Eight athletes from the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club competed in the first North American Cup Biathlon event last weekend in Canmore.
Sarah Beaudry, competing in the youth women category, placed first in both the sprint and pursuit events while Matt Neumann was second in both sprint and pursuit for senior men. Both athletes, along with Arthur Roots, train full time in Canmore these days. In the junior men's event, Roots placed sixth in both sprint and pursuit.
A sprint consists of three laps of skiing and two bouts of shooting at distances between six and 12 kilometres, depending on the age group, while the pursuit has five laps of skiing and four rounds of shooting with competitors starting in five-second intervals.
Other CNSC athletes competing among the 230 registered competitors were Emily Dickson (first in sprint, third in pursuit for senior girls), Leah Fordsdick (fifth in sprint and pursuit for youth women), Claire Lapointe (13th in sprint, seventh in pursuit for senior girls), Josiah Fisher (29th and 28th in sprint/pursuit respectively for senior boys) and Colton McDougal (32nd sprint, 30th pursuit, senior boys).
All of the CNSC athletes, except Neumann, are eligible to compete in the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George. The final team will be selected in January 2015.
The North American Cup in Canmore was the first of four races biathletes to compete in to be chosen to participate for Team B.C. at the national championship in March at Whistler Olympic Park. The other selected races biathletes will be chosen from are the B.C. Cups 1 and 2 held Jan. 18-19 in Whistler and Feb. 8-10 in West Kelowna and the B.C. championship, Feb. 22-24, in Prince George.
