IBU Cup Wraps Up Second Stop in Arber
Written by GRP Biathlete Raleigh Goessling
The second stop of the IBU Cup stayed in Arber, Germany and tested athletes with Short Individual, Sprint, and Relay competitions.
Due to low snow the Short Individual competition that was initially schedule for January 13th was re-scheduled for January 20th. The Short Individual is 15km for men and 12.5km for women. Athletes are penalized 45 seconds for each missed shot.
Raleigh Goessling made on mistake in each shooting stage, for 4 total misses on the day. Steady skiing kept Raleigh competitive with the rest of the US team, and he ended the day in 74th place, 3rd on the 5 man US squad.
Hallie Grossman cleaned her second prone shooting stage and skied well in her Short Individual competition. A total of 5 misses across 4 shooting stages and solid skiing drove Hallie to a 58th place, and the 3rd rank among the American women.Grossman summarized her race by saying, “The individual wasn’t a standout race for me, I was psyched to have missed the same amount in the previous week’s sprint as the individual (5). I felt decent skiing and was able to start a little more aggressively, which was a goal of mine for the race.”
After a day off, Sprint competitions were on the docket for Goessling and Grossman. Raleigh kicked off proceedings with a 3 miss, 92nd place performance. Raleigh was “disappointed to miss 3 after showing much better shooting in the previous weekend’s Sprint races.” In addition, Raleigh added that, “I have felt great about my ski selection all trip, until today, when I maybe should have gone on another pair.” Goessling summarized the race by saying, “This field is very big and super competitive, so if you make even a small mistake, you pay for it on the results sheet.”
Hallie’s Sprint race contained two prone misses, a clean standing stage and solid skiing. These factors combined to form a 56th place result, again placing Grossman 3rd on the US women’s squad. Grossman commented that, “The sprint race was nearly beachy, with temps above 40! Again, not a standout race for me, but I was happy with clean standing shooting.”
The women’s Sprint competition provided an amazing highlight for the US Team, with Maddie Phaneuf producing a 4th place performance, only seconds away from 3rd place!
Hallie and Raleigh were both selected to race on the US Mixed Relay team. The mixed relay features two men and two women, racing 7.5km and shooting once prone and once standing. Athletes get 3 extra rounds per shooting stage to hit all their targets. If targets are still standing, penalty laps must be completed.
Raleigh took the second leg of the relay and was tagged by his US teammate Vasek Cervenka in 12th place after the scramble leg. After holding his own on the first leg, Goessling made one mistake in prone from the magazine, but only needed one spare round to mop up the miss. Raleigh entered the standing shooting stage in 10th place, and exited the range in 10th, despite using two spare rounds to hit the two targets he missed from the magazine. Goessling gave away two places in the last loop and tagged Chloe Levins who took on the 3rd leg for Team USA.
Grossman took over from Chloe Levins in 13th place. Grossman struggled a bit in prone and still had one target standing after using her three spare rounds. Hallie only needed one spare round to down all her standing targets. Grossman clocked the 8th best last lap and picked up a place in the process to bring Team USA home in 12th place.
Raleigh Goessling, Hallie Grossman and Kelsey Dickinson will all represent the GRP and the USA at IBU Open European Championships. They will be joined by GRP U23 Biathlon program alum Johanna Talihärm for Individual, Sprint, Pursuit and Relay competitions. For full event replays, detailed results and more from the world of biathlon visit www.biathlonworld.com .