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TAKING AIM |
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Written by TED CLARKE, Citizen staff
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Thursday, 11 December 2008 |
Annie Stewart of the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club loads a clip of .22-calibre shells into her rifle at the biathlon range at Otway Nordic Centre. The 14-member team staged a time trial at Otway to make up for a canceled B.C. Cup race scheduled for Callaghan Valley. (Brent Braaten photo)
Biathletes flock to Otway Nordic Centre....why? Because the course to be used for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games was waiting for snow
No wind, lots of snow, warm weather -- the conditions were perfect for a B.C. Cup biathlon race at Otway Nordic Centre.
Problem was, Otway wasn’t the site of the scheduled race. It was supposed to be a day’s drive away at the new 2010 Olympics course at Callahan Valley. A lack of snow canceled it.
The Callaghan crowd last weekend was likely envious of Prince George, where a 31-centimetre dump put smiles on the faces of a group of biathletes from the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club, who kicked it into race mode for a time trial.
“We had 10 of our skiers going down there but the races were wiped out,” said Caledonia Challenge Group coach Jeremy Campbell. “But we’ve had a great day here. The new snow has set us up well.”
Aaron Neumann was certainly enjoying it. Neumann, 17, has moved up to the youth men (17-18-year-old) category and is considered a good bet to earn a spot on the B.C. team. Neumann was among a group of four Caledonia skiers who traveled to Canmore, Alta., for NorAm biathlon races two weekends ago, where he posted eighth-place results in the sprint and individual races. Shooting conditions for the individual races were considerably more difficult the first day when a west wind swept through Canmore Nordic Centre. Too many misses on the range dropped Neumann out of medal contention.
“It’s hard to start your season with a really big race like a NorAm, usually we just go to a B.C. Cup and it’s an easier transition, it was almost scary,” said Neumann. “All the shooting was bad for some reason.”
At the same event, Sarah Beaudry, 14, was all alone on top in both senior girls races. At five-foot-10, Beaudry has added considerable length to her ski stride the past year and is racing up a category this year to get more competition.
“More training has been helping me out,” said Beaudry. “I’ve been training more on my own. I didn’t shoot that great the first day but I skied really hard and it helped that my friends (from the B.C. team) cheered me on.
“We had a training camp in Vernon the week before and it was good we got to ski on snow there.”
Arthur Roots of Caledonia, 14, also racked up two podium results, finishing second in his junior boys races, while Sylvain Beaudry, 16, was sixth in the sprint and eighth in the senior boys individual race.
Senior national team member Megan Tandy, 20, of Prince George, won both junior women’s events. Matt Neumann was fifth in the junior men’s sprint and eighth in the individual.
“Matt had better finishes, just because he has more skiing experience, whereas me and Sylvain, if we shoot badly we have a tough time staying up in the top positions,” said Aaron Neumann, a Grade 12 student at D.P. Todd secondary school.
“To be at (Matt’s) level, you have to be training full-time (as many as 900 hours per year), which is hard when you’re going to school. Right now, he’s the only one on the high-performance team -- it’s just Matt and his head coach Ilmar (Heinicke) and that’s good for him because Imar is a really athletic guy. But they might not be able to afford (Heinicke) next year if there’s only one skier on the team, and that’s kind of motivating me to get on that team.”
All 14 Caledonia biathletes are part of club’s Challenge Group program
and also compete in ski races on the B.C. Cup cross-country circuit. Interest in the club’s ski racing program was at an all-time low until Leisbet Beaudry took over as coach three seasons ago, and it has grown with the participation of the biathletes.
In biathlon, Caledonia has dominated the provincial series, winning the overall club title the past 10 years, and Campbell believes that’s because his biathletes are good at racing without their rifles. Biathletes and ski racers train together Tuesdays (skate technique) and Thursdays (classic technique). On Sundays, the biathletes spent a few hours at the shooting range, while the ski racers go for an extended training run.
“We encourage cross-country racing in biathlon and because of that they develop really good stamina,” said Campbell. “We have great parental support and the club is very supportive so they also get funding.”
Campbell has plenty of coaching help at Otway, with Canada Winter Games biathlon coach Fiona Coy lending her talents, as well as Pierre and Leisbet Beaudry, Tim Roots, Gillian Warner, Dan Brown and Sydney van Loon.
Otway will host the first B.C. Cup cross-country events, Jan. 3-4.
The Callaghan Valley biathlon race has not yet been rescheduled. The next B.C. Cup biathlon event in set for Quesnel, Jan. 17-18, which will serve as a selection race for the national championships in Valcartier, Que., in March.
Sixteen biathletes will form the B.C. team. Campbell lists Aaron Neumann, Sarah and Sylvain Beaudry, Arthur Roots, Penny and Alex Douglas and Annie Stewart as likely candidates for the B.C. team.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 11 December 2008 )
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