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Perhaps no Aroostook County resident was more excited that the World Junior Biathlon Championships were to be held in Presque Isle this year than Newt Rogers.
Rogers, an 18-year-old from Fort Kent and one of the country’s top junior biathletes, made the team for the 2005 competition in Finland but got sick on the flight.
When the 2006 competition begins Saturday at the Nordic Heritage Ski Center, Rogers knows travel won’t be a problem.
“When I found out it was in Presque Isle, I was very excited about that,” he said. “I know I won’t have to travel. I can be at home, and there will be people there to cheer us on all week.”
Rogers is one of three County biathletes who will compete for the U.S. as the competition gets under way Saturday.
Three-time world juniors team member Russell Currier of Stockholm and first-time team member Hilary McNamee of Fort Fairfield will also take part in the events. The race will be a 6-kilometer sprint for youth women starting at 10:15 a.m.
About 250 athletes from 30 countries are expected to compete. The age groups are juniors (biathletes born in 1985 or 1986) and youth (biathletes born after 1987).
Rogers, who was home-schooled but competed for Fort Kent in cross-country running, skiing and tennis, said getting sick last year has provided a big push to perform well in Presque Isle.
“It’s really motivated me,” said Rogers, who was recently hired as the Fort Kent High School assistant tennis coach. “Because I was so sick last year I couldn’t perform up to my potential.”
Bedridden during a week of training before the world championships started, Rogers finished 63rd in the 7.5-kilometer sprint, 67th in the 12.5K individual and shot poorly in the 3 x 7.5K relay, in which the U.S. finished last.
Improving on his finish in the individual is one of Rogers’ big goals for the coming week.
“It tends to favor the good shooters, and I’ve been known for good shooting in races,” he said. “It’s been a little frustrating lately, but if things go well I’m hoping for a top-15.”
Rogers was accepted to the University of Vermont on an academic scholarship, but deferred admission this year in order to train for the world junior championships.
Currier is the most seasoned internationally of the three County biathletes. He was ranked second in the country last season.
At the recent U.S. Olympic trials in Fort Kent, Currier finished 12th out of 15 men – ahead of veteran Marc Sheppard and Jared Hakkinen, the younger brother of top U.S. biathlon Jay Hakkinen.
Currier skied in the Olympic trials coming off the qualifying competition for the U.S. world juniors team in Coleraine, Minn. He won 7.5-kilometer relay-format sprint race there.
Last August Currier was the top U.S. finisher in the juniors in the pursuit races of the Fall Festival Roller Ski biathlon competitions at the Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, Vt. Rogers was first among the U.S. youth biathletes.
Currier racked up several promising finishes in last year’s world championships. He was 30th in the individual, 52nd in the sprint and 54th in the pursuit. The trials for that world championship was held in Presque Isle.
His top finish in world juniors competition came in 2004 when he was 21st in the pursuit.
The team trials in Coleraine, Minn., was the first major competition for McNamee, who is a sophomore at Fort Fairfield High School. She was fourth in the sprint, fourth in the pursuit and eighth in the individual.
The top biathlon nations in the world include Germany, France, Norway, Russia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden, Finland and former Soviet republics such as Belarus, Ukraine, and Latvia.
That should also bear out on the junior level, too, as it did at the most recent Europa Cup, a kind of minor-league level version of the World Cup, which took place in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna, Italy, Jan. 18-21.
Germany and France had the top men’s finishes at Ridnaun. Christoph Stephan was third in a group of Germans who swept the top five spots in the sprint, while Stephan won the individual and competed on the second-place relay team.
The French had strong finishes, too, from Arnaud Langel, who picked up two seventh-place finishes in the Europa Cup competition, and two relays teams that placed in the top five.
On the women’s side, Germany’s Anne Preussler won two events, skied on the winning relay, and finished fifth in another event at Ridnaun. Her teammate, Stephanie Mueller, earned a first and a second and was also on the relay team.
Alena Zhyn of Belarus also skied well, recording a second, a third and a 19th place while the Belarus relay team was fourth.
Marie Dorin of France, who earned a third place and was on the winning relay team in the 2005 world championships, also skied well earlier this month in Italy.
The U.S. junior men’s team includes Ben Byrne of Bovey, Minn., Aaron Nistler of Grand Rapids, Minn., Nigel Kinney of Minneapolis, and Ryan McClure of Anchorage, Alaska. Currier and Russell are joined on the youth team by Mark Johnson of Grand Rapids and Wynn Roberts of Brainerd, Minn.
The junior women’s team is made up of Brit Salmela of Duluth, Minn., and Anna Roessler and Kalie Mix of Grand Rapids. McNamee’s teammates are Brynden Manbeck and Sara Gaalaas of Grand Rapids and Laura Spector of Lenox, Mass.
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