Sarah Beaudry is climbing the ladder at the world youth biathlon championships.
Competing against athletes as much as two years her senior, the 16 year old from Prince George emerged from a pack of 73 athletes as the top Canadian in 33rd place in Wednesday's 10-kilometre individual race in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
Beaudry, a member of the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club, finished the course in 39 minutes 41.9 seconds, 6:10 off the pace of Thekla Brun-Lie of Norway, who won in 33:31.7. Elena Badanina of Russia (33:42.9) and Galina Vishnevskaya (34:08.3) of Kazakhstan claimed silver and bronze respectively.
Beaudry shot cleanly in her first prone shooting round, nailing all five targets and ended up hitting 15 of 20 targets in the race. Her previous results were a 40th-place finish in the pursuit on Sunday and a 52nd-place finish in the sprint race.
Julia Ransom of Kelowna placed 36th Wednesday in 40:10.7, while Rose-Marie Cote of Quebec City was 44th in 41:24.9
Meanwhile, in the junior men's 15km individual race, Aaron Neumann of Prince George placed 61st in an event that drew 94 competitors. Neumann hit all 10 targets in his prone shooting rounds. He missed two in his first standing round and had three misses in the second standing session. Neumann was 7:19.9 behind race winner Simon Desthieux of France, finishing in 48:56.5.
Desthieux stopped the clock in 41:26.6, 27 seconds ahead of second-place Benedikt Doll of Germany (42:03.6). Nikolay Yakushov of Russia claimed bronze in 42:09. Scott Gow of Calgary posted an impressive ninth-place finish as the top Canadian in the junior men's race. Gow had just three misses on the range and finished in 43:29.2.
In other results Wednesday, Yolaine Oddou of Val Blaire, Que., was 13th in the junior women's individual race. Dorothea Wierer of Italy won gold in 40:56.8, followed by Olga Galich of Russia (41:22.2) and bronze medalist Florie Vigneron of France (42:11.5). Oddou was 4:26 off the winning pace in 45:23.
Beaudry and Neumann are both eligible for the team relays when action resumes in Nove Mesto on Thursday. Neumann, also a member of the Caledonia club, placed 81st in the junior men's sprint on Saturday.
Both Caledonia club members will represent B.C. in biathlon at the 2011 Canada Winter Games later this month in Halifax.
