U.S. team posts victories in open, junior relays

WHISTLER, British Columbia – The U.S. biathlon team wrapped up its season this weekend with wins Sunday in the open and junior 3-by-6 kilometer mixed relays and solid finishes in the sprints Saturday at the Canadian National Championships.

Yarmouth native Walt Shepard was on the third-place relay team Sunday after he didn’t have a single penalty in the race. He hit all 10 targets as he did Saturday in the 10K sprint, giving him just two misses out of 40 targets for the top shooting numbers on the U.S. team.

“I have not shot so much over the past year,” he said in a press release. “When I got to the national championships last week [in Coleraine, Minn.], it just all came together and I have been on a roll. It has been great fun.”

Shepard, who attends Bowdoin College in Brunswick and competes in cross-country skiing for the Polar Bears, said he plans to return to college next year and devote the following year to biathlon.

There were 26 open and junior teams in Sunday’s relay events. Each team had two men and one woman.

The U.S. team of Tim Burke, Maine Winter Sports Center team member Haley Johnson and Jeremy Teela won the championship, followed by a team of Quebec biathletes.

Russell Currier of Stockholm, who also skis for MWSC, along with Fort Kent resident and MWSC athlete BethAnn Chamberlain, were on the sixth-place team with Duncan Douglas of Honeoye Falls, N.Y.

Fort Fairfield’s Hilary McNamee, another MWSC skier, was on the eighth-place team. Laura Spector of Lenox, Mass., who also competes for the MWSC, was on the winning junior team.

In Saturday’s sprint races, Shepard came in 10th and was 1 minute, 12 seconds behind winner Jean Philippe Leguellec of Quebec. Currier had four penalties to finish fourth in the 10K junior men’s competition. He was 41.6 seconds behind first-place finisher Wynn Roberts of Battle Lake, Minn.

McNamee, the only U.S. competitor in the junior women’s 7.5K sprint, had one penalty and was 2:20.9 behind Megan Tandy of British Columbia.