OGDENSBURG -- The Fort La Présentation Association will hold its seventh annual St. Lawrence Valley Snowshoe Biathlon Saturday and Sunday, March 2 and 3 at the St. Lawrence Valley Sportsman’s Club.

Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. each day; the biathlon will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. both days.

The St. Lawrence Valley Sportsman’s Club, on Clubhouse Road off State Highway 37, is approximately four miles east of the City of Ogdensburg.

The biathlon challenges participants on snowshoes to follow a one-and-a-half-mile trail through the woods and fire a muzzleloading rifle or smoothbore at each of five targets set up along the trail. Participants will fire two shots at each target and may throw a tomahawk.

While the biathlon is a timed event, each time a shooter hits one of the targets, his or her running time is reduced by five minutes. Those hitting the tomahawk target receive an additional five-minute reduction. Primitive shooters must run on wooden snowshoes, and modern in-line shooters may use either wooden or modern snowshoes.

The event offers four competition classes:

• Youth, 12 to 18 years old, primitive (rifle/smoothbore) and in-line

• Ladies, primitive (rifle/smoothbore) and in-line.

• Men, primitive (rifle/smoothbore) and in-line.

• Senior Men and Ladies, primitive (rifle/smoothbore) and in-line.

Forsyth’s Rifles will provide hot food for participants. Door prizes will be given away on each day, and medals will be presented to those in first, second and third places.

All of the funds raised through the event will benefit the Fort La Présentation Association, a local not-for-profit, and will be used to support the operation of the association’s Abbé Picquet Trail on Lighthouse Point, Ogdensburg.

For more information or to register for the event contact Fred Hanss at (315) 212-6213 or fhanss@twcny.rr.com.

The St. Lawrence Valley Snowshoe Biathlon is one of a number of similar events held across New England and the Hudson Valley. The event regularly attracts participants from across New York State, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire and the Canadian Province of Quebec. Fred Hanss, event coordinator for the biathlon, noted that the majority of those people who have previously participated in the event are visiting from Vermont and typically stay overnight to shoot on Saturday and Sunday.