Getting `clean’ away is pivotal to success in junior biathlon

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FORT KENT – In the biathlon, cleanliness is next to … well, you know what it’s next to.

In this sport, a combination of cross country skiing and target shooting, being “clean” means an athlete has emerged from the firing range after knocking down all five targets.

It also means that they don’t have to ski any of the 150-meter penalty loops that are assessed for each errant shot.

And the group of athletes competing at this week’s National Junior Biathlon Championships at the Maine Winter Sports Center kind of like it when that happens.

Then there’s the antithesis of being “clean.” It’s not nearly as popular among the ski-and-shoot crowd. And of course, they’ve got a name for that, too.

Just ask Bill Snellman of Stillwater, Minn.

“You say you `dirtied’ the stage,” Snellman said with a rueful wag of his head after soiling his final shooting session of the day.

That’s dirty as in “dirty trick,” which Snellman had to feel the additional 750 meters of grueling skiing was. On Friday, three-quarters of the way to a win in the Junior (age 17-19) pursuit race, that one dirty stage was all it took to knock Snellman from winner to runner-up.

After stellar shooting gave him the lead over Minneapolis native Brett Piper after three trips through the range (a clean run and two one-miss efforts eliminated the 38-second head start Piper earned by finishing 38 seconds ahead of him in Thursday’s sprint), Snellman sailed into the range for his final standing shots, hurried, and missed. Five times. Dirty.

But even “dirty” isn’t the way he described his finish.

“If you miss ’em at the end of a race like that, you choke,” Snellman said, opting for a word that’s gained universal athletic acceptance.

While Snellman was touring the penalty loop, Piper caught up – he had missed only two of his five attempts.

And after emerging from the penalty loop just five meters back, Piper simply out-skied his flagging foe.

“Skiing is what got me to the finish line today,” Piper said.

That was the theme of the day as good skiing – combined with solid shooting and some opportune errors by the competition – paved the way to titles in three age groups.

Brian Olsen overcame a dirty effort of his own in the final shooting stage of the Youth (age 15-16) pursuit to win, while David Gieck outdueled Robin Clegg to win the senior race for athletes older than 20.

On the women’s side, Melissa Gadacz of Elk River, Minn., won her second straight youth title, following up her Thursday sprint championship. Lindsy May also won her second race in the senior competition.

And in the junior girls race, Lindsay Cox of South Burlington, Vt., who finished 1:19 behind sprint champ Lanny Barnes on Thursday, erased that advantage by doing exactly what Snellman couldn’t. She cleaned up.

“I was psyched about cleaning that one,” Cox said after knocking down all the targets in her fourth and final shooting session. “From then on I just knew I had to ski my hardest and kick it in to the end.”

Barnes, who finished second, one spot ahead of twin sister Tracy, said she never even saw Cox pass her: She was too busy turning laps on the penalty loop. Barnes said her downfall illustrates one of the big problems of the pursuit: Though starting first means a biathlete will be given a head start over other competitors, most racers still want to be the hunter, not the hunted.

“It’s difficult to be in the front of a pursuit. There’s no one to chase,” Barnes said. “You can hear the announcer announcing people coming in [to the range] and in the back of your mind, you’re thinking, `Oh, no. I’ve got to hurry up and shoot all these shots.”‘

Barnes missed three shots, which meant that though she cleared the range well in front of Cox, she had a lot of work to do before she was allowed to rejoin the real race.

The same fate nearly befell Gadacz, who won Thursday’s sprint and earned a 56-second cushion that Syverine Abrahamson made up after two shooting stages.

But Gadacz wasn’t about to let her second title slip away.

“I stuck with her. Then I shot better than she did, and that got me back up again,” Gadacz said.

Ironically, making the brief transition from leader to follower may have helped Gadacz at the end.

“I am better at chasing people. I don’t like to be chased,” she said with a laugh.

The championships end today with relay events starting at 10 a.m.

Biathalon Junior Nationals MAINE WINTER SPORTS CENTER (Fort Kent) Pursuit Results

Youth men (age 15-16, 10 kilometers): 1. Brian Olsen 38:30.5, 2. Adam Van Straten 39:41.7, 3. Ian Odell 41:16.6, 4. Bjorn Baaken 41:24.1, 5. Nathan Erlandson 42:37.9, 6. Ray Evan 42:51.0, 7. Lars Gaalaas 42:58.5, 8. Kai Salmela 44:10.3, 9. Tom Secord 44:56.1, 10. Kevin Patzoldt 45:42.5

Junior men (age 17-19, 12.5 kilometers): 1. Brett Piper 45:16.4, 2. Bill Snellman 45:52.0, 3. Chris Gadacz 49:15.6, 4. Jared Eklin 49:20.1, 5. Simon Lick 50:06.9, 6. Brennan Walsh 50:41.9, 7. Anders Osthus 52:19.7, 8. Steve Scott 52:41.1, 9. David Berg 54:02.2, 10. Adam Youngman 54:16.7

Senior men (age 20-over, 12.5 kilometers): 1. David Gieck 43:06.6, 2. Robin Clegg 43:40.9, 3. Ivan Phillion 45:15.7, 4. Jason Rolling 45:24.3, 5. Tom Zidek 45:51.5, 6. Francis Fillion 45:51.7, 7. Jean-Francois Guimond 46:18.1, 8. Dan Campbell 46:38.5, 9. Carlos Settle 46:50.3, 10. Jacob Beste 47:01.7

Youth girls (age 15-16, 8 kilometers): 1. Melissa Gadacz 34:08.4, 2. Syverine Abrahamson 35:22.3, 3. Jana Eidem 38:02.8, 4. Jenny Ester 38:05.1, 5. Emilla Demarchis 38:32.7, 6. Cayley Baird 39:19.0, 7. Julie Warneke 39:33.9, 8. Betsy Heib 40:51.8, 9. Blair Rajmaki 41:52.1, 10. Kate Durda 42:15.4

Junior women (age 17-19, 10 kilometers): 1. Lindsay Cox 40:20.2, 2. Lanny Barnes 41:19.7, 3.Tracy Barnes 42:12.0, 4. Katy Demong 42:58.3, 5. Beth Kolb 43:06.2, 6. Emily Klemp 44:15.1, 8. Nicole Lunstead 47:39.6, Britt Peterson 48:17.5

Senior women (age 20-over, 10 kilometers): 1. Lindsy May 39:22.6, 2. Jaime Mueller 40:25.8, 3. Annalise Baumber 49:42.8