The unfortunate lack of early snow at Perisher Laser Biathlon Range, necessitated the Biathlon East Australia NSWACT Laser Biathlon State Championships to be relocated to Jindabyne. The decision was made by the Event Committee recognising the importance of athletes being able to experience a racing event where the two elements of biathlon – XC skiing and shooting – are put together.

The event was transformed into being held on roller-skis and a time-trial format where athletes raced the clock rather than against each other. Different age classes skied different numbers of laps of the Jindabyne Sport and Recreation 400m athletic track to ensure their loop distances were similar to international IBU distances for the older athletes and appropriate to athlete experience, ability and age class for the younger athletes. A number of athletes entered the sport class which recognises first time entry into a biathlon event.

An official training session was held on Saturday afternoon, to allow the athletes to train on the time-trial course where they would be racing and become familiar with how the event would run.

For the older athletes, the distance skied was up to 5km with both prone and standing targets as part of their event. Development athletes were challenged to shoot prone-on-prone targets putting into practice their training on these targets in the week leading into the event.

All up, 16 athletes took part with a number having to withdraw due to the event re-location and COVID19 14-day isolation restrictions in place for athletes who had been training in Victoria in the previous week.

A very big thank you to our volunteer officials who supported the event and packed up so quickly when a huge downpour of rain started at 12noon!

Click here for time-trial results