a lot of good things to take from this race and, as always, a lot of things to learn,” Levins concluded. “What’s my goal for the rest of the week? Keep learning. Keep smiling.”

    According to Canada’s head coach and trip leader Jacqueline Akerman, the Canadian techs also nailed the wax.

    “The techs hit the wax perfectly allowing for some of the top skis out there, when skiing form and wax meet it sets the scene for great results,” Akerman wrote. “The shooting was a bit tricky today with varying strength and switching winds, but both [Nadia and Megan] managed to keep misses to a minimum. They both hit enough to place in the top ten on a day when no one in the field shot clean and only one athlete managed one penalty. They are both happy with their performance, and the rest of us are too!”

    Next on the results sheet for Canada was Dickson in 36th (+8:33.7) with five penalties (2+1+0+2), and Zoë Pekos in 63rd (+15:50.6) with eight misses.

    Canada’s Adam Runnalls racing to 29th in the junior men’s 15 k individual at IBU Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia. (Photo: Bill Gilliland)

    In the junior men’s 15 k, Canada’s Adam Runnalls led the North Americans in 29th (+4:26.4) with five penalties (0+0+3+2). Teo Sanchez followed in 58th (+7:25.2) with four misses (1+1+1+1), Angus Tweedie was 67th (+9:11.8) with six misses (2+0+2+2), and Trevor Kiers 77th (+12:44.3) with 13 penalties.

    For the U.S., Tim Cunningham finished 53rd (+6:49.3) with six penalties (1+3+1+1), Cody Johnson was 60th (+8:01.7) with seven misses, Jacob Pearson 83rd (+16:39.6) with 13 misses, and Cameron Christiansen 84th (+16:53.6) with eight penalties.

    Russia had two on the podium in the men’s race as well, with Igor Malinovskii scoring his second-straight win after racing to gold in the junior men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay on Tuesday. He has won the last four races he’s contested, including the sprint and the pursuit at IBU Junior Open European Championships before Junior Worlds. Malinovskii finished in 41:48.5 on Thursday with three penalties (1+1+1+0), besting Norway’s Sturla Holm Lægreid in second place by 19.4 seconds; Lægreid also had three penalties (1+0+1+1). Russia’s Said Karimulla Khalili added bronze (+23.0) to his medal collection, with two misses (0+1+1+0), after capturing gold with his relay team.

    No one in the junior men’s individual had fewer than two misses.

    Results: Junior women’s 12.5 k individual | Junior men’s 15 k individual 

  • Levins Goes ‘Back to Basics’ for 4th in IBU Youth Worlds Pursuit; Bankes Scores 3rd Top 20 in Osrblie

    Levins Goes ‘Back to Basics’ for 4th in IBU Youth Worlds Pursuit; Bankes Scores 3rd Top 20 in Osrblie

    Chloe Levins (11) with her US Biathlon support team (from left to right: Erik Lewish, Travis Voyer, Mathias Zacherl, Robert Gorgos, and Algis Shalna) after her fourth-place finish in the youth women’s 7.5 k pursuit, her career best in her third IBU Youth World Championships, on Sunday in Osrblie, Slovakia. (Photo: USBA)

    At just 18 years old, Chloe Levins has the wisdom of a seasoned veteran when it comes to biathlon. She accepts the inevitable ups and down of her sport, works hard to focus on herself and no one else, and treats every race as a learning experience.

    All of the above are often easier said than done. But Levins seems to have her head in the right place and the results are following. In three individual races over the past week at Youth World Championships in Osrblie, Slovakia, she’s finished in the top 15. On Sunday in the youth women’s 7.5-kilometer pursuit, she rocketed to fourth — tying her career-best result in an international race.

    “In my mind, I’m still a baby in this sport,” Levins wrote in an email on Sunday. “As we saw last week, Lowell [Bailey] prepared for two decades before winning a World Championship title. Today’s race was simply more preparation for the future. Every race is a learning experience, and every race that you’re in contention is an even better learning experience. So for now, I’ll keep learning.”

    A Middlebury freshman who plays collegiate golf in the spring and fall, Levins had previously finished fourth at last year’s Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. There, she started the pursuit in 22nd and rocketed to fourth, one spot off the podium. On Sunday, she started 11th, based on her sprint result on Friday, and shot 18-for-20 to finish fourth, 1:55.5 minutes out of first and 47 seconds out of third.

