Megan Tandy’s week on the World Cup biathlon trail in Kontiolahti, Finland, was a sickening experience.
Tandy was all set to race the women’s sprint event but her stomach had other ideas.
The 28-year-old from Prince George posted her reaction on her Facebook page:
“Dear Body, after everything I do for you, you decide to succumb to a stomach flu one hour before my race? You've got to be kidding me. I am not impressed. In fact, I'm downright offended.”
It didn’t get better for Tandy after she was forced to pull out of the race last Monday. She was sick all week and missed her chance to try to qualify for the pursuit and was also sidelined for the weekend relays.
Canada missed Tandy’s services. In the 24-team single mixed relay on Sunday, Julia Ransom of Kelowna and Christian Gow of Canmore had to settle for a 19th-place result. They were two minutes 27 seconds off the winning pace of 31:35.1 set by Austria (Lisa Teresa Hauser/Simon Eder). The United States (Susan Dunklee/Lowell Bailey) claimed silver and Germany (Laura Dahlmeier/Roman Rees) won bronze.
In the mixed team relay which followed, Canada (Emma Lunder of Vernon, Megan Bankes of Calgary, Scott Gow of Canmore and Brendan Greene of Hay River, N.W.T.) placed 22nd out of 24. They ended up 6:09.5 behind the gold medalists, France (Marie Dorin Hebert/Anais Bescond/Simon Desthieux/Quentin Fillon Maillet), who won in 1:11:34.5. Germany won silver and Ukraine took bronze.
The World Cup season wraps up this weekend in Oslo, Norway, with sprints on Friday, pursuits on Saturday and mass start races on Sunday.
Meanwhile, at the IBU Cup season-ending race Sunday in Otepaa, Estonia, Sarah Beaudry of Prince George and Carsen Campbell of Bedeque, P.E.I., teamed up to finish seventh out of 23 in the single mixed relay.
Beaudry used nine spares to knock down all her targets in four rounds of shooting but had no penalty loops to ski. Campbell used three spare rounds to get all 20 targets down. They finished 22:48.8 behind the gold medalists from Russia (Anna Kikulina/Yuri Shopin), who stopped the clock in 35:24.4. Norway and Sweden won silver and bronze respectively.
In the mixed team relay Sunday, Canada (Nadia Moser of Edmonton, Leilani Tam Von Burg of Ottawa, Aidan Millar of Canmore and Jules Burnotte of Sherbrooke, Que.) finished 11th. Norway won gold, France claimed silver and Ukraine took bronze.
Beaudry, 22, started her racing week Wednesday, teaming up with Burnotte to finish 15th in the singe mixed relay. On Thursday Beaudry posted a season-best 25th-place result in the sprint and was 34th in Saturday’s sprint.
