It’s a long way from the shores of the Atlantic in Charlo, N.B., to Prince George, site of the 2022 Canadian Biathlon Championships, but Claudette Maltais wouldn’t miss it for the world.
At 71, in her sixth season of biathlon, there’s always room for improvement in her rifle shooting, but as she proved Sunday in her opening race at Otway Nordic Centre, she’s got the skiing part nailed down.
Maltais, the oldest of 202 biathletes entered in the five-day event and the only one from New Brunswick, picked up where she left off last week as a multi-medalist at the World Masters Cross-Country Ski Championships in Canmore, and blasted her way to a fourth-place finish in the masters women 50-and-older six-kilometre sprint.
“The course is lovely, I was very happy with my race,” said Matais who won two silver and one bronze in her freestyle cross-country races last week. “I’m just here to have fun. I’ve been practicing biathlon for six years now, a new challenge.
“This course is easier than Charlo. There’s a downhill in Charlo that’s very dangerous and there’s an uphill called ‘Oh My God.’ This is a very nice course, nice setting. Lots of volunteers and nice people working for you.”
Maltais hit four of five targets while prone but missed all five in her standing bout, which meant five 150-metre penalty loops.
“I’m always the oldest (biathlete) wherever I go, but it’s fun,” said Maltais. ”It’s fun to meet people and I’m traveling a lot these days. I have nothing to prove, I just challenge myself. It’s not easy, the rifle is heavy, although this one I didn’t carry the rifle. I had no stress at all, I knew I just wanted to finish the race.”
Jacqueline Hutchinson of Canmore won the class and will start Monday’s pursuit 14 seconds ahead of Deborah Hall of Foothills Nordic (Calgary), while Lise Le Guellec of Lapoursuite (Levis, Que.) was third (+3:24.7).
Representing the Fast and Fossil biathlon club of Canmore celebrated her win in the masters 50 class in her first-ever race in Prince George.
“I’m super-stoked to be here,” said Hutchinson. “Of course, Canmore seems to think it’s the centre of biathlon, at least in Western Canada, but I’ve not been here before and… fantastic trails, such nice grooming and fantastic volunteers. I love it here.
“The course isn’t quite as technical as Canmore in terms of tight turns but that makes it nice for biathlon because you’ve already got so much in your brain to think of. A technical course is tough.”
Hutchinson was set to come to Prince George in 2018 for biathlon nationals but a lack of snow that year forced a venue switch to Canmore.
“I was happy with my race, I shot six out of 10, so three and three, and that’s my norm,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for about 20 years and I’m 54. There’s a lot of recreational people (in her age group) but not a lot of racers. I was a recreational skier and a friend who went to three Olympics (Kristen Berg) and I just started training with her.”
OLYMPIC TIES RUN BLOOD-DEEP
Moira Green of Prince George, who won the junior women’s sprint Sunday, has an Olympian in her family as her source of inspiration. Her uncle Brendan, a native of Hay River, N.W.T., was on the senior national team for 11 years and competed in three Olympics until he retired in 2019. He was part of the Canadian men’s relay team that won bronze at the 2016 world championships in Oslo, Norway. Her father Paul also used to race.
Green clocked 19:57.8 Sunday on her way to the high spot on the podium. She had two prone misses and just one miss while standing and it was her faster skis that gave her the edge over second-place Sofie Hall of Sea To Ski club in Whistler (+19.8), who shot 9-for-10. Anna Marino of Canmore Nordic (+47.9) won bronze.
“It’s very fun, I like our courses and it’s nice to have the home crowd,” said the 17-year-old Green. “I definitely felt a bit shaky on skis but what can you do? It’s not the hardest course but it’s just really fun. You get a big downhill and a fun corner at the end and I look forward to it the whole way.
“It’s definitely an advantage to be home but I don’t know if it helps me. I had three (hit targets) in prone and four in standing. It’s usually worse than that, I struggle in shooting. Shooting is really a mental game for me and haven’t cracked it.”
Green, part of Canada’s U-20 development team, competed in four races last week at the world junior/youth championships at Soldier Hollow, Utah, highlighted by her career-best 17-for-20 shooting in the pursuit, in which she was the top Canadian, finishing 33rd.
“I came in 33rd but I started 51st, so it was really fun,” she said.
