photo by Eric Hanson
CRAFTSBURY – Athletes from California, the Rocky Mountains, the Midwest and the Northeast convened for three days of skiing and shooting at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center to see who will receive invitations to ski on the IBU Biathlon circuit in Europe in January; IBU is the level below World Cup. If these qualifiers do well, they will have a chance to represent the U.S. in the upcoming winter Olympics in Italy. The first race last Thursday was a 7.5 km sprint for the women and 10 km race for the men. The second race, also a 7.5 km/10 km sprint, took place on a shortened course on Saturday because of the meltdown on Friday followed by 12 and 15 km mass starts on Sunday back on the full 2.5 km loop.
The Craftsbury Green Racing Project (GRP) skiers performed well, with Luke Brown taking two second-place finishes. Vincent Bonacci (Utah-Montana) won both sprint races while Vaclav Cervenka (Army WCAP) from Minnesota won the last days’ mass start by over two minutes ahead of Brown. Both Bonacci and Cervenka have had previous experience on the IBU circuit and the World Cup. On the women’s side, GRPer Kelsey Dickenson had a win and two 2nd-place finishes, Jackie Gorso had two 3rd-place finishes, and Michaela Keller-Miller had a 5th- and 7th-place finish. Tara Garaghty-Moats (National Guard), who often trains in Craftsbury and is originally from Fairlee, won the final mass start race. After assessing the skiers top two-of-three performances, Dickenson and Kelso will all likely be flying to Europe in week to ski on the IBU circuit. Brown might have just missed the first trip over to Europe as I was told only two men would travel at this time. Keller-Miller was just a few places back. Congrats GRP skiers.
photo by Eric Hanson
