Sarah Beaudry nearly nabbed a podium position at worlds.
Beaudry, an 18-year-old from Prince George, finished fifth overall in a women's individual race at the world youth biathlon championships in Austria on Tuesday. On a 10-kilometre course, she was the highest-finishing member of Team Canada.
Beaudry's time was 34 minutes 37.4 seconds. Race-winner Uliana Kaisheva crossed the line with a clocking of 32:41.1.
This is Beaudry's third consecutive year at the world championships and Tuesday's result was her best-ever on the sport's biggest stage.
"I definitely felt that if I had a good race I was capable of having this result," she said. "I was really nervous earlier in the week but treated today as a fresh start and was much more relaxed and ready to go."
In her first two races at worlds, Beaudry placed 36th in a 6km sprint on Friday and was 28th in a 7.5km pursuit on Sunday.
Biathlon combines cross-country skiing and target shooting. In four rounds on the range (total of 20 targets), Beaudry missed just two shots on Tuesday. For each miss, one minute was added to her time.
The silver medal went to Yuliya Zhuravok of the Ukraine (34:02.0), while Anastasiya Merkushyna, also of the Ukraine, took bronze in a time of 34:13.5 -- just 23.9 seconds ahead of Beaudry.
Kaisheva and Zhuravok each missed two shots, while Merkushyna missed three.
Beaudry is a product of the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club and had been training in Canmore prior to worlds. She's a 2012 graduate of Duchess Park secondary school.
Prince George natives Emily Dickson and Arthur Roots are also part of Team Canada for the world championships. Dickson, with a time of 41:24.7, finished 54th on Tuesday and was third among the four Canadians in the race. On the rifle range, she had six misses.
Roots, meanwhile, was on his skis for a men's 12.5km individual race and placed 86th. He stopped the clock in 48.01.7 and would have had a much better time if not for his shooting struggles. In the four rounds, he missed 10 targets.
Aristide Begue of France posted a gold-medal-winning time of 36:39.2 and had just one miss on the range.
Beaudry, Dickson and Roots will all be eligible for the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George.
