March 18, 2010 (Fort Kent, ME) – The North American Biathlon Championships/U.S. National Biathlon Championships began today at the 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent Maine. Casey Simon (3-0) shot clean in the last stage of the Men’s Sprint to put himself to take the North American Sprint title today with a time of 28:44.7. MWSC’s Walt Shepard (2-1) knew he had to shoot clean and fast to catch Simons on the last shooting stage and hit the first four shots in very rapid succession before just missing the last shot and finishing 9 seconds back. MWSC’s Bill Bowler (2-0) took third, 26.6 seconds back, with 2 misses.

MWSC Alumnus Tracy Colliander (0-0) took the North American title with clean shooting in a time of 26:50.05, 6.6 seconds ahead of Claude Gobout (0-1) from Quebec, who missed one shot in the prone position. MWSC alum and 2010 Olympian Haley Johnson, (2-2) took third, 45.3 seconds back. MWSC alum, Annalies Cook took third in the US National Championships (2-3), 2 minutes, 17 seconds back.

“At this time of year the results are always unpredictable as we see the progress the developing athletes have made over the season,” said US Biathlon executive Director Max Cobb. “I can’t wait to see who the next National Champion will be.  And this event is the IBU North American Championships so we will have a strong showing from the Canadian team too.”

This event is a perfect warm up for next year’s World Cup which will return to Fort Kent Feb. 14-20, 2011.  “The community is known for their warmth in welcoming guests and for an outstanding spirit of volunteerism.  With a good number of the officials just back from working the Olympics in Vancouver I’m sure they will have lots of thoughts about how to make the event state of the art,” added Cobb.

The next events will be the Pursuit on Saturday, March 20th and the Mass Start on Sunday, March 21st. The Masters and Boys/Girls results have not yet been released.

Full results here

Results (brief)

Senior Men
1. Casey Simon, Heber City, UT, T3, 28:44.7
2. Walt Shepard, MWSC, T3, +9.0
3. Bill Bowler, MWSC, T2, +26.6

Senior Women
1. Tracy Colliander, MWSC, T0 26:50.05
2. Claude Goubout, Quebec, T1, +6.6
3. Haley Johnson, Lake Placid, NYT4, +45.3
4. Annalies Cook, Lake Placid, nYT5 +2:17

Juniors Women
1. Grace Boutot, Fort Kent, MWSC, 1+2, 30:39.7
2. Addie Byrne, Bovey, MN, Mt. Itasca, 3+1, 31:13.0
3. Elanor Magnuso, MN Biathlon, 5+5, 37:20.1

Junior Men
1. David Gregoire, QC, 0+4, 31:02.7
2. Mike Gibson, US Collegiate, 3+4, 35:09.2

Youth Women
1. Jessica Jortberg, CO, Bolder Nordic, 5+3, 28:07.6
2. Danika Frisbie, VT, US Collegiate, 2+2, 28:37.9
3. Carly Wynn, VT, US Collegiate, 3+5, 28:54.0

Youth Men
1. Casey Smith, WA, Methow Valley, 1+0, 25:55.0
2. Sean Doherty, NY, Saratoga, 3+1, 27:06.7
3. Ben Greenwald, MN, MN Biathlon, 0+1, 27:27.4