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Dec. 28, 2008 Summary: December 28, 2008, Anchorage, Alaska – The 2009 World Junior Biathlon Trials started today at Kincaid Park with clear skies, light, shifting winds and single-digit temperatures. Grace Buotot, from the Maine Winter Sports Club and Wynn Roberts from Mt. Itasca, Minnesota won the junior races. Buotot, 18, from Ft. Kent, led a MWSC sweep of the podium, hitting seven of ten shots and covering the 6 km course in 22 minutes, 38 seconds. Buotot was 33 seconds ahead of Hilary McNamee (2 misses prone, 2 misses standing) and 46 seconds ahead of Molly Susla (0,2), both from the MWSC. After missing three targets in the prone shooting stage, Buotot rebounded with five for five shooting in standing.“Three misses wasn’t exactly how I wanted to start the race, but I was happy with my standing shooting,” said Buotot. Roberts, a member of the Junior National Biathlon team and a World Junior Team pre-qualifier had four misses on the day, one in prone and three in standing (30:56). The 20-year-old has pre-qualified for World Juniors, so his results were not used in today’s final calculations. The top three finishers after Roberts were Raleigh Goessling (2,3) with a time of 34:20, Ethan Dreissingacker (2,3) 34:28 and Anchorages Wayne McClure (1,3) 34:43. Racing continues on Monday with a pursuit format. Athletes will ski five loops, stopping to shoot four times (prone, prone, standing, standing). The final day of competition, Tuesday, December 30, will be a relay format (individual start) race with two shooting stages (prone, standing). All races start at 12 p.m. and are free and open to the public. The best two of three races will be used to determine the 2009 World Junior team. World Juniors will be held in Canmore, Alberta, Canada January 28—February 3, 2009. The World Junior/Youth Biathlon Trials are the first of four major events set for Anchorage this winter. Also on tap are the Conoco Phillips U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships (Jan. 3-8), U.S. National Masters (March 5-8) and USSA J2 Junior Olympic Ski Jumping Championships (March 3-7). Race results and can be found at www.anchoragenordicski.com/Racing/Biathlon/worldtrials08.htm For additional information, contact press officer Rachel Steer at rsteer78@gmail.com or US Biathlon Development Director Piotr Bednarski at MNbiathlon@aol.com |