Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Canadian women off target

Tandy top Canadian, 73rd in World Cup biathlon sprint
Megan Tandy in Pokljuka 2018.jpg
Megan Tandy of Prince George was the top Canadian in Saturday's BMW World Cup sprint race in Pokljuka Slovenia.
No top-60 sprint result, no pursuit for the Canadian women's biathlon team.
That was the story Saturday on the slopes of the Julian Alps at Pokljuka, Slovenia.
The women's 7.5-kilometre sprint was one the Canadian women would rather forget. They has their difficulties on the shooting range and none of the four Canadians qualified for Sunday's pursuit.
Megan Tandy of Prince George was the top Canadian in 73rd place. She missed two of her five targets in the standing bout and stopped the clock 2:46.6 after gold medalist Kaisa Makarainen of Finland, who won in 20:08.1 after she cleaned both shooting bouts.
Rosanna Crawford of Canmore, Alta., was 77th with four penalties (+2:52.1, 2+2), followed by  Nadia Moser of Whitehorse, Yukon in 88th (+3:42.1, 2+2) and Megan Bankes of Calgary, who ended up 99th (+4:39.6, 1+4). 
Dorothea Wierer of Italy won silver (+14.8, 0-0) and Justine Braisaz of France captured the bronze medal (+42.1, 0-0).
Makarainen went on to win the 10 km pursuit in 29:6.9. Wierer was 41.3 seconds behind in silver-medal position and bronze went to Paulina Fialkova of Slovakia (+59.2).
Christian Gow of Canmore was the only Canadian to qualify for the pursuit after he placed 17th in Friday's sprint (+1:01.2, 0-0). In the 12.5 km pursuit he picked up three positions and finished 14th (+1:09.1, 0-0-0-0-0). 
Gow is off to a great start in the season-opening World Cup races. He placed 16th in the individual race in Pokljuka on Thursday and teamed up with Bankes to place sixth in the single mixed relay last Sunday.
In the race for the medals in the men's pursuit, less than two seconds separated the top three. Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway took gold in 30:20.4, one-tenth of a second ahead of silver medalist Quentin Fillion Mailler of France. Bronze medalist Alexander Loginov of Russia was 1.9 seconds behind Boe. All three shot clean.
The BMW World Cup tour visits Hochfilzen, Austria next week. The women's sprint is scheduled for Thursday, with the men's sprint to follow on Friday. Pursuits and relay races will be held on the weekend.
Caledonia Nordic Ski Club members Sarah Beaudry of Prince George and Emily Dickson of Burns Lake are in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna, Italy for IBU Cup races this week, starting with the single mixed and team mixed relays on Thursday.