GRP Biathletes Take on European Championships

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GRP Biathletes Raleigh Goessling, Hallie Grossman and Kelsey Dickinson were selected by US Biathlon to compete at the IBU Open European Championships in Duszniki-Zdrój, Poland. 

European Championships is the marquee event of the IBU Cup circuit and also serves as a coming together of established World Cup talent and up and coming IBU Cup athletes. 

The 2021 European Championships were no exception with the best of the IBU Cup and World Cup regulars combining to create large, highly competitive races. The largest and most competitive that have been seen in years!

The Championships kicked off with Individual competitions. Starting with bib 63, Hallie Grossman cleaned her first prone stage and rolled through the second standing shooting bout with only a single miss. On her next two trips to the range, Grossman added 3 prone and 2 standing misses to incur a total of 6 penalty minutes. Hallie’s effort left her 3rd among the 6 person US team in 84th position among the 118 race participants. 

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A short while later Kelsey Dickinson began her competition with start number 105. Kelsey stayed consistent throughout the race picking up one miss in each of her 4 trips to the shooting range. Stable shooting and skiing brought Kelsey home in 94th place, 5th on the US women’s squad. 

Raleigh Goessling started 62nd in the 138 man Individual race. Goessling made two mistakes in each of his first trips to the shooting range. Raleigh then cleaned his third stage, but unfortunately missed two of his final 5 targets to bring his race total to 4 misses. Raleigh was the sixth of the US men’s squad and 98th overall. 

After a day off to recover and prepare, biathletes competed in Sprint competitions. Hallie Grossman continued her stellar first shooting statistics by hitting all 5 of her prone targets, but struggled in her standing bout, hitting only two. With three misses and solid skiing, Grossman ended the race ranked 85th overall and 4th on the US women’s team. 

Kelsey Dickinson copy pasted her shooting statistics from the Individual race into the sprint competition by making one mistake in each of her trips to the range. Dickinson stacked up 97th overall, and 5th on the US women’s team. 127 women competed in the Sprint race. 

141 men started the Sprint competition. Raleigh Goessling made no mistakes in the first shooting stage and missed his final shot on his second trip to the range. With a single miss and solid skiing, Goessling produced a 42nd place performance, good enough for 2nd on the US men’s team. 

Goessling’s 42nd place in the Sprint earned him a place on the grid in the Pursuit competition. Raleigh missed two shots in three of the four shooting bouts, placing him a respectable 53rd  in a very deep field. 

Relay competitions closed out the championships. Raleigh, Hallie and Kelsey combined with Vasek Cervenka to form the US Mixed Relay squad. Hallie took the scramble leg for the team. After a frantic mass start, Hallie missed one target in her first prone stage, but quickly atoned with a spare round. Hallie’s mass start prowess came from Coach Mike’s duct tape reminder on her skis to “make ‘em suffer.”  In standing Hallie needed two extra rounds to clear the targets but avoided the penalty loop on her way to tag Kelsey for Leg 2. 

Kelsey was unable to hit all 5 targets with the rounds in her magazine and her 3 spares and was forced to do a penalty loop. Kelsey needed no spares in her standing stage, quickly dispatching the 5 targets the first time of asking. Vasek Cervenka produced an outstanding leg to keep the US out of danger of being lapped and picked up a few places in the process. Raleigh closed out the competition by cleaning his prone stage and using a single round to dispatch one missed standing target to bring Team USA in for 18th place. 

Kelsey Dickinson summed up the European Championships well by stating, “It was a great experience and brought some very strong competition. I feel very lucky to be racing despite everything going on in the world right now.”