    Levins started the race by skiing around 11th for the first loop, then missed her first and last shots in the first shooting stage. That put her back in 17th heading out on her second loop, and she proceeded to clean the next three stages to work her way up to seventh before her final loop. There, she passed three more competitors to end up fourth.

    “After missing two, I got out of my own way and went back to basics,” Levins recalled. “My coach, Algis Shalna, always says, ‘Do what you normally do.’ The trick is believing that what you normally do will be good enough. Today, it was really close.”

    “There’s a fine line between being too cautious and perfectly aware in shooting,” she added. “That was the difference between my first shooting and the last three today.”

    American Chloe Levins racing to fourth in the youth women’s 7.5 k pursuit on Sunday in Osrblie, Slovakia, for her best result at her third IBU Youth World Championships. (Photo: USBA)

    She attributed her fast skiing (with the 11th-fastest course time) to “lightning” skis.

    “The wax guys have been making fantastic skis all week, and I can’t thank them enough,” she said of US Biathlon’s staff. “The team staff gave me some information on the last loop, but I didn’t hear them. I was in a different world, fighting for a medal in my mind’s eye. Honestly, I’m not quite sure when I passed the three girls who left the range in front of me. The track was really crowded with competitors that were on their fourth loop. If I were to guess, I passed one girl on the first hill out of the stadium and the other two on a flat .25k before the finish.”

    Ahead of her, Italy’s Irene Lardschneider secured her second-straight gold medal after winning Friday’s sprint and starting 1 minute and 7 seconds ahead of anyone else in the pursuit. She had four penalties, which came in the last two standing stages (0+0+2+2), but held onto first in 26:57.1. France’s Lou Jeanmonnot-Laurent finished 24.4 seconds later after skiing up from fourth at the start to second place, with a single miss (0+0+1+0). For the second-straight race, Italy’s Samuela Comola claimed bronze (+1:08.5) after starting third and shooting two penalties (1+0+1+0).

    Then there was Levins, who started 1:40 out of first and was one of six women to shoot 90 percent or better.

    “It kills me to come short of medal for the second year in a row, but it also makes me that much more hungry for next opportunity to compete,” Levins wrote. “Even though there’s no medal around my neck, shooting 90% and having the fastest ski time on the last loop are things to smile about.”

    Before the championships began, Levins told FasterSkier that the best advice anyone ever gave her about skiing or racing was to smile. And that’s been the running theme of her week.

    “I smile about the fact that I set three consecutive personal bests this week at Jr World Champs,” she wrote on Sunday. “It’s the ‘what ifs’ that give me motivation for the next. I’m leaving Slovakia with more drive than ever. There are many areas in shooting and skiing I can improve upon for next season. I’m really looking forward to getting down to work.”

    Levins led four North Americans in the youth women’s pursuit, with her U.S. teammates Amanda Kautzer and Grace Gilliland finishing 42nd and 53rd, respectively. Kautzer started 59th and picked off 17 places despite missing four targets (1+0+2+1) and finished 6:16.2 back. Gilliland started 55th and improved two places with six penalties (2+3+1+0), finishing 8:32.1 out of first in 53rd. Canada’s Shilo Rousseau followed in 54th (+9:02.1) with eight misses (3+1+2+2) after starting 45th.

    The youth women end the championships with the 3 x 6 k relay on Monday. Canada is entering Frédérique Pérusse, Rousseau, and Anna Sellers, while the U.S. team is Levins, Kautzer and Gilliland.

    Also on Monday, the youth men will race a 3 x 7.5 k relay. Thomas Hulsman, Adam Runnalls and Leo Grandbois are listed to start for Canada, and Vasek Cervenka, Jacob Pearson and Alex Kilby are listed for the U.S.

    Sprint Top 20 for Bankes, Ellingson; Bankes 16th in Pursuit

    In the junior women’s 10 k pursuit, Canada’s 19-year-old Megan Bankes capped off her gold-medal week with her third top 20. Bankes previously won the 12.5 k individual last Thursday, then finished 13th in Saturday’s 7.5 k sprint.

