Imagine what it would be like to ski through wooded trails in bright sunlight, your strength and balance effortlessly gliding you through winding hills and valleys. Finally you arrive at a shooting range; you adjust and control your breathing to shoot accurately and quickly at targets 50 meters away from you. The price of a miss is to ski extra distances before finishing the competition. Instead, you squeeze off your five shots, hit all five targets and quickly exit the range to complete one last loop and arrive at the finish line. That is the exciting Olympic sport of biathlon.

 

Biathlon PEI once again wants to introduce this exciting sport to young Islanders by offering its nationally developed Biathlon Bears program. Targeted to young people 8-14 years of age, 16 young people completed the program last year. Based upon the success of the past two years, and with a significant investment in both equipment and coaching training, Biathlon PEI plans to again offer the introductory program as well as second and third year programs. In total the association expects to enroll a maximum of 30 young people in the program over a period of 8 weeks on a twice-weekly basis. All levels of the program will operate out of the Brookvale Nordic site. The cost for each program will be $80, which includes use of equipment, targets, ammunition, accident insurance through Sport PEI and trail fees at the Nordic site for the 16 sessions.

 

Participants in the program will have to provide their own cross-country skis, but they are available on a rental basis through the Brookvale Nordic Center.

 

Registration for the program has started but can be done by contacting Bob Bentley by phone at 964-3294 or by email at biathlonpei@gmail.com.

The first session of the Bears in the New Year will be Wednesday evening January 4, 2012 starting at 5:30 PM at the Brookvale Nordic center.

 

All coaches are trained either at the Community Gold level or through the National Coaching Certification program. In January of 2012 additional coaches will be trained to support the three levels of the Biathlon Bears program.

 

 

Like most sports, volunteers are needed to make programs for young people cost effective and sustainable. In most cases volunteers will need no prior experience although familiarity with cross-country skiing is an asset. Training is available at little or no cost. If you are interested in helping out contact Bob Bentley by phone at 964-3294 or by email at biathlonpei@gmail.com.