Sarah Beaudry can start packing.
In less than two weeks she’ll be traveling to Kontiolahti, Finland for the start of the BMW IBU World Cup biathlon tour later this month.
The 26-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member from Prince George posted two second-place finishes this week at the senior national team trials in Canmore to lock up a spot on the World Cup team for the opening trimester.
“I’m definitely excited, obviously the big goal of the season wasn’t to qualify but it’s a step to get through and now I get to go over,” said Beaudry. “The season will be interesting based everything that’s going on in the world. I just hope to get to do some fun racing and take every race as a gift and hopefully do something good with them.”
In Thursday’s short individual race at Canmore Nordic Centre, Beaudry completed the course in 44 minutes 36.5 seconds, 1:54 off the winning pace of senior national team member Megan Bankes of Calgary (42:45.2). Beaudry shot 17-for-20, with one miss in her first standing bout and two misses in her second prone bout.
Emma Lunder of Vernon, who won Tuesday’s sprint, was third in the short individual event (44:45.5), followed by Nadia Moser of Whitehorse (46:06.3).
In Tuesday’s race, Beaudry was 10.7 seconds off Lunder’s winning pace (21:56.2). Moser (22:22) and Darya Sepandj of Calgary (22:35.2) rounded out the top four.
“Definitely good results, the first day I skied well and the second day I shot well,” said Beaudry. “I didn’t quite put it all together but I’m going in the right direction so that’s good.”
The two trials races were on Frozen Thunder, a short loop of trails at Canmore Nordic Centre covered with snow that was stockpiled from last spring. Above-freezing temperatures and rain both days made for slushy conditions.
“It’s nice to get back to racing on snow,” said Beaudry. “Even though it’s not the biggest stage, every a race is a race and you can always be nervous. It’s nice to get some confidence and see some improvements.
“Biathlon Canada has done a good job at keeping everything safe.”
Emily Dickson of Burns Lake, who suffered a concussion in a roller ski crash a few weeks ago at Whistler, was unable to race at the trials.
In the men’s short individual race, Christian Gow of Canmore topped the field at national trials with a time of 45:44.5. Matthew Strum of Canmore was second (47:26.4), followed by third-place Scott Gow of Canmore (47:33.6) and Aidan Millar of Canmore (47:58.7).
Adam Runnells of Calgary captured the men’s sprint on Tuesday, clocking 29:16.6, followed by Millar (30:12.2), Christian Gow (30:39.2) and Trevor Kiers of Sprucedale, Ont.
Canada will be taking five female and five male biathletes to Finland for World Cup races which start Nov. 28. The Gow brothers and Lunder were already pre-qualified for the opening World Cup trimester. The full team will be announced next week. They leave for Finland on Nov. 19. The other members of Canada’s senior national team will have to wait until January to race in the IBU Cup tour. That starts Jan. 11 in Arber, Germany.
Due to COVID restrictions, the first two stops on the World Cup tour will be in Kontiolahti, followed by two weeks (Dec. 7-20) in Hochfilzen, Austria.
“Obviously, with no crowd, which will be weird for Europe but for us Canadians that’s a pretty normal at-home experience, so we have that advantage,” said Beaudry. “We’re not like the French team, who usually have a spectators and their summer roller ski races.”
Knowing the precautions that will be in place on the course and the fact Canadian team will remain sequestered in their hotel rooms before and after the races, Beaudry says she’s not overly concerned about the threat posed by the virus, with rates of infection continuing to rise in most countries.
“From Biathlon Canada and the International Biathlon Union there’s a lot of good protocols in place,” said Beaudry. “There’s a lot of people always reviewing the latest information on what’s going on and I think our team is really good at being cautious. It will be different this year there will be even more time spent with the team and less time spent outside the hotel rooms. But if I can race hopefully I can make everything else work too.”
To help cover tour costs, the national team is hosting an online fundraiser – Shoot For Gold – which will be launched on Saturday at 8 a.m. PT. More than $20,000 worth of merchandise will be up available in the silent online auction. See the Citizen later today for a separate story on that event.
