FORT KENT – The elation on Walt Shepard’s face was nearly instantaneous Thursday knowing that his second-place finish in the relay race at the U. S. Junior biathlon championships was good enough for a place on the national junior biathlon team.

Shepard’s 25 minute and 54 second time in the race, 45 seconds behind Minnesota’s Brian Olsen, was enough to clinch one of two spots left on the team. Olsen took the other spot on the team. Three other junior biathlon racers, who are now competing in Europe, make up the five-man team.

Shepard, of Yarmouth, may be the first junior biathlete ever from Maine to make the national biathlon team, a Maine Winter Sports Center official said Thursday.

“I’m going to Russia,” Shepard yelled out seconds after he crossed the finish line. “I’ve made it.

“This has been my goal for five years,” said the 18-year-old biathlete. “This is a major step for my next goal, making the 2006 U.S. Olympic team.”

While Shepard quickly learned he was on the team, it wasn’t until several hours after the race that Fort Kent’s Kelsey Bouchard learned she didn’t make it. She was competing for one of three places on the U.S. Biathlon Women’s Youth team that will compete in Sweden at the world competition next month.

Bouchard came in fifth overall in the youth women’s competition and only the top three girls make it to the world competition as part of the United States team. If one of the girls on the U.S. Team cannot make the competitions, a slot would open up for Bouchard.

Despite their outstanding times on the course, Olsen’s Twin City West [Minn.] team came in fifth and Shepard’s Eastern team came in seventh. The winner of the men’s relay team was the Duluth [Minn.] team with a time of 1 hour, 22 minutes and 28 seconds, one minute faster that the Grand Rapids [Minn.] team.

In the women’s relay competition, the Stillwater [Minn.] team was first in a time 1:31:01, 22 seconds faster than the Eastern team which included Bouchard.

The competition has been fierce all week in the U.S. Junior and Youth Biathlon Championships. Seconds were the balance as under 17-year-olds competed in the youth division and the 18- and 19-year-olds competed in the junior division.

In the final race Thursday, the top four women in the youth division were within two seconds of each other.

Competitions were held Thursday in temperatures ranging from 2 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit and 7 mph winds.

The youth division race for women has been close through the three days of competition. Bouchard is the sprint champion, taking that contest on Monday, 2.3 seconds ahead of Minnesota’s Missy Gadacz.

Shepard, who has been competing in biathlon for five years, will be leaving Tuesday for Germany where he will train with the U.S. for 10 days. They will also train 10 days in Siberia before the world competitions there later this month.

“It’s been real hard making all of this come together,” he said. “It went well.”

“This is the culmination of eight remarkable years of work for him,” Andy Shepard, Walt’s father and chief executive officer of the Maine Winter Sports Center, said. “I have a tremendous sense of pride knowing how much he had to sacrifice to make this happen.”

“I’m happy for him. He’s a nice guy who works very hard,” Vladimir Cervenka, the biathlon coach of the Maine Winter Sports Center, said of his athlete. “He’s been training here [Fort Kent] with us this year and that means six hours of driving to get here every other week.

“He will find the world competition tough, but he will be part of a strong U.S. team,” said Cervenka, who was brought to Maine from the Czech Republic for coaching.

Olsen, a 17-year-old high school junior from Bloomington, Minn. is also making his first appearance on the junior men’s team.

The competition was tough Thursday for Bouchard. The top four youth women finishers were all finished within two seconds on the 7.5-kilometer relay race with two shooting stations.

She was the third and last skier for the Eastern women’s team in the relay race. When she took off from the gate, her team was in fifth place. When she crossed the finish line the Eastern women’s team was in second place.

“I felt better today that I did Wednesday in the pursuit competition,” Bouchard said. “I went out pretending I had a clean slate.

“I had other people counting on me today,” she said.

“It’s amazing the level of competition we’ve had here this week,” Max Saenger, executive director of the Maine Winter Sports Center and chief of the championship games this week, said. “It’s fantastic the improvements we’ve seen in the kids from northern Maine who have been in this sport just since last year.

“They perform like biathletes with experience, a lot of experience,” Saenger said.