Presque Isle gets biathlon meeting IBU picks Nordic Heritage Center

PRESQUE ISLE – The world of biathlon events is beating a path to Presque Isle – again.

Local officials learned during a recent trip to Finland that Presque Isle won a bid to host the International Biathlon Union organizer’s meeting in 2006.

The northern Maine city made headlines last year when it won a bid to host the 2006 World Junior Biathlon Championships.

The IBU organizers meeting is open to officials worldwide who hosted during the year a biathlon world cup, European cup, world championship, European championship or world junior championship. The meeting allows venue and IBU officials a chance to critique past events and plan for future races, Ray Hews, president of the Nordic Heritage Ski Club based at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle, said Monday.

Hews and two other biathlon officials from the U.S. – Max Saenger representing the Maine Winter Sports Center and Max Cobb representing the U.S. Biathlon Association – attended this year’s IBU organizers meeting in Finland in late June.

Hews said he and Saenger were at the meeting to give a presentation on the upcoming world junior championships, but before they left, they received a surprise gift.

At the conclusion of the meeting, officials voted on the host site for the 2006 meeting. A site in Norway had pitched to host the meeting, but Hews said that some officials invited the Mainers to submit a bid on behalf of the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle.

“On an 11 to 6 vote by secret ballot, we were elected to host the next meeting of the organizing committee,” Hews said.

“It wasn’t expected. It was a pleasant surprise to get the bid,” Hews added.

Next June – a few months after the Nordic Heritage Center hosts the 2006 World Junior Biathlon Championships – representatives from 28 to 30 countries, about 90 to 100 people, will gather in Presque Isle for a weeklong event to critique the 2005-2006 race season and talk about the upcoming race season.

“This is a great opportunity for Aroostook County to show people worldwide our venue and what we can do,” Hews said.

“It will mean that they [officials] get to see what we have available here, see our venue first hand, and it will be helpful to us for future race events,” he said. “When we bid to hold biathlon events in the future, those decision makers will have actually been here to see what we have to offer.”

Hews said hosting the meeting is “certainly several steps forward” for the Nordic Heritage Center, which along with its Fort Kent counterpart, is trying to make inroads in the sport of biathlon on the international front.