Biathlon World Cup likely to skip northern Maine
PORTLAND, Maine—Residents of Fort Kent, struggling to recover from recent flooding along the St. John River, now find that their hopes of playing host to World Cup biathlon races next year have dimmed.
"We're disheartened," said Nancy Thibodeau, chair of the Fort Kent Organizing Committee. "It's so unfortunate it comes at the same time as the flood. People even asked me, 'Is it because we had the flood?' But it wasn't anything Fort Kent did or didn't do. It was purely off the logistics."
The northern Maine town was designated last year as a stop in the 2009 World Cup. The competition, which combines skiing and shooting, was scheduled for March 12-15, between events in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Holmenkollen, Norway.
But the addition of Fort Kent to the 2009 World Cup schedule extended the International Biathlon Union calendar to 10 events instead of the traditional nine. Biathlon teams have been concerned about excessive travel in a schedule next winter that includes mandatory stops in Vancouver, Korea and Siberia.
People in Fort Kent learned of the IBU plan to shrink the 2009 schedule during a visit by Max Cobb, U.S. Biathlon executive director. An alternative plan to keep Fort Kent and eliminate an early-season event failed because six succeeding hosts would have had to change their dates.
"Nobody liked it," Andy Shepard, Maine Winter Sports Center president, said of the IBU decision. "The athletes didn't like it. The TV people didn't like it. But it was the only choice they had."
The town had pulled out all stops when it was the site of World Cup events in 2004, welcoming international biathletes and European television for the first time. The IBU held up Fort Kent as a model for other host communities to follow.
Instead of hosting the World Cup event on the planned dates, Fort Kent will probably schedule a festival that would include both U.S. championships and state club championships.
"We'll make it a big celebration of biathlon in Maine," said Shepard, noting that the next World Cup slot is in 2011.
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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com
