Month: June 2014

Events

Weekend of Biathlon Events Successful in Everyway!

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The Polar Bear Biathlon Club hosted two biathlon activities this past weekend.  The first activity was the second of two Junior Development Clinics.  Originally scheduled for ten attendees, the actual number of biathletes was seven.  One withdrew before the clinic and we had two no show.  Having said this, the other seven had a great time honing their skills in biathlon.  Coaches Art Stegen and Sean Halligan started the day by fitting rifles to each junior followed by discussions related to gun handling and technique devel0pment.  Each of the participants zeroed their own rifle and ended the day with fun competitions involving physical activity and shooting.  As always safety was the first order of business!  The day was very productive in the development of our future biathletes.

On Sunday, June 22nd, the Polar Bears hosted a summer biathlon running race.  This was a modified pursuit race with all racers running five .65 km loops.  There were four shooting stops, for the competition classes, they were prone-prone-standing-standing.  For the sport classes and the Boy/Girl classes, they shot prone-prone-prone-prone, large targets each time.  The results of this race are as follows:

Competition class:

P    P    S    S     Tot     Time

Open Men-Joachen Hoppert      4     5    4     4      17      34:06.7

Master Female-Lesley Leach         3     5     3    4       15      51:35.9

Junior Male–    Connor Hrynuk     2    3     4     3       12     36:34.5

Sport class:

P     P    P     P    Tot     Time

Girl– Megan Greene                         1     1     2     3       7       40:06.2

Boy– Henry Uzdavinis                     0    0     0     1       1        30:35.1

Tyler Rudolph                         3      2     3     1       9       38:07.4

Novice Female-Lynn Zombek  2      2      2    3       9       48:08.5

Janine Phaneuf                     2     1       2     3      8       52:59.3

Novice Male-Ray Gardner          1     3       4    2       10     1:02:32.8

 

We would like to thank everyone that helped out over the weekend and took part in our clinic and race.  Great job everyone.  For those of you that would like to see the webpage that we used to calculating the race results go to http://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=24396.

Our next race will be a sprint race at Adirondack Woodcraft Camps.  This will be a 6 km three lap race, two shooting stops:  prone/standing.  Come join us on August 24th!

Events

Polar Bear Athletes Join the ranks at Junior Development Clinics

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On Sunday, June 8th, two Polar Bear Biathletes traveled to Day, New York to take part in a Junior Development Biathlon Clinic hosted by the New York Junior Development Committee and Junior Development Coach Algis Shalna.  The day started with Sean Halligan, Art Stegen, and Algis Shalna making sure the participants were properly suited to the rifle that they were using.  This was followed by Coach Shalna discussing the techniques that were needed to be successful in biathlon.  Topics such as how to approach the range, holding the rifle, official rules on gun handling, etc. were covered during this part of the session.  Once completed the athletes moved to zeroing on their zero board.  Zeroing means that each athlete shoots five bullets at one target and than their sites are adjusted so to improve their shooting results.  Each shooter fired 20 rounds at paper targets to allow for the zeroing process to be completed.  When completed they broke for lunch.

After lunch Coach Shalna instructed the athletes in proper technique for shooting in the standing position.  Following this the members of the clinic spent time shooting in the standing and prone positions.  After approximately an hour of shooting the clinic participants took part in several fun, and challenging races to test what they had learned and demonstrated the skills explained throughout the clinic.  These competitions entailed each athlete running a short distance and shooting twice in each leg of the races.  All in all it was a very good day!

On June 21st there will be another Junior Development clinic hosted by the Polar Bear Biathlon Club.  Local biathletes that are currently scheduled to participate are Megan Greene, Tyler Rudolph, Connor Hrynuk and Henry Uzdavinis.  The clinic on the 21st will be instructed by former National Team Coach and National Guard Coach Art Stegen and former National Guard Team Member Sean Halligan.  On Sunday the 22nd we will host a Modified Pursuit Biathlon race open to all!

Summer Schedule

Polar Bear Summer Biathlons are Scheduled and Ready for Registration!

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For those of you that are interested in trying two different fun and exciting running biathlons, the Polar Bear Biathlon Club has what you are looking for!  Our first race will take place on June 22nd at McCauley Mountain Ski Center in Old Forge, NY.  This will be a modified pursuit race with four shooting stops and five 1 km laps.  It will be a prone, prone, standing, standing format.  There will be both competition and sport classes with prizes for the first three in each class.  The entry fee will be $20 for pre-registered competitors and $25 for those that wait for day of race entry.  The course will be almost entirely on the Nordic trails on site, with rolling hills, but no Alpine terrain.  It can almost be called a flat and fast course, almost!  Registration can be done on skireg.com.  As of today registration is open and ready to go.

You can also register for our August event which will be a sprint race.  This will be located at the Adirondack Woodcraft Camps on August 24th.  A sprint race is a three lap race, each about 2 km, with two shooting stops.   One prone and one standing.  Sport classes will shoot prone for both stops.  The fees will be the same as those listed for the June race.  The race course at the Woodcraft camps is flat and fast!  The course will be on woods roads and camp trails!  Any questions, please fee free to contact the race organizer, Carl Klossner, at c_klossner@hotmail.com.

Both races will have registration, bib pick up at 8:30, with zero beginning at 9:00 and race start at 10:00.  There will be a beginners safety clinic given as needed.  If you want to give these races a try, but do not have a rifle, we will have limited loaner rifles there for day of race use.  You may end up sharing with another competitor!  We hope that you will come out and join us for these two fun events!