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Biathlon World Championships Kick Off with Sprint Competitions
By Jerry Kokesh // U.S. Biathlon Association // February 8, 2008
 Ostersund, Sweden, February 8. Sprint competitions for men and women, starting at 11:00 am CET on Saturday kick off the 2008 Biathlon World Championships here.
With 38 nations (156 men and 126 women) represented from Korea and Japan and Australia to the European biathlon powerhouses of Germany, Norway, and Russia, this is truly a WORLD Championships. Accordingly, the adrenalin in the athletes should produce stirring and memorable competitions in not just this weekend’s Sprint/Pursuit double, but in every one over the next nine days.
The US Biathlon Team (as with all nations here) has four starting positions in each individual competition.
The first competition of the week will be the Women’s 7.5K Sprint at 11 AM tomorrow. Lanny and Tracy Barnes (Durango, CO), Haley Johnson (Lake Placid, NY), and Caitlin Compton (Minneapolis, MN) are the US starters. The Barnes sisters finished 40th (Lanny) and 41st (Tracy) in the World Championships last year in Antholz, Italy. For both Johnson and Compton, the Sprint tomorrow will be their first competition at this level.
The afternoon Men’s 10K Sprint should provide the most excitement for the US Biathlon Team as three of the four men, Tim Burke (Paul smiths, NY), Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, AK) and Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), have top 30 finishes this season in the Sprint/Pursuit competitions. The fourth US competitor, Jeremy Teela (Anchorage, AK), placed in the top 10 in two previous World Championships Sprints (2001 and 2003).
Burke, who placed 7th in the 2007 World Championships 20K Individual, was sick during the December holiday period, but is now fully recovered. He showed his return to fitness with 26th in the Sprint at Antholz, Italy three weeks ago followed by 16th in the Pursuit the next day. Burke says he feels “normal now” and is ready to race.
Hakkinen, like Burke went through a low period and illness, but was strong in January with 17th and 16th places in the Sprint/Pursuit at the Ruhpolding World Cup, as well as several clean shooting races. Bailey also had a clean shooting day in Oberhof as well as 28th/29th in the Sprint/Pursuit at Ruhpolding.
Besides the US men, the battle should be between Ole Einar Björndalen of Norway, Michael Greis of Germany and possibly the Swedish athlete, Bjorn Ferry.
It will probably take clean shooting to step on top of the podium in either the Men’s or Women’s Sprints. At the same time, the competitors are so closely matched that the top fifteen may finish within a period of less than 1 minute and a few seconds.
All 11,000 places in Ostersund’s newly completed stadium will be filled both tomorrow and Sunday, according to organizers. The crowds, the talented athletes, and a wonderfully rebuilt venue will make for a great opening weekend at the 2008 Biathlon World Championships.
Live streaming video coverage of the Biathlon World Championships as well as Biathlon World Cup competitions for the remainder of the season, and archived highlights, are available by clicking the athlete photo at the top of the news column at www.usbiathlon.org.
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The United States Biathlon Association is the National Governing Body for the sport of biathlon in the United States as recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and the International Biathlon Union. The US Biathlon Association supports the US Biathlon Team and development of the sport on all levels within the United States.
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