(2009-12-17)
The US Olympic Trials Selection Races are back on tap this weekend from Coleraine, Minnesota. Race #3 is scheduled for Saturday, race #4 on Sunday and the final race of the series on Tuesday. The races to date have been defined by brutally cold temperatures, with the mercury struggling to reach zero degrees. The cold temperatures made a very difficult course even tougher and also made shooting consistency difficult for some. Temperatures for this coming weekends races are expected to climb to the upper teens, which should make for much better racing conditions for all.
Scoring for biathlon competition is based on taking the average time of the top three competitors and using that as the base score. Each competitor’s time is then scored as a percent of that time. This is a very effective way of rewarding the quality of each performance relative to the field.
The competitors will keep their three best results from the five races and after Tuesday’s race the top four competitors from this series move on to the next, and final, Olympic Trials races to be held In Germany in January.
The field for the last series of the Olympic Trials will be made up of the four Men and four Women from the Minnesota races, as well as the three Men and three Women currently on the World Cup circuit, who have not already qualified for the Olympic Team. Those seven Men and seven Women will race in a Sprint race on January 9th in Altenburg, Germany, and the Pursuit race on January 10th. The top three Men and top four Women from the weekend will be added to the Olympic Team and join Tim Burke and Jay Hakkinen, who have already qualified based on performances last season.
Maine Winter Sports Center’s Walt Shepard is currently in second place with 198.56 points after the first two races, trailing Zack Hall of Anchorage, Alaska, who has 200 points. MWSC’s Bill Bowler and Russell Currier have struggled with shooting in the extreme cold, but with each racer able to throw out two results, there is still time for everyone in the field to post the results necessary to put themselves in the top four and earn the trip to Europe.
On the Women’s side, BethAnn Chamberlain, Grace Boutot and Hilary McNamee, have each struggled with the cold, but each has the time and experience to turn their fortunes around in the final three races.
Also being decided this coming weekend will be the World Junior Championship Team, to be held in Torsby, Sweden in January. Grace Boutot won a Silver medal at the Championships, held last year in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. Hilary McNamee, who has competed in four Junior World Championships, will also be trying to nail down a spot on the team this weekend. Vying for their first spot on the World junior Team are Andrea Mayo, Eliot Neal, and Sam Humphries.