Methow Valley Biathlon Hosts Camp The End Of June

Fri, Jul  27, 2007 - By US Biathlon Association

A four day Biathlon camp was hosted by the Methow Valley Biathlon Club at their facilities in the Cascade Mountains in Mazama, Washington the last week in June. Methow Coach Betsy Devin-Smith was assisted by Minnesota Biathlon Coach Bill Meyer for the 12 hour days which were integrated with a regional ski camp held by MVNT/PNSA Nordic ski club.

Visits by Torin Koos and Becky Scott livened up the Nordic gathering--and presentations and training by Margaret Waechter, former Canadian National Team member, alternated with the Biathlon oriented sessions by the Biathlon Club.

Coach Meyer demos range procedure

 

Twenty participants attended, ranging from 9 yr old Isabelle Anana to a strong group of 15 and 16 yr old boys to Washington Biathlon Masters from the Seattle area. Topics included basic shooting theory and practice, biathlon procedures, shooting with a heartrate up, biathlon training, and more esoteric things like how to keep the skin on your elbows after 4 hrs of prone one shot drills of one form or another.

Casey Smith in foreground squeezes off some prone shots

 

To lighten up the gathering-- multiple drills and low key competitions were done --which always cost more skin on the elbows--and the Dad and daughter Anana team proved hard to beat, but finally had to give in to Casey and young Milo.

A 60 shot test for accuracy saw veteran Dave Anana win with 238/116=354 pursued closely by Arminda Phillips 228/113= 341 and Casey Smith 250/90=340. Of course the accuracy test workout purposely was scheduled for the hardest wind of the camp.

Deep discussion with Coach Meyer

The main competition event of the camp was a running biathlon race-- with Dave Anana and Scott from Montana running neck and neck followed by Sean and Casey. In the youngsters and novice category-- Isabelle and Milo were side by side followed by Mandy and Bryn.