A day after the Canadian biathletes had their best day of racing in 10 years, they were shut out of the post-race ceremonies in Sunday’s IBU World Cup sprints in Ostersund, Sweden.
Christian Gow of Canmore placed 22nd in the men’s 10-kilometres sprint. Gow, who started the season Saturday with a 10th-place result in the individual event. Gow had one standing miss on the range and stopped the clock one minute 19.9 seconds behind sprint winner Sebastien Samuelsson of Sweden, who completed the course in 22:33.5 with two clean shooting bouts.
Gow’s brother Scott, who just missed the medal podium Saturday when he finished fourth, dropped to 38th in the sprint finish order, 1:45.1 off the winning pace with one miss in the prone position.
Jules Brunotte of Sherbrooke, Que., cracked the sprint top-30, placing 28th (+1:27.8, 0+1).
Norwegians Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen (+11.8, 0+0) and Johanne Thingnes Boe (+12.2, 0+0) took silver and bronze respectively. The race drew 117 competitors.
In the women’s 7.5 km sprint, Emma Lunder of Vernon, who posted a sixth-place individual result, was the top Canadian in 42nd place (+1:54.4, 0+1).
Saah Beaudry of Prince George was 63rd in the sprint (+2:10.4, 1+0), after placing 79th in the individual event.
“Moving in the right direction,” said the 27-year-old Beaudry, in her Instagram post. “Looking forward to some more races next week to continue improving.
Hannah Oeberg of Sweden set the pace, winning gold in 19:01.5 with no misses. Anais Chevalier-Bouchet of France won silver (+11.3, 0+0) and Marte Olsbu Roiseland of Norway took bronze (+15.4, 0+1).
Benita Peiffer of Vancouver (+3:51.5, 3+1) was 107tin a field of 113 starters.
Ostersund will host a second week of racing starting Thursday with sprints. Pursuits and team relays are on the weekend schedule.
