Megan Tandy's decision not to ski the World Cup pursuit race a few days ago in Germany paid off in spades for the 28-year-old Prince George biathlete Thursday in Italy.
She posted a season-best 33rd-place finish in the women's 15-kilometre individual race.
Tandy missed four of 20 targets in four bouts of shooting, finishing five minutes behind gold-medalist Laura Dahlmeier of Germany.
Emma Lunder of Vernon was 21st in a field of 100 who entered the race in Anholz-Anterselva, her best-ever World Cup finish. Lunder had just one missed target and finished 3:29.7 behind Dahlmeier.
"Yay for #babysteps in the #rightdirection! Or in the case of my teammate Emma Lunder a huge leap to a new career best in 21st - #awesome!" posted Tandy on her Facebook site.
"I'm glad to be back in the points in 33rd despite a few extra misses during my final standing, and to have felt a bit better skiing...pretty sure the #sunshine #mountains and amazing crowd helped!"
Julia Ransom of Kelowna placed 55th, 6:28.2 off the winning pace, with four misses.
Anais Chevalier of France won silver, 3.8 seconds behind the leader, and Alexia Runggalder of Italy captured bronze.
Today in the men's 20km individual race there are four Canadians entered - Scott and Christian Gow of Calgary, Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T., and Macx Davies of Canmore, Alta.
On Saturday, the top-30 women on the circuit will race a mass start event, while the men will line up for a 4 X 7.5 km relay. The women's relay and the men's mass start race are scheduled for Sunday.
