Biathlon crews fight off glitches, reach midpoint

PRESQUE ISLE – Organizing officials are halfway through the 2006 Biathlon Junior World Championships and, while there have been a few glitches along the way, they are singing the praises of hundreds of volunteers for a successful event so far.

“We couldn’t do it without them,” Ray Hews, chief of competitions, said Tuesday morning. “There’s no way we could do this without all of the volunteers. I’m amazed every day at the sheer numbers that come out and help.”

Organizers said about 800 volunteers are registered to work at the event, which is being hosted at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle. Hundreds of young athletes from 26 countries are taking part in the international competition.

Hews said that after a hectic schedule of eight races in two days over the weekend, things will calm down a little for volunteers as they handle eight more races during the remaining four days of competition.

As officials worked Tuesday morning to prepare for the day’s racing schedule, the focus was on the competition committee, which has roughly 250 volunteers and is responsible for ensuring races at the venue run smoothly.

Hews, who oversees the committee, said volunteers were busy with hundreds of tasks: They were brushing snow off the red v-boards that define the race course, checking athletes’ equipment at material control checkpoints, placing transponders on athletes’ ankles for tracking purposes, preparing the targets at the shooting range and checking the race course trails for bare spots.

Dave Cambridge, chief of course, said Tuesday that the race trails were in very good shape as officials prepared for the youth women’s 10-kilometer individual competition. Three groomers had been out on five- to seven-hour stints prepping the trails with snowmobile-drawn groomers because of the relative lack of snow, he said.

Cambridge estimated that the venue has about 6 to 8 inches of groomed snow on its trails but said officials have been watching closely for ice, rocks and dirt. So far, he said, volunteers have harvested more than 200 cubic yards of snow from a nearby field and placed it on bare spots on race trails. Explaining how much that actually is, Cambridge said that a dump truck typically holds about 12 cubic yards of snow.

“Our course is in as good a shape as it could be expected to be. And,” he said, gesturing at the falling snow, “it’s snowing. That’s fantastic. It’s a little challenging to have snow falling during a competition, but I say let it come. We just may have to groom in between races.”

Out on the shooting range, Tim Roix said Tuesday that volunteers had everything set up by 7:15 a.m. for the first race of the day.

“These volunteers know what to do,” he said. “They don’t wait to be told. They’re excellent. At the end of the day, it makes it easy for us getting ready for the next day and going home early.”