Jan. 31, 2009
Addie Byrne Sixth in Youth Sprint at World Championships

Summary: Canmore, Alberta, Canada, January 31. Addie Byrne (Bovey, MN) placed sixth in the Youth Women 6K Sprint at the Youth/Junior World Championships this afternoon.

Byrne had one penalty on a very windy day that saw most competitors have two to five penalties. She finished 29.8 seconds behind co-Champions Olga Galich of Russia and Yan Zhang of China. The duo recorded the same time of 19:31.4. Galich had one penalty to Zhang’s clean shooting.

Byrne was all smiles at the Flower Ceremony, but has her sights set on a medal. She said, “Sixth is not quite, what I wanted. I really wanted a medal, but I have two more races left. I knew I could be top 10. I spent a lot of time on this course and worked a lot on the areas that were troubling me. I can visualize it in my sleep.”

Addie Byrne skiing

Byrne’s sixth place was the second top eight finish for the US in the Youth category this week. Grace Boutot (Fort Kent, ME) won a Silver medal in the Youth Individual on Thursday. She finished 9th today, with one penalty, 40.6 seconds back and will contend for medals along with Byrne in Sunday’s Pursuit competition.

Earlier in the day, Wynn Roberts (Battle Lake, MN) finished 15th in the Junior Men’s 10K Sprint, while teammate Leif Nordgren (Marine-on-St. Croix, MN) finished a disappointing 23rd. Both of the US biathletes had one penalty, but Roberts finished 1:36.5 back to Nordgren’s 2:12.3 back. “I had very good skis,” Roberts said. He continued, “On the shooting range, I do not remember anything in standing and they all went down. I was in the zone. I did hear the announcer keep talking about Florian Graf of Germany and that fired me up.”

Addie Byrne receiving flowers

Addie Byrne with her coach Vladimir Cervenka

6 km Sprint Youth Women Results | Photo Gallery at US Biathlon | Photo Gallery from Day 2 by Judy Geer

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