FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Gary Colliander
Minnesota Biathlon
[email protected]

March 30, 2001

 

Osthus, Cook stand on podium with best in Sweden

Soleftea, Sweden -- On the first day of competition at the Swedish Biathlon Nationals, all eyes were on Sweden's most famous female athlete Magdalena Forsberg. A young American team would however turn heads as they pushed for gold. Teams from Norway and Finland joined the U.S. in attending these races creating a very competitive international field.

In the Women's 18 group (ages 16-17) the ladies would shoot three times skiing a combination of 2.5k and 2k loops. Leaving the range after their first shooting, Colchester, Vermont native Emilia Demarchis would leave in 3rd place with clean shooting. Annelies Cook of Saranac Lake, NY would have one penalty loop to ski putting her in 7th place leaving the stadium with teammate Syverine Abrahmason of Homer, AK just two spots back. Demarchis would hold on to 3rd place after her second shooting with one penalty, while both Cook and Abrahamson would leave with two penalties. The leader board would have some changes after the final shooting, which included Demarchis missing 4 of 5 shots to drop her to 5th place, while Cook would only have miss one and leave in 3rd place. Abrahamson would also have one miss leaving the range in 7th place right behind 6th, whom she would overtake in the final downhill with 150m to the finish. Sonne Nordgren of Stillwater, MN impressed many with some of the fastest skiing of the day, but too many mistakes in the range would hold her to an 8th place finish.

In the Men 18 category, Evan Ray of St. Paul, MN would begin the race like Demarchis leaving the range in 3rd place just 16 seconds out of first. Steve Scott of St. Paul, MN and Kurt Farchmin of Duluth, MN would leave with three and two penalties each putting them in the middle of the third pack. Ray with a very quick range time would only miss one shot, while the those in front would have 2 and 3 penalties each putting Ray in the lead by 25 seconds. Scott and Farchmin would both move up with 2 and 1 penalties each. In the final shooting, it would not fall in Ray's favor as he missed 4 of his last 5 shots putting him in 3rd leaving the stadium. Scott would miss only one, while Farchmin would miss 2. Ray would be passed by two charging Swedes dropping him to 5th. Scott would come from 9th place to give Ray a run for his money as he moved up to 6th place, while Farchmin would make a strong charge himself, moving from 10th to 8th place. "I came in too easy on my last shooting...my heart was pounding so hard, that it shook my body," said Ray after his race.

In the Men's 20 category (ages 18-19), Anders Osthus had a plan to start easy and finish strong. Osthus entered his first shooting in 7th place just behind a pack of 4 who dropped the main group within the first kilometer. Osthus would leave in 9th place with 2 penalties, but would quickly make up the time entering the range in 6th place for his second prone shooting where he would hit all 5 bringing him up to 2nd just 5 seconds off the lead. As Osthus came around the stadium on his third loop the announcer yelled out that Osthus had overtaken first place and had put a gap of 6 seconds on second place all within 1 kilometer. Over aggressive skiing would prove to be too much as Osthus would miss 4 in his first standing shooting dropping him back to 3rd place. However, with his teammates spread around the course cheering him on, Osthus would not disappoint, as he would move up to finish in second place.

Men 14 -15  Sprint 4km   
     Name               Town                 penalties   time 
 1.  David Persson      Sundsvall, SWEDEN       0        12:50 
 2.  Leif Soderberg     Torsby, SWEDEN          1        12:58 
 3.  Espen Ovreberg     NORWAY                  1        13:03 
20.  Benjamin Byrne     Grand Rapids, MN        4        14:44 

Women 16-17  Mass Start 8km :   
     Name                Town                p - p - s    time 
 1.  Mervi Markkanen     FINLAND             0 - 1 - 3    33:09 
 2.  Anna Maria Nisson   Jamtland, SWEDEN    3 - 0 - 2    33:25 
 3.  Annelis Cook        Saranac Lake, NY    1 - 2 - 1    33:45 
 5.  Emilia Demarchis    Burlington, VT      0 - 1 - 4    35:05 
 6.  Syverine Abrahamson Homer, AK           2 - 2 - 1    35:31 
 9.  Sonne Nordgren      Marine, MN          4 - 2 - 3    36:41 
12.  Melissa Gadacz      Elk River, MN       2 - 3 - 1    38:11 
14.  Jana Eidem          Bloomington, MN     2 - 2 - 5    38:50 

Men 16-17  Mass Start 8km 
      Name             Town                p - p - s     time 
 1.  Johan Jakobsson   Torsby, SWEDEN      1 - 1 - 0     29:16 
 2.  Tapio Pukki       FINLAND             2 - 2 - 2     30:13 
 3.  Henrik Lovgren    Lulea, SWEDEN       2 - 0 - 0     30:14 
 4.  Evan Ray          St. Paul, MN        0 - 1 - 4     30:29 
 5.  Steve Scott       St. Paul, MN        3 - 2 - 1     30:40 
 8.  Kurt Farchmin     Duluth, MN          2 - 1 - 2     31:03 
12.  Bjorn Baaken      Duluth, MN          2 - 1 - 3     31:17 
22.  Tom Secord        New Brighton, MN    1 - 1 - 4     32:58 

Men 18-19  Mass Start 12.5km 
     Name              Town                 p - p - s - s   time 
 1.  Erik Hansson      Soleftea, SWEDEN     4 - 1 - 0 - 1   43:49 
 2.  Anders Osthus     Duluth, MN           2 - 0 - 4 - 2   44:15 
 3.  Tommie Andersson  Torsby, SWEDEN       0 - 0 - 2 - 1   44:42 

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