The Maine Winter Sports Center facilities in Fort Kent and Presque Isle have hosted several elite biathlon competitions over the years, but the latest event is new for the MWSC and the 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent.

The 10th Mountain center will host the North American Summer Biathlon Championships and U.S. National Championships starting tonight at the 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent.

The championships opens with a sprint from 5 to 8 p.m. There will be a pursuit event Saturday at 10 a.m. and a mass start Sunday at 10 a.m.

The top four U.S. finishers who have competed in at least one summer biathlon event will head to the world championships, which will take place Sept. 3-9 in Estonia.

Biathlon held in the winter months combines cross-country skiing and target shooting. Summer biathlon combines running and target shooting. Unlike winter biathlon, however, athletes leave their rifles at the range and pick them up when they are ready to shoot.

The national championships – there will also be some Canadian competitors there so the event is being considered both the North American and U.S. nationals – will be the first major summer biathlon event for the Maine Winter Sports Center facilities in Aroostook County.

The field includes five-time national champion Keith Woodward of East Corinth, Vt., and defending national champion Douglas Hoover of Williamsburg, Pa.

Hoover has qualified for the last four world championships. He was 19th in the 4-kilometer sprint and 23rd in the 6K pursuit at the 2006 world championships.

Woodward was 26th in both the sprint and the pursuit at worlds last summer.

Deb Nordyke of Burlington Vt., the defending women’s champion and a 1998 Olympian in biathlon, is not expected to compete in Fort Kent.

A number of local winter biathlon athletes and Maine Winter Sports Center competitors will also participate, although they’ll only be eligible for the national team if they’ve competed in another summer biathlon event.

The locals are Hilary McNamee and Rose-Mary Williams of Fort Fairfield; Phillip Willey of Caribou; Fort Kent residents Nick Michaud, Kaitlyn Berbard, Grace Boutot and Newt Rogers; Oxbow resident Andrea Mayo; Readfield residents Kyle Horsman and Craig Maffei; and Nick Peterson of Ely, Minn., who is spending the summer at the 10th Mountain center training with MWSC biathlon coach Gary Colliander.

There will also be activities for the public, including a paintball biathlon competition Saturday and a golf cart biathlon Sunday. Both public events will be held after the biathlon competitions are over for the day.