US BIATHLON

Alaskans Steer and Hakkinen Set the Pace in Oslo

Oslo, Norway, December 9. Alaskans Rachel Steer and Jay Hakkinen led the US Biathlon Team to some of its best results of the young season with 25th and 28th place finishes in today's Individual competitions at Oslo's Holmenkollen Ski stadium. Full Results from the IBU & Siwidata

On the evening before today's competitions, Coach James Upham told the US athletes they were on the verge of excellent performances. "I can feel it. All day at training I was pacing, not because I was cold, but because I was excited about what I was seeing."

In the Women's 15K Individual, the US women responded with by far, much better results than last week in Beitostolen. Conditions at Holmenkollen were perfect in some ways and less than perfect in others. A cloudy overcast sky brought allowed none of the weak winter sunlight to peek through, causing organizers to turn on the target and stadium lights. With the low light came no wind and at least stable track conditions. The tracks are covered with a mixture of natural and artificial snow, but after being tilled several times, rocks litter many sections. This prompted Head Wax Technician Bernd Eisenbichler to comment, "Many pairs of skis will be ruined today, but we are here for results so we will use our best skis and see how they come out after."

All of the US athletes took these words to heart, and accordingly, several had good improvements and better results, including top 30 finishes by Alaskans Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof) and Rachel Steer (Anchorage).

After those words from the staff, Rachel Steer, starting 24th, had her best result of the year with a 25th place finish, 3:00.5 behind Germany's Martina Glagow. Glagow was perfect on the shooting range while Steer missed one target on her final shot of the day. Behind Glagow in second and third, Russia's Svetlana Ishmouratova and Poland's Magdalena Gwizdon also had one penalty, finishing 13.8 and 39.6 seconds back.

Steer skied very conservatively on the first 3K loop, cleaning prone, but over one minute off the pace. From that point, she steadily picked up the pace, cleaning the next standing and prone stages, with a quick, easy cadence. Coming to the final standing stage, she was in the mid teens. A clean bout would easily mean a top 20 finish. She set up and shot rhythmically as in the three previous rounds. Four targets fell and the last one remained a defiant black. She gained a small amount of time in the last loop, and was 17th at that point. By the time the rest of the 104 other women had finished, a few had slipped past her.

Each penalty in the Individual competition is worth one minute. Based on the final results, Steer's single penalty dropped her from 14th to 25th place. But the Alaskan is shooting well, looking good on the tracks and the prospect of picking up those higher places looks promising.

The final US starter, at number 100, Jill Krause Beste (St. Cloud, MN) did not get in the top 30, but still had big improvements today. In all of the tune-up competitions, Krause Beste has been the fastest woman skier on the US Team, but her shooting has been off. Today, she took a big step towards regaining her form of two years ago, with a 38th place, 3:51.2 back, with four penalties, missing 30th place by just 21 seconds. Krause Beste's ski time was faster than the winner, Martina Glagow. Even though, the WCAP athlete had four penalties, her shooting was solid, missing one target in each stage. Two of her misses were split bullets.

At the finish she commented about her big leap from 78th last week in Beitostolen to 38th today.

"Last week, I was very nervous, because I wanted to be better than last year, but was unsure of myself. Since then, my body has gotten in more of a race mode and I am a lot more relaxed. Today I did not feel too good before the start, so tried to think of ways to conserve energy so I wouldn't die out there. That probably helped me relax in the range. In the first loop, my skis were so fast: I came up on Rachel and Lanny (Barnes) almost effortlessly. Actually I was OK."

The other two US women also had solid efforts today. Lanny Barnes (Durango, CO) had only one penalty until the final standing stage. Also with a chance at the top 40, she missed two of her final five shots. With three penalties for the day, the Maine Winter Sports Center athlete finished 66th, 6:27.8 back. Sara Granroth (Yarmouth, ME) came to the final standing stage with two penalties in the first three stages. She struggled for control of her rifle and like Barnes, missed two targets in the final stage for a total of four for the day. She finished 76th, 7:54.8 back.

A little over an hour after the last women finished, the men took the stage for five tough 4K loops in the shadow of the Holmenkollen Ski Jump. Hakkinen, in the first seed group of 58 men, started 28th. His first loop time was about a minute off the pace of several Norwegians including Ole Einar Björndalen. "I wanted to be a bit cautious, so I could hit the targets, and at this stage of the season, I was going as fast as I could on that first loop, Hakkinen commented at the finish. Despite the cautious skiing, he had one penalty.

As he left the range, World Champion and friendly rival Ricco Gross of Germany left the start, with Hakkinen in hot pursuit. This gave Hakkinen just what he needed, a big push. He shadowed Gross, (who eventually finished 14th with one penalty) for the next four loops. Hakkinen's ski times steadily improved, as in Beitostolen last week. The next two stages saw Hakkinen miss a single target each time. To have any chance for a top thirty, cleaning the final five standing targets was essential. He did just that very deliberately. This gave him three penalties for the day and 28th place, 4:18.3 behind the always steady Sven Fischer of Germany. Fischer outshot Norway's Ole Einar Björndalen to take the victory. Björndalen, skiing extremely fast once again, shot clean on the first two stages, but had two penalties in the final stages. Fischer answered those penalties with 20 for 20 shooting to secure the win. Tomasz Sikora of Poland also shot clean, finishing third, 1:06.7 behind Fischer.

Even with the penalties, Hakkinen was smiling after the finish. "I am glad I got some points. That is important to stay in the top 30. I am working on hitting all of the targets in the races. I know the skiing is there. It is just to those couple of extra targets I need to hit."

While Hakkinen was finishing his day with three penalties, the other two US men did not have the same luck. WCAP athlete Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK) came to the first prone stage with the third fastest ski time for the first loop. Not showing any signs of distress, he missed four shots. "He came in a little too hot. All the shots were at 10 o'clock," Coach Upham stated. Teela had 10 penalties for the day, finishing 92nd, 11:16.5 back Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) who trains with Teela at the Maine Winter Sports Center in Fort Kent, finished just ahead of Teela in 89th place. Burke had six penalties, and bested Teela by 35.5 seconds.

Many of the US Biathletes demonstrated what Upham had felt on Wednesday during training. The next chance to show their skills will be Friday in the Women's 7.5K Sprint and Saturday in the Men's 10K Sprint.

The US Biathlon Team competes under the auspices of the United States Biathlon Association, the National Governing Body for the Olympic Sport of Biathlon. Lapua, adidas, and Exel Ski Poles sponsor the US Biathlon Team.