Sarah Beaudry shot well, skied even better, and will leave the world junior/youth biathlon championships in the Czech Republic knowing she will be that much more prepared to take on the best in the world the next time she gets to that level.
The 16-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member raced the anchor leg of the youth girls 3 X 6-kilometre relay Thursday and helped Canada to an eighth-place finish in the 13-team event.
Russia's team of Elena Badania, Viktoriya Perminova and Ekaterina Zubova won the youth women's relay gold medal. The Ukraine team captured silver and France won bronze.
Beaudry, a Grade 11 student at Duchess Park secondary school, shot cleanly in both her prone shooting rounds Thursday and had two misses at the range in each standing round. Rose-Marie Cote of Quebec City took the first leg of the relay and had just one miss in 20 shots, while Julia Ransom of Kelowna, the second skier in the relay for Canada, missed six of her 20 shots.
Canada finished in 1:04:37.2, 6:11 behind Russia's winning time of 58:26.2.
"The relay was a very fun event, unfortunately we didn't do quite as well as we hoped, but my ski felt very strong and my legs were very dead at the end, and my shooting was decent," said Beaudry, in an email from Nove Mesto.
"Overall my experience here has been very positive," she said. "I am very pleased with my results and have learnt lots now. I am excited to race at Canada Games."
The race marked the end of Beaudry's first world championship competition. She is scheduled to arrive back in Canada on Sunday and will join Team B.C. in Halifax to begin training for the 2011 Canada Winter Games.
Beaudry started with a 52nd-place result in the sprint on Saturday, was 40th in the pursuit on Sunday, and placed 33rd in Tuesday's individual race.
"My first race was a very good learning experience because when I came into the range for the first shooting (round) I got so caught up with the fact that it is worlds and didn't get into a good rhythm, so I only hit two," said Beaudry. "But I brought it back for the standing and hit four, which was nice.
"The next day was the pursuit and the youth women's team was really feeling the redemption and all moved up a lot. I had a really good race with clean prone (shooting), which was heaven and then four standing (targets hit). Unfortunately on my last standing (round) I was really feeling the ski in my leg and arms and couldn't hold the rifle up, costing me three targets, but overall I was very pleased with my race.
"The individual was also a good day for me," she said. "Unfortunately I didn't feel great the second two loops, but then I felt better in the end and was very pleased with my 33rd place."
In the youth men's 3 X 7.5km relay, Russians Alexandr Loginov, Alexander Chernyshov and Maxim Tsvetkov won gold in 1:04:25.6, followed by Italy (1:05:48.8) and bronze-medalists Austria (1:06:30.3). The all-Canmore team of Stuart Harden, Christian Gow, and Macx Davies finished in seventh place in 1:07:44.9, 3:19 behind the Russians.
Aaron Neumann of Prince George, who now lives in Canmore, is listed as the third starter for Canada in today's junior men's 4 X 7.5km relay. It will be the last race for Neumann at the world championships. He is also slated to compete for B.C. at the Canada Winter Games biathlon events in Halifax. Neumann started the world event with an 81st-place result in the sprint and was 61st in the individual race.
