For the fourth straight Winter Olympics, Prince George will be cheering on a hometown athlete.
Megan Heinicke made that official Thursday in Annecy, France when she helped Canada to a best-ever fourth-place finish in the women's 4 X 6-kilometre World Cup biathlon relay.
The Canadian team included Rosanna Crawford of Canmore, Alta., Megan Imrie of Falcon Lake, Man., and Zina Kocher of Red Deer, Alta. Canada overtook France in the last leg to finish fourth, 1:35 off the pace and 1:12 from a bronze medal.
The 25-year-old Heinicke (nee Tandy) completed the third leg of the relay while missing three targets. Canada had nine misses in total on the range.
I am so proud of these girls, Imrie told The Canadian Press. I have witnessed each and every one of them train through blood, sweat and tears to the breaking point. We are fit. We are hungry for results and this isn't the last you have seen of us.
Germany missed just three targets and won gold. The team of Franziska Preuss, Andrea Henkel, Franziska Hildebrand and Laura Dahlmeier completed the course in one hour six minutes 27.8 seconds, beating Ukraine by 23.3 seconds and Norway by 23.8 seconds.
Selina Gasparin gave Switzerland the lead in the opening leg, but Germany went in front with a perfect second leg from Henkel before Hildebrand extended the 2012 world champions' lead to 35.8 seconds at the third exchange. Olena Pidhrushna climbed to second in the last leg, holding off Tora Berger of Norway, whose team struggled with its shooting and missed 10 targets.
The men's relay is set for Friday.
Megan is the oldest daughter of Heather and Ed Tandy of Prince George. Ed emailed the Citizen Thursday morning to relay the news about her qualifying. Unfortunately for the Tandy's, they won't be able to attend the Games in Sochi to see Megan compete.
"We are not going to Russia," said Ed, in his email. "The cost is stupidly high and is out of our price point. We got to see Megan in Vancouver in 2010 and that was a great experience. She has lots of family in Europe on her husband's side who will be in Russia so she will have family support."
Heinicke is the last member of the Canadian women's team to qualify for Sochi. She needed at least one top-30 World Cup result and this weekend's stop in France was to be her last chance on the World Cup stage. Had she not made the grade, Heinicke would have had to emerge as the top Canadian in two sprint races later this month in Canmore to make the Olympic team.
Heinicke was the lone Prince George athlete to compete the 2010 Olympics, following the path of freestyle moguls skiers Chris Wong and Scott Bellavance, who both grew up in the city. Bellavance finished sixth in moguls at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, while Wong placed 14th at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.
Wong will be going to Sochi with the Canadian team as the assistant coach for the national freestyle team. The head coach is Rob Kober, a former head coach of the Prince George-based Central Interior Freestyle Ski Club.
-- with files from Associated Press, Canadian Press
