* Rosanna Crawford, biathlete: World Cup number one.

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!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

World Cup number one.

And so the season has begun! Yesterday evening was the first World Cup race of the year, and they started it off with our hardest race, the 15km Individual, 4 shootings and 1min penalties for any misses. This race is all about the shooting, because it is pretty hard to ski a minute off your time. In order to reach the fans here in Ostersund, Sweden race start was at 4:20pm, prime time in Euro land! So my day was pretty chill, roll out of bed around 9am to an excellent spread of breakfast food here at the Scandic city hotel, go for a little jog around the lake with Brendan, stretch and dry fire, eat some lunch, rest, eat some more food (all about having the energy for that 50min race) and head over to the sight just before 3. I have been feeling pretty good this week and shooting has been excellent since we arrived in Sweden. I was feeling confident and really excited to start racing. Individuals are always few and far between and we never really do long races in training, so it is a bit of a guess on how to pace your self.

I was bib number 78 out of 96 women, starting at 4:59. My plan was to pace my self at a just below race pace and really focus on the shooting.The course here is pretty challenging, it is 3km, where you climb, then tuck all the way to the bottom of the trails, ski back up, down again, back up and then down into the range. Lots of climbing and with the cold temperatures we were having here it made for some slow snow. I came into my first prone and shot clean, nice way to start it off. Back around the 3km loop and into my first standing shooting, 1miss, second prone, 1miss, last standing (side note, because of the cold it made the mats super slick) legs are shaking from skiing and I am clinging on for dear life to my mat in order to not slip, and clean!! Phew, 18/20 not too shabby!

I ended up 69th, longer races have always been my nemesis but I am very happy with how well I pushed through out the race and if some one caught me I stuck on them, using them to help me ski faster! On my last loop it was me and this Finnish girl and we got to hammer it out, it's always fun to be out there with someone!

Today will be pretty chill in preparation for tomorrows 7.5km sprint. The men race today at 5:20pm so 9:20am Canmore time if you've got some time and want to catch some sweet Biathlon action!! Brendan is bib #14. http://www.biathlonworld.com/en/home.html

here are the top three results from yesterday

1st - Anna Carin Zidek 20/20

2nd - Marie Laure Brunet 18/20

3rd - Helena Ekholm 18/20

Canadian's

49th - Zina Kocher 17/20

69th - Rosanna Crawford 18/20

84rd - Megan Imrie 14/20

here's a link to full results

Race start is 5:20pm tomorrow, so another long day of waiting.

Wish me luck!

cheers