NORWAY – Zeke Maamouri-Cortez caught the interest of more than one sportsman Friday as he wandered into a downtown store with a unique rifle case slung over his shoulder.
The bag contained a highly specialized, .22-caliber Anschutz biathlon rifle, which took him a year to get his hands on.
The 17-year-old is from Paris and will be a senior at Green Mountain Valley School in Waitsfield, Vt., in the fall. He bought the gun to compete in biathlons at school, he said.
“Last year was my first year competitively doing it,” Maamouri-Cortez said. The muscular youth explained that a biathlon involves laps raced on cross country skis, interrupted by target shooting in either a standing or prone position.
Apart from the rigors of cross country skiing, biathlons are difficult because of the difficulty of shooting when one’s heart is beating so fast that the gun heaves with each breath. While the races range from 7 to 15 kilometers in length, Maamouri-Cortez said, “every target you miss, you ski a penalty run.”
Targets are shot from 50 meters away, and are as small as a 50-cent piece, he said. There are five for each lap, which comes out to a total of 10 to 20 each race.
When asked how he got into the sport, Maamouri-Cortez said he saw it on the Olympics when he was young. “I liked skiing, and of course shooting,” he said. Combining the two makes Nordic skiing a lot more fun, he added.
Maamouri-Cortez has been competing in biathlons for a year, and he already has his sights set on the World Junior Biathlon, which is set to be held in Presque Isle next year.
There are not many competitions in this region because the sport is not very popular, he said.
This summer, Maamouri-Cortez is scheduled to train 16 hours a week to stay in shape. He will use roller skis in the summer months.
The features of his gun include a straight pullback bolt that saves time while loading, and adjustable comb and butt plates. The trigger requires only a pound of pressure, while an average rifle would require four or five pounds of pressure to fire.
Also, the gun is designed for cold-weather use.
On Friday, Maamouri-Cortez bought 4,000 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition for his summer training. “I was told to shoot 2,000 rounds a month,” he said.
Top athletes in the sport, he said, spend about 600 hours a year just shooting.
Comments are no longer available on this story