McNamee, Rogers step up to junior event

PRESQUE ISLE – Hilary McNamee and Newt Rogers received a treat late this week. Rather than skiing in Thursday’s youth-level relays of the 2006 Biathlon Junior World Championship, the two Aroostook County natives stepped up to the junior ranks Friday.

McNamee skied the anchor leg of the women’s 3×6-kilometer relay Friday morning. Rogers also anchored his relay, the 4×7.5K, in the afternoon.

“It was so much fun even though we were like a lap behind,” McNamee said as local schoolchildren cheered for her from the Nordic Heritage Ski Center grandstand.

Both had performed well earlier in the week, so the coaching staff felt they deserved to ski with the older biathletes. Some of the junior competitors have skied on the World Cup circuit and at least one, Jean-Philippe Leguellec of Canada, is headed to the Olympics.

“I was out there all by myself, but now it’s kind of like, wow,” McNamee said. “I was kind of nervous, being 16 and competing with 19- and 20-year-olds.”

McNamee performed well for the U.S. Her leg time of 25 minutes, 42.3 seconds was the fastest of the three women. She needed six extra bullets in the race – skiers can use up to three bullets for each of the two shooting stages in order to hit all five targets – which equals what her teammates did.

Rogers also had the fastest leg time of the U.S. men. He completed his leg in 23:36.9.

He was also the best U.S. shooter by far with just two extra bullets needed. The three other skiers had five each.

Both McNamee and Rogers said they likely made the junior relay teams by virtue of their performances earlier this week.

“In the end [U.S. coach Vladimir Cervenka] just made the decision that I’d race up instead of where I should have raced,” Rogers said. “It went well. It was challenging.”

Russell Currier of Stockholm skied in the youth race Thursday.

IBU president hails Presque Isle

Anders Besseberg got to meet an American football star. He went on a coyote hunt. And in between he spent plenty of time earlier this week at the Nordic Heritage Ski Center watching the world championships.

Besseberg, the president of the International Biathlon Union, said the organizing committee proved it can come together for big events. That should bode well for future events.

“All the competitions have been running on schedule without any problems, and they have proved that they have the capacity to organize events on the level of the junior world championships,” he said. “The stadium, the facilities, I must say, is at that standard that they can host a junior world championships. What will be here in the future depends on what the federation of the U.S.A. want to have here and what they’re asking for, and the total international competition schedule.”

Besseberg also appreciated the thousands of spectators and hundreds of volunteers, but stressed the importance of getting biathlon on television in order for the sport to grow.

“Just to host an event, that doesn’t really help the development in the entire country,” he said. “It has to be present in the television as one of the major sports.”

Although there will be a World Cup in Maine – likely at Fort Kent’s 10th Mountain Ski Center – in 2009, there was some talk last summer that there could also be one in 2008. Besseberg said although the schedule for that year isn’t yet complete, a World Cup in North America is unlikely because the Cup will have to go to Korea that year.

Korea is the site of the 2009 world championships, so there will be a World Cup there to test out the facilities.

Korea didn’t send any athletes to Presque Isle this week because its small team is competing at the World Cup level. But Besseberg was impressed by some of the smaller teams that came to the Nordic Heritage Ski Center.

The Netherlands, Greenland, and Chile were among the relatively new teams.

“This is very inspiring,” he said. “It’s important for healthy development.”