CANMORE – Biathlon Canada selected its IBU Cup team of eight biathletes who will represent the nation in Europe starting this week.
Representing Canada for women are Calgary’s Darya Sepandj, Ottawa’s Shilo Rousseau and Richmond Hill, Ont.’s Zoe Pekos, and on the men’s side are Canmore’s Aidan Millar and Matthew Strum, Jules Burnotte of Sherbrooke, Qc., Tobias Quinn of Thunder Bay, Ont., and Alex Dupuis from Ottawa.
The first IBU Cup race is Jan. 14 in Arber, Germany.
"With the cancellation of the first trimester of racing on the IBU Cup, Biathlon Canada decided to select a larger team for the world cup in November/December (five athletes per gender for four start positions per gender)," said Jacqueline Akerman, the IBU Cup team's coach in an email. "This allowed more Canadian biathletes to have racing opportunities in December on the world cup. It also allowed these athletes to have consistent training with our world cup staff during this time.”
Last September, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) cancelled the IBU Cup’s November and December calendar due to the pandemic.
However, the IBU Cup, which is the development series for biathletes aiming to compete on the world cup circuit, was given a green light to start up in January, along with the IBU Open European Championship between Jan. 24-31 in Duszniki Zdroj, Poland.
Strum, who's currently preparing in Europe, said when the IBU Cup was cancelled it didn't change his mindset of making the world cup team. However, after Canada's trial races finished at the Canmore Nordic Centre, out of the five male spots that would be selected, Strum was sixth.
"I knew that my possibilities for this year were either no racing, or I get a good chance to race with the IBU cups," Strum said in an email. "Basically, I went into full training mode, and started to treat this time as part of next year's season, which could obviously prove worth it considering next year is an Olympic year, and having more time to train certainly improves my odds at going.
"Essentially, we are already focusing on performance for next year, and taking steps to make sure I'm at my best."
Already having world cup starts this season are senior national team members Millar and Burnotte and U24 national team biathlete Sepandj, who are joining the IBU Cup team starting this month.
Joining Akerman as support staff are assistant coach and tech Eric Schryer, and Felix Berubé-Larochelle as head technician.
