Caribou High’s Currier on course for bright future

FORT KENT – Junior-level standout Russell Currier was pleased to get through Friday’s 10-kilometer men’s sprint at the U.S. Olympic biathlon trials.

That’s because he didn’t exactly finish Thursday’s 20K men’s individual race on a high note.

Currier, a Stockholm native and senior at Caribou High School, skied the wrong course during the first loop of the individual race. Once he realized his mistake, he took himself out of the event.

Currier had planned to do the whole individual race, which is longer by about 5 kilometers than any distance at which the juniors race. But when he left the starting gate, he did a 3K loop instead of the 4K loop the men’s field was using.

“I wanted to get some experience in a long race like that, but I read the signs wrong and went around the same wrong corner as [Jared Hakkinen, who was in front of him],” he said. “I was pretty sure I knew what happened, but I waited until I began the second lap and my coach told me what happened.”

His day ended there, but Currier likely has bigger things ahead of him. He was recently named to his third world junior championship team, which this year will take place practically in his back yard – the Nordic Heritage Ski Center in Presque Isle.

Currier has been gearing his training toward that competition.

“I’ve been thinking about it for the past three years,” he said. “[A top-3 finish] is something I would really like and that’s kind of what my goal has been. Last year I didn’t meet my goals at world juniors, but if I have a good shooting day I could be up there.”

Currier was 13th out of 14 finishers Friday. He had five penalties.

“My skiing was all right, it was sort of what I expected,” he said. “I haven’t been able to shoot well in snow. The other people here are more experienced and they’re able to hit stuff. I shot 50 percent, and that wasn’t enough to cut it.”

Konrad still a rookie

Sarah Konrad might be 38, but she’s only been doing biathlon for three years.

That makes her a rookie – and she’s still making those young mistakes. Konrad, who lives in Laramie, Wy., cross-fired for the first time in her career during Friday’s women’s 7.5K sprint. She wound up in third place despite the error.

“I’m still making rookie mistakes, and shooting is definitely my challenge,” she said. “Even if I hadn’t cross-fired, I still would have missed 2-and-2.”

Cross-firing happens when a competitor standing at one point shoots at another. Konrad’s incident occurred during the first shooting stage, which is in the prone position. She set herself up at point 2, but fired at point 1.

She missed two targets and headed for the penalty loop to ski two laps. But before she got there, Konrad heard the voice of her coach, Algis Shalna, telling her she had cross-fired.

Instead of skiing the two penalty loops, she had to ski five, which is the punishment for cross-firing. All told she had seven penalties.

But Konrad is actually a cross country specialist – she attended a World Cup in Canada this December – and that’s her strongest biathlon skill.

“My coach said, ‘Go, go harder,”‘ she said. “Skiing is my strength and I had to make up for it. I skied as hard as I could.”

Konrad’s turn from cross-country skiing is a reflection of the way the sport is moving, she said.

“With cross country I’ve just been having really mixed results,” Konrad said. “My skating is better than my classic and I don’t sprint very well. The way cross country is going now, a lot of the events are sprints. There’s more opportunity for me in biathlon.”

Another busy night for Paradis

Fort Kent resident Mike Paradis spent the night at the 10th Mountain Ski Center, but he didn’t get any rest. Paradis is the chief groomer, and he had the grooming machine running through the night during the rain and then when the rain switched to snow about 1 a.m.

Paradis started at 7 p.m. Thursday and worked through the dark.

“There was about two inches of ice on top of the snow [from the Christmas storm], and then the snow [Friday morning] really helped blend it all,” he said. “It was me through the night and then the crew started at about 5. But we pulled it all off.”

The athletes appreciated the effort as the conditions have changed from little snow to a 3-foot snow storm to ice to Friday’s wind and snow, all since last Saturday.

“I think we have to thank the staff here, because considering the conditions the course was in incredible shape,” said Lowell Bailey, who won Friday’s men’s sprint race. “All these conditions getting thrown at the grooming staff and they’ve done an incredible job. The course was really great today.”