    Megan Bankes racing to 16th in Sunday’s junior women’s 10 k pursuit at IBU Junior World Championships in Osrblie, Slovakia. (Photo: Jacqueline Akerman)

    Going into Sunday’s pursuit, she made a goal to stay calm and focused and “overall just have a fun time racing the pursuit, and see how much I can move up!”

    She started 1:25 minutes behind the leader, Italy’s Michela Carrara, the winner of the sprint who left the pursuit starting gate with a 15-second head start. After cleaning the first prone stage, Bankes was up to ninth and 54 seconds out of first.

    Over the next three stages, Bankes missed four targets and had to ski four penalty laps as a result. The first miss on the second prone stage put her in 11th, then she slipped to 19th with two misses in the first standing. On the final standing stage, Bankes missed one more to leave the range in 20th. Before the finish, she picked off four skiers to take 16th place across the line. She finished 2:15.8 minutes behind Russia’s Valeriia Vasnetcova, who won the race with clean shooting. Vasnetcova was the only woman in the field to do so; in fact, she was the only racer — woman or man — that hit all 20 targets between four races on Sunday.

    Vasnetcova had started the pursuit in 24th, 1:52 out of first, and taken the lead by after cleaning the last stage. She posted the fastest course time as well and notched a 10-second victory, finishing in 31:49.5 minutes for her first medal of these championships (she also won gold in the relay last year with her Russian team at Youth Worlds in Romania).

    Carrara ended up second after missing three (1+1+1+0), and Norway’s Ingrid Tandrevold also picked up her second-straight medal, after starting second and finishing third (+10.8), with two penalties (0+0+1+1).

    While Bankes could not be reached for comment after Sunday’s race, she was pleased with her 13th place on Saturday.

    “My skiing felt pretty solid, and only 2 misses is pretty good for a sprint for me,” she wrote of her s8-for-10 shooting (1+1). “13th place is still pretty stellar…”

    Asked what it’s been like coming off a world-championship win, Bankes, who hails from Calgary and trains with the Biathlon Alberta Training Centre in Canmore, Alberta, explained she’s received a fair amount of media attention, “especially from back home, or at least way more than I’m used to!” she wrote on Saturday. “I’ve just been trying to focus on the next races, it’s still fairly surreal for me to be Junior World Champ for the individual, so I’m still fairly excited about that, but i’m trying not to get caught up in that and look forward to the next races as well.”

    American Siena Ellingson racing to 18th on Saturday in the junior women’s 7.5 k sprint in Osrblie, Slovakia, for her best result in her fourth IBU Youth/Junior World Championships. (Photo: Erik Lewish)

    The second North American in the top 20 of Saturday’s sprint, Siena Ellingson of the U.S. posted the first individual top 20 of her career in her fourth Youth/Junior Worlds. She finished 18th, 1:38.7 out of first, with a single standing penalty (0+1).

    In an email on Saturday, the 20-year-old Ellingson, of Minnetonka, Minn., explained that she had a tricky zero, which is the standard pre-race target practice.

    “The wind was switching back and forth so it was hard to get a good confirmation, I had to leave it where it was and start the race,” she wrote. “Having confidence in shooting is hard after a zero like that, but you just can’t worry about it.”

    She was pleased to find her first prone stage had wind similar to what she experienced zeroing, and she was able to hit all of her targets without making any adjustments.

    “Standing there was a bit of wind, but the miss was just a miss, not a problem with the wind,” Ellingson wrote. “I crossed the line in 6th, but I had only started bib 19, so there were quite a few fast girls still to finish. It’s always hard to guess where you’ll end up, but I was hoping to stay top 30.

    “I’m pretty happy with the race today, but there’s a lot I need to work on in the training season coming up,” she added.

    “An impressive result for Siena in a very competitive junior field,” US Biathlon assistant coach Erik Lewish wrote in an email. “Great skiing and shooting even with a crash during the race before her last shooting stage didn’t deter her. I was really proud that she could make her best result ever (and hopefully improve upon it tomorrow) here at her last junior worlds.”

    For the pursuit, she wanted to shoot well and enjoy the race. On Sunday, Ellingson started out with a miss in her first prone, then missed six more on the next three stages to end up 41st (+5:24.7), just outside the points, with seven penalties (1+2+1+3).