FOOTHILLS SKIER REACHES JUNIOR GIRLS PEAK
Most of the racers who came to Prince George from Alberta for the five-day national event drove through a snowstorm Friday butthe jorney west was obviously worthwhile to Foothills Nordic racer Flora Csonka. She had just two misses on the range and won the senior girls sprint, covering the six km course in 22:45.1, 54 seconds ahead of Sophie Firth of Sea TO Sky (Whistler), while Izabelle Caza of Chelsea Nordiq (Ont.) was third, 1:09.5 off the pace.
Six Prince George racers from the host Caledonia Nordic Ski Club entered the senior girls sprint, including Aliah Turner (sixth place, +1:28.7), Payton Sinclair (15th, +2:47.3), Ioan Cadell (19th, +3:22.7), Artemis Douglas (29th, +4:51.8), Cedar Wink (30th, +5:23.5) and Mya Blackburn (34th, +5:41.9).
Cadell has had this week circled on her calendar ever since Prince George was selected to host the 2022 nationals and has been playing tour guide around her home trails with the out-of-town athletes she knows from racing the BC Cup circuit.
“I’m very excited for this, the course is really nice, we were really lucky with the snow (that dumped five centimetres on the city Friday),” said Cadell, 15. “My race didn’t go so well, my shooting wasn’t great (4-for-10).
“There hasn’t been a BC Cup in Prince George for awhile so for some of them it was their first time to race here. The (new) snow definitely helped, it made it not so icy.”
Max Siemens, 14, of Foothills Nordic Ski Club of Calgary, was one of the younger athletes in a field of 38 racing in the senior boys category and he was impressed with the conditions for Sunday’s sprint. The start temperature on a sunny morning was 4 C.
“The weather was definitely in my favour today, the snow is nice and the location of the trails for the course was also nice,” Siemens, who shot 6-for-10 and placed 27th. “It feels pretty good to be in a national competition, it’s my first time racing outside of Alberta. The course is pretty similar to the Canmore Nordic Centre where usually train, the hills are comparable. This is a nice change, the snow here is very moist, it’s very windy in Alberta and the snow is very dry.”
Cole German of Biathlon Yukon shot 9-for-10 and won the senior boys sprint in 19:53.5. Kase Repp of Foothills Nordic was second (+19.4), and Dawson Ferfuson of Camrose Ski Club took bronze (+24.5).
MEDAL MOMENTS
The other top-three sprint finishers by category were: Masters women 35 – 1. Lea-Marie Bowes-Lyon, Bulkley Valley, 27:32.2. 2. Callie Lancaster, Bulkley Valley (+1:19.0); 3. Michelle Simone, Kenora (Ont.) Nordic, +1:54.5. Masters men 35 – 1.Eric Lemee, Foothills Nordic, 24:02.5, 2. Brett Park, Saskatchewan Biathlon Club, (+2.8), 3.Christophe Dettling, Vancouver Island Biathlon Club (+3:05.6). Masters men 50 – 1. Jeannot Desaulniers, Hinton Nordic Ski Club, 23:46.8), 2. Chris Elden, Cariboo Ski Touring Club (Quesnel), +34.1; 3. Bryan Swansburg, Bulkley Valley, +1:34.2.
Junior women – 1. Shilo Rousseau, Chelsea Nordiq (24:26.0), 2. Janice Grundahl, Saskatchewan (+31.4), 3. Annika Klotz, Foothills Nordic (+2:31.3). Youth men – 1. Gavin Johnston, Vancouver Island (22:25.6), 2. Xavier Gilbert, La Poursuite of Levis, Que. (+0.8), 3. Kasper Fleming, Sea to Sky (+8.7), 14. Liam Simons, Caledonia (+2:11.2). Junior men – 1. Reid Lovstrom, Biathlon Alberta Training Centre (25:43.6); 2. Vincent Girard, Saguenay-Lac St. Jean, Que. (+2:09.3) 3. Zachary Demers, La Poursuite (+3:18.1).
RACING SCHEDULE
Monday is the day for pursuits, with non IBU classes starting at 10 a.m., followed at 1 p.m. by the IBU classes. Tuesday is a training day. Racing resumes Wednesday with the mass starts (IBU only) and individual events (non-IBU), and the competition wraps up Thursday with the single-mixed relays.
