Claire Lapointe is as quick with a pistol as she is on skis.
The 13-year-old skier made the switch from cross-country skiing to biathlon a year ago and on Saturday she placed first at the British Columbia Winter Games zone 8 trials to qualify for the games in Vernon at the junior level.
"It's nice to be able to go even when I'm so new at it," said Lapointe. "Last year was pretty hard because I was racing against people that have been doing it for a longer time. This year I'm starting to catch up to them and getting to a higher level."
The Caledonia Nordic Winter Club member won the junior girls event at the Otway Nordic Centre with a time of 00:26:00 (00:21:20 before penalties). She beat out a pair of skiers from the Caribou Ski Touring Club from Quesnel: Madison Roll with a 00:29:21 (00:24:01) and Kyra Teetzen with a 00:32:03 (00:24:43) in the six-kilometre race.
Biathlon involves a 1.5 kilometre lap on ski followed by a round of target shooting from either a prone (laying down) or standing position. The junior girls and boys only did the prone position Saturday.
Lapointe said the condition of the trails made it a great day for skiing even though it was difficult to focus with the blinding, wet snow coming down.
"The snow coming down was kind of hard because when you're skiing it was in your eyes and you have to blink a lot," said the Grade 8 student at D.P. Todd Secondary school. "So it was kind of hard to see the trail. And when the snow was coming down when we were shooting it gets in your sights [and can plug up your gun]. That's one of the challenges."
Quesnel's Conrad Teetzen earned a spot on the Zone 8 team with a time of 00:25:37 (00:19:37) in the six-kilometre junior boys race, beating out four skiers from the Caledonia Nordic club, before rushing off to participate in a high school basketball game.
Leah Forsdick earned the senior girls' title in the 7.5-kilometre event, collecting only four penalties in four rounds of shooting and coming up clean in her final round.
"I was really happy with my shooting and the snow felt really good," said the 16 year old, who took part in the B.C. Winter Games two years ago in Terrace as a junior. "I'm really excited to go and get to compete again."
The other two members of the Zone 8 team are Caribou's Madison Roll and Caledonia Nordic's Joe Fisher.
The winter games are Feb. 23 to 26 in Vernon.
DUAL COMPETITION
Saturday was also the day of the Cadet provincial trials for Zones 1 and 2 their own B.C. winter games event during the first weekend of February in Comox.
All competitors skied six-kilometres with the top junior female Taniesha (Fisher) Fink from the Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (RCACC) Fort St. John with a time of 01:03:36 after penalties. Fink's teammate Bailey Ver Der Meer took first place in the junior men's with a 00:45:41.
Kaitlin Jantz of RCSCC Williams Lake was the top female overall in a time of 01:11:48, while her teammate Alexander Phaneuf was the top male overall in 00:37:12. Brandon Moore of the RCACC Prince George was the next highest class male with 00:48:33.
The Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps Williams Lake with Dana Rook, Emma Davidson, Chantelle Lebrun was the top female team, while RCACC Williams Lake with Olund Mork, Joshua Tucker and Matthew Mendick earned top male team honours.
