Hurricane Irene interrupts Summer Biathlon Championships
Thu, Sep 8, 2011 - By Doug Hoover
The 2011 Summer Biathlon IBU North American Championships and USBA National Championships was hosted by the Ethan Allen Biathlon Club and the National Guard Biathlon at the Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, Vermont August 25-28.
62 men and 17 women from at least twenty states across the country came to compete in the three-race series, which would determine the overall men’s and women’s national champions. Unfortunately, after the first two days of beautiful weather for the competitions, Hurricane Irene arrived in Vermont and forced the cancellation of the third and final race. As the national championship is a best-two-out-of-three series, the cancellation of the third race changed the dynamics of the scoring significantly. Without the possibility of negating a bad race, many competitors were left pondering what might have been.
Two athletes who excelled in both of the first two races captured their first overall national championships. Robert Killian of Colorado finished second in both the Sprint and the Individual race to capture the overall title. He was the only man to finish in the top-five in both races. Killian was the strongest runner in the field, and he used that strength to overcome a 50% shooting performance in both races.
Meanwhile, Emily Shertzer of Pennsylvania matched Killian’s results, as she took second in both of the races and captured the overall title without winning either race. Also like Killian, she used a strong run to overcome a lot of penalties on the range as she averaged 17% through both races. Shertzer was the only woman to finish among the top-three women in both races.
Following Killian in the overall standings among the men were the two winners of the first two races. Marc Sheppard of Montana finished sixth in the first race with a 50% shooting performance, but rebounded to dominate the second race with an 80% performance on the range. At the same time, Doug Hoover of Pennsylvania was doing the exact opposite of Sheppard. He shot 80% in the first race to claim victory, but endured a disastrous 40% shooting performance in the second race and took tenth. Without a third race to possibly negate their bad races, Sheppard and Hoover placed second and third, respectively, in the final overall standings.
Rounding out the top-five were Danny Fink of West Virginia in fourth place and Michael Gibson of Vermont in fifth. Fink finished fourth in the first race and eighth in the second race. Gibson finished third and ninth in his two races.
Following Shertzer in the women’s standings were the two winners of the first two races. Hilary Saucy of Pennsylvania edged Shertzer in the Sprint race with an 80% shooting performance and solid run. In the second race, her performance on the range fell to 60% and she slipped to fourth in that race. Tara Geraghty-Moats of Vermont took fourth in the sprint race with a 40% showing on the range, and she followed that up with a 45% range performance in the second race to take the win. Saucy and Geraghty-Moats ended the weekend in second and third in the overall standings, respectively.
Ann Sick of Pennsylvania and Aleksandra Zakrzewska of Vermont rounded out the top-five in the women’s field. Sick took fifth in the Sprint and moved up to third in the Individual race. Zakrzewska took third in the Sprint and dropped to fifth in the second race.
Within the age groups, the following athletes prevailed in the final standings:
Girls/Boys (15-16)
Aleksandra Zakrzewska, Vermont
No male competitors completed both races.
Youth (17-18)
Hilary Saucy, Pennsylvania
Derrick Schultz, Vermont
Junior (19-20)
No female competitors completed both races.
Conrad Roberts, North Dakota
Senior (21-34)
Emily Shertzer, Pennsylvania
Robert Killian, Colorado
Master (35-49)
Barbara Thomas, Virginia
Marc Sheppard, Montana
Grandmaster (50+)
Ann Sick, Pennsylvania
Keith Woodward, Vermont
Related:
- Article about Day 1: The National Championship Biathlon Sprint
- Articel about Day 2: The National Championship Biathlon Individual Event
- Complete results of the 2011 Summer Biathlon Championships (PDF)