Who am I?

My name is Rosanna Crawford, I was born and raised in Canmore, AB and started cross country skiing by the time I could walk! At the age of 10 I started biathlon and fell in love! Something about the challenge of skiing and shooting really stuck with me and being able to hang out with your friends wasn't too bad either! At 14 I got to compete in my first National Champs and got a taste of what it was like to race on a bigger scale! By 16 I was on the National team and trying to make international teams. In 2008 I competed in my first World Youth and Junior Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany. That was when I got hooked!
I train full time out of Canmore and spend my winters racing all over Canada and Europe. Follow along as I compete and train all around the World!
It is here that I hope to keep you up to date on my training and racing. I would not be able to do what I love without the support of my family and sponsors, so a big shout out to you guys!
Now what is biathlon you might ask. Biathlon combines the physical exertion of cross country skiing and the challenge of rifle marksmanship. Skiing is always skate technique and shooting is either laying down on your stomach (prone) or standing up (standing).

Sunday, March 14, 2010

One or the other.

Biathlon is such a tricky sport. Rarely do you have a day where skiing and shooting go hand in hand. Today was not one of those days. I woke up this morning feeling good and really excited to race my first world cup pursuit. The weather was warmer then forecasted and only -8. Zero went well and I was feeling good on my skis. I started 2min 50sec behind the leader, and felt strong, coming into the range I was with a little group. Lay down for my first prone and miss, miss, ok check the wind, hit, hit, miss. Shoot 3 penalty loops off of my first shooting, not the way I wanted to start this race. Thats ok, still lots of the race left. I caught back up to a couple of girls and came into my 2nd prone, no sight correction from my coach so the other misses were all me. Set up, miss, miss, crap deep breath, hit, hit, miss. Oh no, three more penalty loops. In a pursuit race if you get caught by the leaders then you get pulled out of the race. As I was leaving the penalty loop after another 3 turns the leaders were just going into the loop. Crap, crap, now I have to ski like the wind to stay in this race. Right before the behemoth up hill I was caught by the leader group of 5 women. As I came into the range for my 1st standing an IBU official pulled me off to the side, and I skied away to the start finish area not being allowed to finish the race. Seeing as I started almost 3min back and did roughly 3min of penalties, on a course where the 2km takes about 5 1/2min it is not surprising I got caught. 
I am so disappointed and slightly embarrassed with todays race. Shooting is what I am good at, what I can count on in a race. But today I think I let the excitement get to me. It still stings a little but I am trying to be happy in the fact that I qualified for the pursuit, with this being my 3rd world cup, and the 3rd chance I had to make a pursuit. In biathlon if you have a bad shooting day, no matter how fast you ski, it is hard to make up time. 
Tomorrow we fly to Oslo, Norway for the next world cup. Thursday is a sprint, Saturday a pursuit (where I will hopefully redeem my self) and a mass start on Sunday (that only the top 30 get to race). I have decided not to go to Russia for the final world cup as I would only get one race (it is sprint, mass start, mixed relay). So I will be back in Canmore March 22nd, in to race Sharkfest that weekend! 
Happy trails,
Rosanna

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