    Two other Canadians qualified for the pursuit, with Nadia Moser starting 31st and Emily Dickson 47th based on their sprint results. In the pursuit, Moser raced to her best result of the week in 30th (+3:43.5) with three penalties (0+1+0+2). Dickson repeated in 47th (+6:29.9) with four penalties (1+0+1+2).

    The junior women will race a 3 x 6 k relay on Tuesday, along with the junior men in the 4 x 7.5 k, to conclude the 2017 Youth/Junior World Championships. Start lists were not yet posted.

    Read about the youth men’s and junior men’s pursuits here.

    Pursuit results: Youth women | Youth men | Junior women | Junior men

    Relay start lists: Youth women | Youth men 

  • More Top 15’s for Levins, Grandbois in IBU Youth Worlds Sprints

    More Top 15’s for Levins, Grandbois in IBU Youth Worlds Sprints

    American Chloe Levins racing to 11th in Friday’s youth women’s 6 k sprint in Osrblie, Slovakia, for her best result in her third IBU Youth/Junior World Championships. It was her second top 15 of the week in Osrblie. (Photo: Erik Lewish)

    Rounding the sprint course in Osrblie, Slovakia, on Friday, American Chloe Levins didn’t let her mind wander to what could be. She had cleaned her first prone stage, which put her in contention for a top 10 among the field of 92 in the youth women’s 6-kilometer sprint, and another shooting stage without a miss could mean the race of her life in her second race at the 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth World Championships.

    But again, she didn’t go there. Levins, an 18-year-old Middlebury College freshman from Rutland, Vt., had already captured a Youth Worlds career best in 14th in the 10 k individual two days earlier on Wednesday. After knocking down her first three standing targets, Levins missed her fourth shot before hitting the last one. She had to ski a penalty lap, yet heading out on the final loop, she was still in contention for a top 10.

    “Attaining a career-best Jr. Worlds result never crossed my mind during the race,” Levins wrote in an email after. “Before heading out on the last loop, I was completely focussed on getting my toe across the finish line as fast as I possibly could.”

    An early starter in bib 9, she initially finished second to Austria’s Anna Gandler, 33.2 seconds of Gandler’s time. While the Austrian would remain on the podium and ultimately place second, Levins dropped to 11th by the end of the race, 1:39.7 behind the winner (Italy’s Irene Lardschneider) for Levins’s second-straight top 15 of the week. More importantly, it was her new career best.

    “There were a lot of strong athletes that started behind me, so I maintained no result-based expectations,” Levins wrote. “It stings to see the top six within five seconds of me, but I didn’t leave anything out there.”

    She was less than nine seconds out of fourth place.

    “In both races so far she has been within ‘striking distance’ of the podium, which means she in the mix with some of best girls of her age,” US Biathlon assistant coach Erik Lewish wrote in an email.

    Conditions haven’t been easy in Osrblie with everything from wind to rain to slush, and on Friday, racers had to manage shooting in variable winds. Fortunately for Levins, the wind was relatively calm for both her shooting stages, she wrote.

    “Every race is a learning experience, and Junior Worlds is no different,” she continued. “Despite being a little frustrated with a couple shots, I took a lot of positives from Wednesday’s [individual] race. Today, I really focused on working through transitions on the track I thought I could improve upon.”

    She’ll start the youth women’s 7.5 k pursuit on Sunday in 11th, 1:40 behind Lardschneider in first and just two seconds out of 10th place.

    “I think Sunday’s pursuit race will play to her strengths well,” Lewish wrote. “It is a short ski loop (only 1.5k for the youth) which puts extra emphasis on the shooting and she has been shooting extremely well at these world championships, despite some challenging wind conditions.”

    Chloe Levins celebrates as she crosses the Youth Olympic Games finish line in fourth place in the 7.5 k pursuit. (Photo: Al Tielemans for YIS/IOC)

    He pointed out that she moved up from starting 22nd to finishing fourth in the pursuit at last year’s Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, with clean shooting.

    “She has also been skiing well despite two days of rain and deteriorating loops conditions,” Lewish wrote. “Two years ago in Minsk at the Junior World Champs she shot clean in the sprint and finished 18th, now with one miss (and the 20th fastest ski time) she is 11th here in Osrblie, so she has improved a lot since her first world champs.

