A day after she nailed down her best ever World Cup biathlon result with a 12th-place finish in the individual race, Megan Heinicke's immune system was under attack.
She woke up Saturday in stersund, Sweden. with a head cold and that's a recipe for trouble in a sport as taxing on the cardiovascular system as biathlon. Heinicke struggled on the course and finished 82nd out of 97 in 24:59.1, 3:26 behind race winner Tiril Eckhoff of Norway. Rosanna Crawford of Canmore was the top Canadian in 12th place, 70 seconds behind Eckhoff. Zina Kocher of Red Deer was 66th and Audrey Vaillancourt of Quebec City placed 88th.
The sprint was a qualifier for the pursuit on Sunday and only the top 60 advanced. Crawford finished the pursuit 14th, 1:48 behind gold medalist Kaisa Makarainen of Finland.
Nathan Smith of Calgary placed 16th in the men's 12.5km pursuit after a ninth-place finish in the sprint. Smith crossed the finish 1:30 behind Martin Fourcade of France, who clocked 33:54.9. Marc-Andre Bedard of Saint-Croix,Que.,and Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T., were 61st and 63rd respectively in the sprint and missed the cut for the pursuit.
Heinicke, a 26-year-old native of Prince George who lives in Germany, began her race season two weekends ago at IBU Cup races in Beitostolen, Norway, where she finished 16th and 48th in the 7.5km sprint events.
She's hoping to compete in World Cup events this weekend in Hochfilzen, Austria, which start Friday with a sprint. A relay is scheduled for Saturday, followed by a pursuit on Sunday.
