Canmore's Davies is top Canadian at IBU men's sprint

Four Canadian biathletes finished in the top 40 of the men’ s 10 kilometre sprint on the opening day of the BMW IBU world cup biathlon, Thursday (Feb. 4) in Canmore.

Canadians were given a heroes welcome by the home crowd cheering and waving flags from the stands at the Canmore Nordic Centre.

Perhaps the biggest pop went to Canmore’ s own Macx Davies, who was the top Canadian on the day, placing 25^th (25:37.2; 10/10).

Nathan Smith placed 31^st (25:44.2; 9/10), Scott Gow finished 34^th (25.47.0; 9/10), Brendan Green was 40^th (26.01.0; 9/10) and Christian Gow placed 61^st (26.41.7; 9/10).

Davies was all smiles while speaking with reporters following the race and with perfect shooting on the range, he had every right to be.

“I’ m very happy about my shooting,” said Davies. “Skiing, I was hoping for a little bit better, but I was still able to keep pace with most of those guys, so I’ m pretty happy with everything today.

“I do my best and (being at home) adds a bit more pressure. I’ m really happy I was able to rise to that pressure and do well and sometimes I’ ve crumbled under it.”

Multi Olympic gold medalist Martin Fourcade of France added more gold to his trophy case by finishing first overall (23:51.5; 10/10).

Anton Shipulin of Russia secured silver (24:07.2; 10/10), and Simon Schempp of Germany earned a bronze finish (24.10.2; 10/10).

For Calgary’ s Smith, getting the nerves out of the way in the first race is key and he said he knows he could “do better” over the weekend in the upcoming races.

“I feel better and better through the weekend, because my legs are shaking right now; but once you get that out of your system, the next day you’ re usually feeling sharper on the skis,” Smith said.

Green was the first Canadian out of the gates in the staggered start, and said he “had a tough time” out on the course today.

“Normally, the sprint is one of my stronger events and usually they go by pretty quick, but today it just felt like an eternity on the skis,” said Green.

“It’ s disappointing for sure, you know, this is my home, I should have home field advantage and unfortunately I just wasn’ t able to capitalize on it today.”

Green’ s girlfriend and fellow Canadian biathlete Rosanna Crawford had been sick leading up to the world cup, but Green said he hadn’ t been affected by it.

On Friday (Feb. 5) at 11:15 a.m., the women’ s 10 km sprint gets underway at the Nordic Centre.

Canadians Crawford, Zina Kocher, Julia Ransom and Sarah Beaudry will compete.

For those in the public looking to watch the free event, a shuttle will run from the downtown Canmore bus stop on 9th Street will run to the Canmore Nordic Centre. The shuttle runs every 15 minutes on race days, beginning at 7:45 a.m.