First International Form Test for US-Team

The first international form test turned out to be quite a success for the US Biathlon team. While on their third training camp of the summer, the men’s A-Team and Haley Johnson took part in two competitions in Oestersund, Sweden. In head-coach Per Nilsson’s home country the team started at a rollerski race yesterday that featured some of the world’s best biathletes.

Among them Carl-Johan Bergman and Björn Ferry who ranked 8^th and 9^th in last season’s overall world cup. Bergman showed his strength on the track and proved to be the fasted athlete on rollerskis. Nevertheless Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY) managed to stay closely behind Bergman over the first round and only had to settle for 5^th place later after strong competitors like Ferry, former XC-skier Jörgen Brink and biathlete Mattias Nilsson passed him.

Haley Johnson also managed to finish 5^th in the women’s race – with even stronger athletes to compete with. One of them was Helena Jonsson, last winter’s best biathlete and World Champion. The race was won by Swedish biathlete Sofia Domeij with Johnson 1:19,7 minutes behind her.

The other two US-competitors, Tim Burke (8^th) and Jeremy Teela (11^th) both showed good performances as well but aimed for even more at the next day’s biathlon sprint competition. For Burke the rollerski-race was quite an adventurous one as he lost one of his rollerskis on a steep downhill and had to continue balancing on just one rollerski up to the finish line.

 

All US-Athletes Among Top-10 in Sprint

In the sprint competition the Swedes again showed no mercy. Carl Johan Bergman was in the lead from the start and thanks to just one shooting penalty stayed on top of the podium until the end of the race. The last 3.1 km teammates Mattias Nilsson and Björn Ferry came quite close upon him but had to settle for silver and bronze in the end.  

Titleholder Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, NY) proved again to be one of the world’s best biathletes, although he had no chance against the top Swedes in the sprint. Lowell Bailey (0-1 misses) and Jeremy Teela (0-2) also managed to stay within the top 10 athletes and left most of the field behind them ranking on 7^th and 10^th. Haley Johnson had quite some skiing to do with four misses overall but nevertheless finished her race on a great ninth place.

Burke will start only 21.5 seconds behind Bergman in today’s pursuit competition so a victory in Sweden is not that far away for the 27-year old. Stay tuned for the pursuit race and the further plans of the US-Biathlon Team.