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Biathlon men ninth in World Cup relay, Vernon's Lunder 15th in mass start

For the second time in three races this season on the BMW IBU World Cup biathlon tour, Canada’s men’s relay team has cracked the top 10.
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For the second time in three races this season on the BMW IBU World Cup biathlon tour, Canada’s men’s relay team has cracked the top 10.

Calgarians Adam Runnalls and Trevor Kiers teamed up with Canmore brothers Scott and Christian Gow to finish ninth Saturday in the 4 X 7.5-kilometre event in Antholz-Anterselva, Italy.

The four Canadians had one penalty and 10 reloads in eight shooting bouts and finished 2:57.4 behind the pace-setters from France (Antonin Guigonnat, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Simon Desthieux, Emilien Jacquelin), who went penalty-free with nine reloads and stopped the clock in 1:14:25.8.

The French team, which also won last week’s relay in Oberhof, Germany, crossed the finish just eight-tenth of a second ahead of Norway. Russia ended up third, 50.8 seconds behind in the 24-team event.

Meanwhile, in the women’s 12.5 km mass start race earlier Saturday, Emma Lunder of Vernon placed 15th out of 30, equaling her best mass start finish in 2020-21. Lunder had just two misses in four shooting rounds and ended up 1:13.8 behind gold medalist Julia Simon of France.

It was a photo-finish and Simon crossed the line in 37:05.5, just two-tenth of a second ahead of Hanna Oeberg of Sweden. Bronze medalist Lisa Theresa Hauser of Austria was just 3.5 seconds behind Simon.

Lunder finished 16th in the mass start a week ago in Oberhof and was 15th Dec. 20 in Hochfilzen, Austria.

Racing resumes Sunday in Italy with the men’s mass start and women’s team relay. Sarah Beaudry of Prince George will anchor the Canadian team, which will include Lunder, Nadia Moser of Whitehorse and Megan Bankes of Calgary.