Area biathletes Justin Hansen and Jordan Theisen competed at the U.S. Biathlon National Championships in Lake Placid, New York, from Friday through Sunday.
The event started with Friday’s sprint.
Theisen, a 2015 Kenai Central graduate who now competes for National Guard Biathlon, finished 13th in the open men race with a time of 34 minutes, 32.2 seconds, missing two shots in prone and one in standing. Maxime Germain won at 29:43.1, with perfect shooting.
Hansen, a senior in the River City Academy Middle College Program, was disqualified in the youth sprint race. Hansen said he raced the wrong loop.
“They said, ‘Hey, did you race the 2? That was wrong,” Hansen said. “It meant I did all this and did it well and it didn’t mean anything.”
In Saturday’s pursuit, Theisen was ninth in the men’s category, finishing at 43:52.6 and missing 13 shots. Paul Schommer won at 35:38.3, and missed four shots.
In the youth race, Hansen finished 10th with a time of 44:28.1 and nine misses on the range. Theodore Castonguay won at 31:56.5, with five misses.
Four of Hansen’s nine misses came at the final of four shooting stages.
“At the end, those four misses hurt me pretty bad,” Hansen said.
In Sunday’s relay, both Hansen and Theisen competed in the IBU men category. Theisen was on Youth Men Mix 2, which finished fourth with a time of 42:20.2, with Men of America winning at 38:51.5.
Hansen’s Youth Men Mix 1 finished 12th at 1:00:29.3, with Hansen skiing the final leg in 21:47.12 and missing five shots on the range.
“My time was OK, but the uphills were brutal and it was the last day,” Hansen said.
He added the wind was swirling that day, making shooting difficult.
Hansen said that’s the end of biathlon competition on snow for this season. Hansen said he will do roller ski biathlon and air rifle training with an eye toward making the 2023 Winter World University Games in Lake Placid. Hansen was on the 2022 team, but those games were canceled due to Switzerland’s reaction to the omicron variant.
Hansen also said he will continue to work on projects for Kenai Biathlon, such as getting a range and standing air rifle range set up at Tsalteshi Trails.
