Liam Simons chased down his first Canada Winter Games medal.
The 19-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member from Prince George won bronze in the men’s biathlon 12.5-kilometre pursuit Tuesday at Matt Arendz Provincial Ski Park in Brookvale, P.E.I.
“It was really tough mentally today to go into the hurt further," said Simons. "The last lap really was a fight, I really had to tell myself to go. The shooting was really good today – 16-for-20.”
Simons stopped the clock in 28:27.2, two seconds behind the gold-medal pace of Jean-Nicolas-de-Broeck of Saint Foy, Que., who completed the course in 26:12.7 Liam Tinworth (28:21.2) of Grande Prairie, Alt, took silver.
The pursuit start order is based on results of Monday’s sprint and Simons, who finished fifth in the sprint, left the pursuit start gat 20 seconds behind de Broeck, the sprint winner.
Meanwhile, in the women’s 10 km pursuit, 16-year-old Aliah Turner of Prince George finished 14h, matching her placing in Monday’s sprint.
Molly Caldwell of Golden won pursuit gold.
Next upon the Games schedule is the individual events on Wednesday, followed by the single mixed relay on Friday and team relays on Saturday.
In male hockey action Tuesday in Summerside, Cameron Schmidt of Prince George scored a goal and added an assist to lead Team B.C. to its second win in three games at the Canada Games tournament - a 4-2 victory over Alberta. Schmidt's goal, 5:37 into the second period, gave B.C. a 3-1 lead and that stood as the game-winner.
B.C. started with a 7-4 loss to Ontario on Sunday, then defeated Nova Scotia 12-2 on Monday. Goalie Ryder Green of Prince George made 22 saves in that game for B.C.
Forward Chase Harrington of Prince George collected his first goal of the tournament in the win over Nova Scotia.
The playoff round starts on Wednesday.
