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Staff Writer

Some kids return from camp with a sunburn or a seashell collage.

Molly Susla of Freeport came back with an invitation to the Summer Biathlon World Championships in Estonia.

Not bad for a novice.

"When we picked her up," said Holly Susla, Molly's mother, "she said, 'Mom, I came in first in a race.' We said, 'Great!' We had no idea what it was."

Summer biathlon is similar to the winter variety in that athletes must complete a race course that includes stops every so often to shoot a .22-caliber rifle at five targets. Instead of skiing, however, summer biathletes run the course. They also leave their rifles at the range rather than strap them to their backs as skiers do.

"Our goal was just to get kids involved and introduced to the sport," said Mike Yeo of the Maine Winter Sports Center, which organized a series of four "Run and Shoot" clinics in southern Maine this summer after offering similar opportunities to try biathlon in late winter and early spring.

Molly Susla was one of seven youngsters from southern Maine and western New Hampshire who made a trip to Fort Kent with Yeo earlier this month for a biathlon camp. There, at the 10th Mountain Ski Center, they learned basic techniques from coach Gary Colliander.

"I was just looking forward to shooting and learning how to shoot," said Molly, a 15-year-old junior at Freeport High School who finished third in the Class C cross-country state championships last fall. "We learned stance, how to position yourself, how you breathe before you shoot, all the little tricks."

The plan was for each youngster to participate in a Citizens Race that, along with separate events involving paintball and golf carts, were held in conjunction with the North American Summer Biathlon Championships in Fort Kent.

Molly, an avid Nordic skier, told Colliander she wanted to try the real thing. Because she already had registered for a United States Biathlon Association license earlier this summer after joining the fledgling Southern Maine Biathlon Club, all she needed were the race fees.

She called home for permission.

"We didn't even know that the national races were going on," Holly Susla said. "She called and said, 'Mom, I really want to do these races, and they're $30 each. Can I do them?"

"My parents weren't exactly psyched about that," Molly said. "They didn't expect to spend the extra $90."

Susla's first experience with a rifle came last summer at a training camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., for promising young Nordic skiers. She sat out the first "Run and Shoot" clinic in Freeport in late June because of an injured Achilles tendon -- although she was able to practice with a pellet rifle -- and missed the second clinic in Bethel because she was out of state.

"We knew she was a good runner," Yeo said, "but we had yet to see her compete."

In the first of the three championship races, a 3-kilometer Sprint, Molly placed fifth among the 12 female competitors. In the next race, a 5K Pursuit, she again was fifth. In each race she was the third junior.

"It was a blast," Molly said. "I didn't really know what I was doing. Usually, in running, I just go for it. But I didn't know if I should run the first lap slow or what. So it was all an experiment. I figured I'd slow down as I came in (to the range). Other than that, I just ran as fast as I could."

The final race, called the Mass Start, featured eight competitors. Susla's time of 31 minutes, 25.9 seconds made her the winner by 3.2 seconds. She waited until her return to Freeport to tell her parents.

"She's won quite a few races, so we shrugged it off," said her father, Ben. "We thought it was high school level."

The next day Yeo called with the news that Molly had met the U.S. criteria for entry to the World Championships in Estonia. Holly Susla laughed it off. Then Yeo and Colliander met with the Suslas and explained that,...