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Jan. 28, 2009 Summary: Canmore, Alberta, Canada. January 28, 2009. The Junior/Youth Biathlon World Championships opened today with the 12.5 km Individual for Youth Men followed by the 15 km for Junior men. Story, Results Link and Photo Gallery. The competition has four shooting stages and each missed shot results in a one-minute time penalty being added to the athletes time. The young American team struggled on the range today with the windy conditions but Ethan Dreissigacker (Morrisville, VT) managed it the best with five penalty minutes. His strong skiing was enough to move him into 26th place in 42:25.7, 5:14.8 behind the winner Ludwig Ehrhart of France who had just one miss and won by over a minute. And Dreissigacker even has another season left in the Youth age-class. Raleigh Goessling (Duluth, MN) and Nick Michaud (Fort Kent, ME) finished 41st and 42nd just one second apart with 8 and 6 penalties respectively. Preson Butler (Marion, MA/GMVS) finished 51st with ten penalties. Nordgren Ties for 29th in Junior Individual Leif Nordgren (Marine-on-St. Croix, MN) finished in a tie for 29th in the Junior 15K Individual competition here this afternoon. Like his teammates in the Youth Individual in the morning, Nordgren and Wynn Roberts (Battle Lake, MN) the two US competitors in the junior category battled the wind on the shooting range. Nordgren had four penalties, two of them in the first prone stage. He explained, “I took some clicks (sight adjustments) and I probably should not have taken them.” National Junior Coach Vladimir Cervenka added, “Leif had bad luck. He took the clicks and then had two split bullets. Without those, he is in the top 15.” Nordgren finished 4:01.5 behind Manuel Müller of Germany. Müller, a Silver medalist in the Youth Individual last year, moved up to the junior category this year and won. Müller had one penalty, covering the 15K course in 41:18.8. Roberts had one more penalty than Nordgren, finished just behind his teammate, in 31st place, 4:13.6 back. The women take the stage with their Individual competitions tomorrow (Thursday), followed by a rest day. 12.5 km Individual Youth Men Results | 15 km Individual Junior Men Results | Photo Gallery at US Biathlon | Photo Gallery by Judy Geer |