New Records Set in First Ever SkiErg World Sprints

Morrisville, VT – In less than 4 minutes, world records were broken and history was made as two US Biathletes, Jennifer Wygant and Zachary Hall, skied their way to victory in the first annual SkiErg World Sprints.

“The race was tough… My main goal was to sustain a consistent pace through the entire race. However, I also had some teammates go before me, so I had some times to try and beat” explains Wygant. Wygant held on to a 3.5 second lead over her closest competition, with a final time of 3:45.3. Hall completed the 1000 meters in 3:14.6. More details and results can be found at www.skierg.com/news.

Over 400 participants skied 1000 meters on the Concept2 SkiErg, an indoor training tool that makes it possible for Nordic skiers to race without snow on a fair measurable course. Each SkiErg includes a self-calibrating Performance Monitor that gives skiers accurate, comparable feedback. This allows skiers to assess output, monitor progress, and compare scores with others. As Hall noted, “since there are few ways to consistently measure fitness against athletes with whom you do not regularly train, it’s great to have a tool like the SkiErg to set up time trials or fun races to see how you stack up.”

Skiers raced at one of over 30 satellite locations, from Idaho to Norway, and submitted their best times to Concept2 to be ranked in the SkiErg World Sprints. Both Wygant and Hall raced in Lake Placid, New York, where they are hopefuls training for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Athletes of all ages, from age 9 to 77, participated with the single goal of racing their best time. George Hall, 74, set a new world record for his age group with a time of 4:21.7. “The Sprints were very different with so many others there and so much vocal encouragement. It was a much better output than I ever did alone!”