October Trials Recap

I raced twice in October on the rollerski course in Jericho, Vermont as part of the trials process for World Cup qualification. There are four spots on US Biathlon's women's World Cup team, and two of them were already taken by pre-qualified athletes Susan Dunklee and Hannah Dreissigacker, based on their results from last year. So I and several other women at the races were vying for the other two spots.

Arriving at the shooting point
(Photo Erika Bailey)

Loading the clip into my rifle
(Photo Erika Bailey)

Prone shooting, with racers arriving in the background
(Photo Erika Bailey)

Leaving the range
(Photo Erika Bailey)

Annelies Cook was the favorite coming into the weekend and she earned her World Cup team spot decisively by winning both races. I met my goal of shooting 80% in Saturday's sprint race, finishing 2nd behind Annelies. She skied quite a bit faster than me, finishing 12 seconds ahead of me even though she skied one more penalty lap. But that is about where I expected to be in terms of my ski speed, coming off a hard block of training and a long summer. Maddie Phaneuf, our star young biathlete, was about 25 seconds behind me in 3rd place, also with 80% shooting.

Leading a pack

Going into Sunday's final trials competition, Maddie and I were close in the rankings. We both managed solid races to stay on the podium with Annelies, but we traded places from Saturday with Maddie edging me by 5 seconds to take 2nd place, with three misses compared to my four. When we added up the times from the two August trials races and two October trials races, my cumulative time was good enough for 2nd place behind Annelies, so I earned myself a trip to Utah for training and a shot at the World Cup.

For results and and press from the trials event, check out this Fasterskier article.