Megan Heinicke was deadly at the shooting range and just missed making it into the top-10 at a World Cup biathlon race in stersund, Sweden.
Heinicke, a 26-year-old native of Prince George, finished 12th out of 93 women in Thursday's 15-kilometre individual race while missing just one of 20 targets in four shooting bouts.
Heinicke stopped the clock in 50:14.7, 3:31 behind the pace of Darya Domracheva of Belarus, who posted her 20th World Cup win. Kaisa Makarainen of Finland won silver and Valj Semerenko claimed bronze.
"It was one of the best starts to the season I could have wished for with a 12th-place finish after a strong performance on the shooting range," said Heinicke, in an email to the Citizen. "I am already looking forward to the next two races this weekend."
Heinicke was the top Canadian in the race. Rosanna Crawford of Canmore was 16th, Zina Kocher of Red Deer was 76th and World Cup rookie Audrey Vaillencourt of Quebec City was 81st.
Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T., placed 49th as the top Canadian in the men's 20km individual race, won by Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway. Nathan Smith of Calgary was 54th, Marc Andre Bedard of Sainte-Croix, Que., was 61st and Scott Perras of Regina was 73rd out of 100.
Racing resumes today in Sweden with the sprint event, followed on Sunday by the pursuit.
