Rosanna Crawford posted a career-best 14th-place result and her Canadian teammate Julia Ransom finished 20th in the women's 15-kilometre individual event Wednesday at the world biathlon championships in Oslo, Norway.
Crawford, a 27-year-old from Canmore, Alta., had never finished in the top-15 at the world championships. Her individual race result locked up a spot for her in Sunday's mass start event with the rest of the top 30 racers on the World Cup tour.
"Today was a great day," said Crawford, on the Biathlon Canada website. "I had set for myself a realistic goal of finishing in the top-15 so I'm happy that I came away from these championships with one.
"I had some really good individuals this season (she placed 13th at the season-opening race in Oestersund, Sweden) so I was confident going into the race, and really just tried to shoot like I do in training, and that worked well for me today.
"As I was getting close to the range, I would say to myself 'OK now for the easy part,' and that really helped me remember I am a good shooter, and that I love the range."
Crawford had just one miss in four shooting rounds and finished in 46 minutes 18.1 seconds, 2:15.3 off the gold-medal pace of Marie Dorin Hebert of France (44:02.8). Anais Bescond of France (44:15.0) and Laura Dahlmeier of Germany (45:20.6) also made the podium.
Zina Kocher of Red Deer was 54th and Sarah Beaudry of Prince George placed 60th out of 92 starters.
Ransom, a 23-year-old from Kelowna, in her first season on the World Cup tour, ended up 2:33.5 behind Hebert. Ransom shot clean, hitting all 20 of her targets. In individual races, each miss results in a one-minute penalty.
"I am pumped to be in the top-20 again. It's nice to be somewhat consistent throughout the year," said Ransom, on biathloncanada.ca. "All of us women shot pretty well today, and I think that brings strong energy forward to our relay. The difference must have been the delicious waffles here."
Kocher finished in 49:36.4 and had four missed targets, while Beaudry clocked 50:05.1 and went 18-for-20, missing one on her first prone shooting and on her first standing round.
Beaudry, Crawford, Ransom and Kocher are entered in Friday's women's 4 X 6km relay.
Beaudry, a World Cup rookie, will celebrate her 22nd birthday next week in Valcartier, Que., at the Canadian national championships, which start Tuesday.
In Oslo today, four Canadian men are entered in the 20km individual race. Christian Gow of Canmore starts 28th, Scott Gow of Canmore begins 47th, Nathan Brown of Calgary is 69th out of the gate and Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T., is 97th in the start order.
