FORT KENT – With hardly time to catch their breath after the Olympics in Salt Lake, North America’s top biathletes are in Aroostook County this week for Peoples Bank’s Festival at Fort Kent.

Sponsored by Peoples Bank, the four-day event from Thursday through Sunday will draw more than 180 competitors, ages 16 to 35, including members of the United States and Canadian Olympic teams. Athletes will compete for more than $8,000 in prize money, as well as college scholarships.

“This will be our most ambitious event to date and there will be a lot at stake in our bid to host a World Cup in 2004”, said Andy Shepard, CEO of the Maine Winter Sports Center. “Finding a partner who could help us put the best foot forward to the world was critical and we have found them in Peoples Bank.”

The Festival at Fort Kent will include the 2002 North American Biathlon Championship, U.S. National Championships, a Junior World Cup and the U.S. Junior National Championships.

Biathlon combines the sports of nordic, or cross-country skiing, and rifle marksmanship. Competitors race on skis, over distances between 7.5 to 20 kilometers, come to a full stop, shoot at a target either the size of a silver dollar or bread plate from 160 feet away with a 22-caliber rifle and then continue on the cross country course with penalties being assessed for each missed shot.

Also competing at the Festival at Fort Kent will be a junior team from Russia, one of the world’s dominant biathlon powers. They will be going up against North America’s top juniors, including Walt Shepard of Yarmouth and the Maine Winter Sports Center. Shepard and the rest of the U.S. Junior World Team have recently returned from the World Junior Championships in Italy where they posted the best results ever for the U.S.

Olympic competitors such as Jeremy Teela and Jay Hakkinen of Alaska and Maine’s own Kristina Sabasteanski of Standish will also be competing. In addition to competing in this year’s Olympics, Hakkinen is a former World Junior Champion, winning the gold in 1997. He was the first American to win a world championship in biathlon.

Teela finished 14th in the Men’s 20km Individual Race at Salt Lake, the best finish ever for an American in modern Olympic Biathlon competition.

Biathletes will be training today and individual competitions will be held on Thursday. Friday is also a training day with pursuit events on Saturday and relay events on Sunday.