Maddie on the awards podium for her second place finish
by Carl Klossner
Maddie Phaneuf, a member of the local Polar Bear Biathlon Club, and her father Joe, headed north to Fort Kent, ME on Wednesday, March 5 for the U.S. Biathlon National Championships.
Maddie’s first day in Maine began with an official training day with time spent on inspecting the race courses and zeroing her rifle for the next day’s competition. (Note: Each competitor’s race day is started by zeroing or siting in his or her rifle. No matter how accurate the rifle was the day before, the next it could be way off of its mark.)
The afternoon brought another session with U.S. Biathlon Development Coach Algis Shalna, who Maddie has been working with over the last two years.
Maddie had her first race of the weekend, a six kilometer sprint race, on Friday, March 8. This meant that she would ski three 2 kilometer loops stopping to shoot prone and then standing at the end of the first two loops.
At the end of the race Maddie had shot 60% and finished second in her class for a Silver Medal—a good way to start off the competition.
Maddie shooting targets from the prone position
On Saturday, March 9, Maddie raced a modified pursuit race where her starting position and time was based on her finish from the previous day.
But because of the number of racers and race conditions, the format was changed to interval starts five seconds apart. The field was on-course rapidly.
Each racer had to ski five laps and shoot four times. The sequence was prone, prone, standing, standing. Maddie’s race course was one and one half kilometers each lap, or a total of 7.5 kilometers.
At the end of the race she had finished fourth in her class, approximately five seconds out of third. She shot 50% on that day.
Had the race organizers run the race as a true pursuit they would have given awards for the combined race results for the sprint and the pursuit. If so, Maddie would have finished third overall for the two days.
Sunday brought another great day of racing. The competitors were tired from two days of racing and they knew that for many of them they would be leaving for home in a few short hours.
The race was a mass start with four shooting stops, similar to the pursuit race. Maddie’s class raced a one and one half kilometer race course five times. It was the same course they had raced the day before.
At the end of the race Maddie finished third, shooting 50% for the day and received a Bronze Medal.
This past weekend ended the biathlon season for Maddie. She raced several high stakes races this year traveling to Minnesota this past Christmas to race in the Junior Trials for selection to the U.S. Junior/Youth Biathlon Team.
Although she placed second in two races, she just missed being named to the team. Those selected raced in Austria.
Later in the year she raced in a NorAm Series race in Canada, north of Quebec. She also raced in Jericho, VT in another NorAm Series race.
All in all, it was a great season of racing!
Maddie will graduate from the Town of Webb School this June. We look forward to following her biathlon adventures next year and in years to follow.
Good luck, Maddie! Shoot straight and ski fast!
