An erratic day at the World Cup shooting range in Hochfilzen, Austria took a heavy toll Friday on Prince George biathlete Megan Heinicke.
Strong crosswinds and blowing snow made for difficult conditions and the 25-year-old Heinicke missed five of her 10 targets in two rounds of shooting to finish 70th out of 107 starters in the women's 7.5 kilometre sprint. That eliminated Heinicke from contention in Sunday's pursuit race.
Heinicke's time of 25:04.4 was two minutes 23.5 seconds off the winning pace of Selena Gasparin of Switzerland (23:16.9). Veronicka Vitkova of the Czech Republic (23:16.9) and Irina Starykh of Russia (23:18.1) shared the medal podium with Gasparin.
Heinicke failed to knock down one of five targets in her prone shooting round and missed four of five while standing. Only the top 60 finishers in the sprint qualify for the pursuit. Heinicke, who now lives in Germany, is the only member of the Canadian women's team who has yet to post a top-30 World Cup finish needed to qualify for the Olympic team.
Three Canadian women will race the 10 km pursuit on Sunday. Rosanna Crawford of Canmore placed 17th (24:04.0), Zina Kocher of Red Deer was 25th (24:19.7) and Megan Imrie of Falcon Lake, Man., was 35th (24:40.9).
Heinicke will start third for Canada in today's 4 X 6 km women's relay. Crawford will take the first leg of the race and will tag Imrie. Kocher will ski the anchor leg.
In the men's 10 km sprint Friday, Lars Berger of Norway won gold (25:02.0), Martin Fourcade of France claimed silver (25:15.6) and Ole Einar Bjoerdalen of Norway was the bronze medalist (25:17.3).
Jean Phillippe Le Guellec of Val-Blair, Que., was the top Canadian in 13th place (25:57.0). Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T. was 31st (26:41.9) and Nathan Green of Calgary finished 48th (27.13.4) out of 105 starters. Le Guellec, Green, Smith and Scott Perras of Regina will compete for Canada in today's 4 X 7.5 km relay.
Le Guellec, Green and Smith are qualified for Sunday's 12.5 km pursuit.