    “Despite being a full-time student at Middlebury College, she still finds time to get biathlon workouts in with Algis Shalna — who introduced her to biathlon,” he added. “I think these performances here show that she is ready to make the jump to the junior category next year.”

    “Studying while abroad is not easy for anyone,” Levins explained in an email earlier in the week. “Two of my other teammates, Amanda [Kautzer] and Nina [Armstrong], are also student-athletes at the collegiate level, so we spend a lot of our free time studying together. Speaking for myself, I believe having something besides sport to do during the day is healthy for a person’s preparation and mindset before any competition.”

    Asked about her goals for Sunday’s pursuit, she emphasized that she’d be focusing on Saturday first.

    “Overall, I’m feeling confident and relaxed,” she wrote. “The focus right now is on tomorrow [Saturday], and tomorrow is all about recovery. It’s biathlon; everything is possible.”

    After starting 17th, Lardschneider won the race by a resounding 1:06.5 minutes with 19-for-20 shooting (0+1), just like Levins. She knocked Gandler to second, where Gandler would remain after shooting one penalty as well (0+1). Italy’s second skier on the podium, Samuela Comola was one of two women to clean the two-stage race, and she finished 1:18.1 back in third. (Finland’s Maija Keränen also shot clean for 13th.)

    Lardschneider will start the pursuit with 1:07 minute ahead of Gandler, and Comola will follow 11 seconds later. After that, the fourth starter, Slovenia’s Tais Vozel, will lead a group of eight women all starting within nine seconds of one another, 1:31 behind Lardschneider.

    Also qualifying for the 60-woman pursuit, Canada’s Shilo Rousseau placed 45th (+4:08.0) in the sprint with three penalties (0+3). Three Americans qualified as well, with Grace Gilliland finishing 55th (+4:35.2) with four misses (1+3) and Amanda Kautzer 59th (+4:42.7) with six penalties (3+3) on Friday.

    The fourth U.S. woman, Helen Wilson missed the top-60 requirement in 67th (+5:10.0) with four misses (2+2).

    Canada’s Frédérique Pérusse finished 73rd (+5:48.2) with four misses (1+3), Anna Sellers was 82nd (+6:47.2) with six penalties (4+2), and Élise Sauvé was 86th (+7:41.7) with six misses (3+3) as well.

    ***

    Canada’s Leo Grandbois racing to 14th in the youth men’s 7.5 k sprint on Friday in Osrblie, Slovakia, for his second-best result at his first IBU Youth World Championships after winning the 12.5 k individual two days earlier. (Photo: Jacqueline Akerman)

    In the youth men’s 7.5 k sprint on Friday, Leo Grandbois — Canada’s gold medalist in the 12.5 k individual two days earlier — finished 14th, 1:52.9 out of first with three penalties (1+2). With the 10th-fastest overall course time, he was able to recover from skiing around 30th with two loops to go. Despite two misses in standing, he left the range with the 14th-ranked split and held that position to the finish.

    “Because I won the last race, I felt the obligation to repeat this performance,” Grandbois, 17, wrote in an email afterward. “Otherwise I would not be as happy, even if I would have done a top 5.”

    He didn’t feel as good as he had in Wednesday’s individual and recalled “suffering” on the last loop. Considering he wasn’t at his best, Grandbois noted that 14th place was “quite good.”

    “I think it just says that I am quite strong even [during] a bad race,” he added. “For the pursuit, I am looking forward to earning positions. I am starting 1 min 53 sec back, and 1 min [8] sec back from the podium. It is long way there but I don’t want to make the mistakes I did last race.”

    Leading the youth men out in Sunday’s 10 k pursuit will be France’s Emilien Claude, who won the sprint in 20:18.3. He started 25th and bumped Ukraine’s Serhiy Telen, the 10th starter, out of first by 25.2 seconds. Claude shot two misses (1+1) but overcame them with the fastest course time. Telen held onto silver after one standing miss (0+1) after Norway’s Sivert Guttorm Bakken in bib 39 finished third, 19.4 seconds off his time and 44.6 seconds behind Claude, with two penalties (1+1). For the second-straight race, Italy’s Cedric Christille narrowly missed a medal in fourth place (+52.0) after two standing penalties (0+2).

