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Beaudry's shooting world-class, ski speed drops her to 47th in Italian race

Burns Lake biathlete Dickson starts third in the order for Canada in Saturday's women's relay in Antholz-Anterselva
Sarah Beaudry in Antholz Jan 21 2022
Sarah Beaudry takes in a deep gulp of air as she finishes off the latter stages of her 15-kilomtre individual race at the IBU World Cup biathlon Friday in Antholz-Anterselva, Italy. Beaudry was the top Canadian in 47th place out of 96 starters.

Her eyes and trigger-finger were in near-perfect sync.

Unfortunately for Prince George biathlete Sarah Beaudry, her lungs and ski stride had trouble keeping up the pace.

Her 47th-place result in Friday’s IBU World Cup women’s individual race at Antholz-Anterselva, Italy was Beaudry’s second-highest placing of the season in a solo race, but she knows she has what it takes to climb much higher.

In four rounds of shooting (two prone, two standing), the 27-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club alumna nailed 18 of 20 targets but those two misses added two minutes to her total time and left her 5:39.9 behind gold-medalist Justine Braisaz-Bouchet of France, who completed the 15-kilometre course with just one penalty in 42:20.6.

Sharing the podium was Julia Simon of France (+51.1 seconds, two penalties) and bronze-medalist Mona Brorsson of Sweden +1:37.2, two penalties).

Three other Canadians competed in Friday’s individual race, which drew 96 starters.  Emma Lunder of Vernon was 66th (+7:26.1, six penalties), Megan Bankes of Calgary was 90th (+11:05.9, six penalties) and Emily Dickson of Burns Lake was 95th (+14:17.0, nine misses).Dickson has problems with her rifle sight which obscured her views of the targets for three of the four rounds.

This, her fifth season as a full-timer on the World Cup tour, has been a difficult one Beaudry, who has just one top-40 result (39th in the sprint in Oestersund, Sweden Dec. 2), the minimum needed to collect World Cup points. She was 34th a year ago in the individual evet in Antholz.

With just two more hit targets in her 95th career World Cup race, Beaudry would have placed in the top-15. Still, her world-class shooting accuracy was a good sign in the penultimate race before she heads to Beijing next month for her second crack at  the Olympics.

Beaudry’s shooting accuracy this season is not far off that of the best biathletes on the tour. She’s averaged 87 per cent with her prone shooting and 86 per cent standing. For comparison, World Cup leader Marte Olsbu Roeisland of Norway is at 92 per cent for both. Ski speed has been Beaudry’s downfall. She’s skiing, on average, 17.8 seconds slower per kilometre that the fastest skier.

All four Canadian women are slated to compete in the 4 X 6 km relay on Saturday. Lunder will ski the lead leg, followed by Beaudry, Dickson and the anchor Bankes. The race will be streamed live on www.eurovisionsports.tv starting at 5 a.m. PT Saturday.

No Canadians are ranked in the top-30 for the mass start races in Antholz. The men’s 15-km race precedes the women’s relay (2:50 a.m. PT start). The men’s 4  X 7.5-km relay is set for Sunday, followed by the men’s 15-km mass start.