Given her first chance to compete this season on the world's top biathlon circuit, Sarah Beaudry of Prince George raced to her best-ever finish.
The 23-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member placed 23rd out of 92 starters in the BMW World Cup women's 7.5-kilometre sprint Thursday in Oberhof, Germany. Beaudry cleaned her two shooting bouts and finished one minute 39 seconds behind the winning pace of Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia, who crossed the finish in 22:23.7. It was the third win and fifth medal this season for the 33-year-old Kuzmina.
Julia Ransom of Kelowna placed ninth as the top Canadian, 1:13.6 behind Kuzmina. For Ransom, 24, it was her third top-10 World Cup result in 2017-18.
Kaisa Makarainen of Finland was the silver medalist and Veronika Vitkova of the Czech Republic won bronze.
Megan Tandy of Prince George, 29, making her first World Cup start of the season, finished 59th, 2:37.5 off the winning pace. She missed two of her five standing targets. As a top-60 finisher, Tandy qualified for Saturday's pursuit, along with Ransom and Beaudry.
Beaudry's previous best individual World Cup finish was 38th at a sprint race in Canmore, Feb. 5, 2016.
Emma Lunder of Vernon did not start Thursday's race.
The men's sprint is scheduled for today and four Canadians are entered. Scott Gow of Canmore will start 12th, his brother Christian will start 48th, Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T., is 75th in the order and Colin Campbell of Bedeque, P.E.I., will be 91st out of the gate. The race has 105 entrants.