    In the pursuit, Claude will start 25 seconds before Telen and 45 seconds ahead of Bakken. Grandbois will start with Russia’s Said Karimulla Khalili, who placed 13th in the sprint (and second in the individual), and just 3 seconds behind Switzerland’s Niklas Hartweg in 12th. Ahead of them, it’s another eight seconds to 11th place.

    Also qualifying for the pursuit are Canada’s Adam Runnalls, who placed 32nd (+2:46.8) in the sprint despite five misses (3+2), and American Vasek Cervenka, who finished 49th (+3:37.1) with six penalties (4+2).

    As for the other three U.S. starters, Alex Kilby was 69th (+4:47.4) with three misses (1+2), Jacob Pearson 76th (+5:07.1) with five penalties (2+3), and Camren Nielsen 82nd (+5:18.8) with five misses as well (3+2).

    Canada’s Robert Kreitz finished 84th (+5:37.2) with five penalties (1+4) and Thomas Hulsman was 87th (+5:58.6) with six misses (3+3).

    Sprint results: Youth women | Youth men

    Pursuit start lists: Youth women | Youth men 

  • Wednesday Workout: USBA Camp Strength Stations (and Shooting)

    Wednesday Workout: USBA Camp Strength Stations (and Shooting)

    Last week, more than 100 athletes from the U.S., Canada and Sweden came out for the US Biathlon Association’s (USBA) annual development camp in Jericho, Vt. It was one of US Biathlon’s largest and best-attended camps yet, according to national-team assistant coach Erik Lewish.

    “The camp is a great experience for biathletes from all over North America to get together for a week of training and educational sessions that culminate with the North American Summer Biathlon Championships at the end of the week on Saturday and Sunday,” Lewish wrote in an email.

    Those championships took place last weekend on Aug. 13-14.

    In the week leading up to the races, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) visited the camp to present on True Sport “and what to expect when one makes it to a high enough level that they are in the registered testing pool,” Lewish explained. “Our Head Development coach Jean Paquet took the athletes on a course scan of the roller loop and talked about ski technique and how to really ‘attack’ a course. Andrea Burke (formerly Henkel) gave a great motivational/inspirational presentation about her time as an athlete. Overall it is a great chance for the athletes to learn about the sport and hone their individual skills before competing in the continental championships.”

    The Monday before the championships, camp participants did an eight-station strength workout that involved some partnering up.

    Lewish explained that the workout was jointly created by himself, Paquet and Kari Korpela, the biathlon coach for the Sollefteå Skidgymnasium in Sweden.

    “The whole workout took about 1.5 hours from warm up to cool down,” Lewish wrote. “This was the second session of the day, after a long, easy roller ski in the morning.”

    The Workout: Biathlon Strength Stations (and Shooting)

    Warmup: 15-20 minutes of running

    First 20-Minute Set:

    – 40 seconds of each station/exercise followed by 1 single shot on the range, then 40 seconds of the next station/exercise

    Second Set:

    – Reload rifle magazine and do some longer bouts: 4 minutes of 40 seconds on/20 off at a station, then move onto the next exercise. After 4 minutes, take 5 shots on the range and return to next station. Repeat for a total of four shooting bouts (shooting order: prone, prone, standing, standing).

    The Stations:

    1. TRX leg crunches: Start in a pushup position with your feet in the straps of a TRX Suspension Trainer.  Lift your hips and pull your knees into your chest.

    2. Ab Roller: Start on your knees and roll out as far as you can while bracing your core, pause at the farthest point and then return to the starting position.

    3. V-Sits: Start lying down flat with your hands above your head. Bring your legs and torso up together and touch your toes at the top.

    4. Partner Burpees: Standard burpee done in sync with a partner. High five at the top of the jump for added fun!

    5. Under-Overs: One person jumps over and crawls under the other person.

    6. Human Rock Climbing: One person starts on the back of the other and tries to climb 360 degrees around the other person without touching the ground.

    7. Tricep Dips: Sit on a chair, holding the edge with both hands, knuckles pointing forward.  Straighten your arms to raise your body and extend legs straight out with heels on the ground (or on another ch. Bend at your elbows to lower your entire body while keeping your legs straight. Hold at the bottom for a moment without touching ground.

    8. Single-Leg Plyo-Jumps:  Jumps done side-side to mimic skate skiing with a small hop in between before transferring to the other side.

    Cool down: 15-20 min. run