The Canadian Press
KONTIOLAHTI, Finland -- Nathan Smith raced into the Canadian biathlon history book Saturday, capturing a silver medal in the 10-kilometre sprint at the world championships.
The 29-year-old from Calgary recorded a time of 24 minutes 24.9 seconds, finishing between Norwegian brothers Johannes Thingnes Boe and Tarjei Boe.
"It is just surreal," Smith said. "I had a strong relay earlier in the week so I had good feelings about today, but never expected to do this at all."
Two-time Olympic champion Myriam Bedard is the only other Canadian to reach the podium at a biathlon world championships, claiming a gold and silver in 1993. No Canadian male has reached the podium.
"Many of these top guys are regularly on the podium, but I realized over the last little while they are not gods," Smith said. "They are super talented people, but I knew I can be there with them. It is awesome to be on the podium. I definitely felt it was a matter of time, but I didn't expect to do it at world championships."
Thingnes Boe, who won his first world title, missed his 10th and final shot after hitting the first nine at the two shooting stations, but finished in 24 minutes 12.8 seconds. Smith also hit nine of 10 targets, finishing was 12.1 seconds behind. The older Boe brother shot clean but finished 25.3 seconds back.
The other favourites struggled at the shooting range, with Martin Fourcade of France missing three targets to finish 12th.
Smith, along with Canadian teammates Brendan Green and Rosanna Crawford have all broken into the top-five this season, and Chris Lindsay, Biathlon Canada's high performance director, believed it was only a matter of time before one of them reached the medal podium.
"These results are the natural progression in our plan," Lindsay said. "We have depth. Our entire program believes we can be on the podium, and Nathan proved that today."
Green finished 21st Saturday, 1:14.3 off the gold medal position. In other Canadian results, Scott Gow of Canmore was 50th and his brother Christian was 73rd out of 129 male starters.
Smith, Green and Scott Gow qualified for Sunday's pursuit.
In the women's 7.5 km sprint, Marie Dorin Habert, France won gold in a time of 22:16.8. Weronika Nowakowska-Ziemniak of Poland was 9.6 seconds behind and Valj Semerenko of the Ukraine was 19.7 seconds behind.
Megan Heinicke of Prince George was the top Canadian in 3rd place, 1:55.3 behind the gold-medal pace. Heinicke missed just one of 10 targets. Rosanna Crawford of Canmore was 32nd, Julia Ransom of Kelowna was 52nd and Audrey Vaillancourt of Quebec was 77th out of 105 women racers.
Heinicke will start Sunday's pursuit 1:55.3 after Dorin Habert leaves the start gate. Crawford and Ransom also made the cut for the pursuit.
