High winds wreaked havoc on the World Cup biathlon course Sunday in Oestersund, Sweden but the conditions didn't seem to bother Megan Heinicke.
Having covered eight kilometres of a 10-kilometre women's pursuit course, the 25-year-old from Prince George had jumped from 56th into sixth place when Heinicke was suddenly told the 60-skier race was over.
"I was managing the wind quite well and had moved into sixth place, the highest ranking I've ever had in the World Cup, and they cancelled the race because of tornado-like winds," said Heinicke, the eldest daughter of Ed and Heather Tandy of Prince George, from her hotel room in Sweden.
"It was pretty bummed out about that. I couldn't believe it when they told me. The wind was so extreme, everyone was doing penalty laps and I fought through it and had a great shooting day with only three misses and three shootings. But it doesn't matter because it was cancelled."
Heinicke, one of four Canadian women on the World Cup tour, began the weekend in Sweden with a 77th-place finish in the 15 km individual race Thursday. A bad day at the shooting range resulted in nine penalty loops for Heinicke, which left her 8:29 behind the winning pace of 47:56, set by Gabriela Soulalova of the Czech Republic.
"I was pretty happy with my skiing, I think I had the 32nd-ranked ski time," she said. "But I didn't have a good time with the wind Thursday."
On Friday, Heinicke was 56th after three missed targets in two shooting rounds in the 7.5 km sprint. Megan Imrie was the top Canadian, finishing 22nd, which qualified the native of Falcon Lake., Man., for the Olympics in February.
Heinicke, whose 36th-place finish in the pursuit at the 2010 Olympics was the best ever for a Canadian woman, needs at least one top-30 placing in the next two World Cup stops to qualify for her second Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Failing that, she would have to return to Canada and finish on top of a two-sprint race showdown in Canmore to decide the final Olympic team spot. The World Cup scene switches to Hochfilzen, Austria this week, where Heinicke is entered in Friday's sprint. Annecy, France is the site of the third World Cup stop, Dec. 9-15.
"It's definitely pressure, but the bottom line is I have trained well and know what I want to do and know how to do it, and I will give my best every race no matter what," said Heinicke. "I'm stronger than I've ever been, so I definitely have the ability to ski faster and to fight harder than I did in 2010. I'm also shooting faster, my range time is significantly faster than it was four years ago."
Jean-Phillippe Le Guellec of Shannon, Que., provided a big lift for the Canadian team on Friday, finishing fourth in the men's individual 20 km race. He was 2:31 off the gold-medal pace of Martin Fourcade of France. "That's amazing for Canada and amazing for J.P. and it's nothing but positive for us as group," Heinicke said.
Heinicke lives in Germany with her husband Illmar and their three-year-old son Predo. Although she doesn't meet Canadian residency requirements for national team funding, being centrally located to most World Cup races in Europe has significant travel benefits for Heinicke.
"I do miss having the opportunity to train with my Canadian colleagues, but on the flipside I trained with some of the German junior men my husband trains and that was excellent training trying to keep up with them," she said. "We would love to be living in Canada but it's really not realistic. Illmar has a high enough salary [as head of a regional training centre in Altenberg, Germany] to support myself and my son and I'm able to have him as my coach and continue to pursue high-performance sports. That's a tough setup to create."
Through her website meganheinicke.com, Heinicke is sending her supporters to another site, pursu.it with hopes of raising $7,500 to help her reach her Olympic goal. She said several Prince George donors have followed through with donations since a column about Heinicke by Citizen sportswriter Jason Peters appeared in Friday's paper.
