With tears streaming down her rosy wind burnt cheeks, biathlete Emma Lunder warmly hugged teammate Claude Godbout in disbelief at what had just happened.
Lunder, completely exhausted, was amazed to look up and see the scoreboard displaying her name for a second-place performance at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Cup 7 on Saturday (Feb. 28) at the Canmore Nordic Centre.
“I thought I could put together a decent result, but there was no way I could have expected this,” a teary-eyed Lunder said about her silver-medal performance.
The 24-year-old won Canada’s first medal as she shot clean during the 7.5 kilometre sprint race in 19:51.5. Karolin Horchler of Germany finished five seconds ahead in 19:46.4 and France’s Marine Bolliet claimed bronze in 19:54.4.
“I’ve never cleaned in a IBU Cup or world cup or anything like that,” said Lunder, who was overwhelmed and unfazed by the local support from friends and family at the cup.
“My mom (was here and) has never seen me race in an IBU cup before … I’m sure my mom’s crying in the stands somewhere,” Lunder said.
After cleaning her last bout of targets, she threw on the jets and pushed into second place. She made up 15 seconds on the leader in the final lap and said the “last loop was my strongest stretch.”
Her Canadian teammates all finished outside of the top 15 in the race. Red Deer’s Zina Kocher finished 19th in 21:41.2. Melanie Schultz came out of retirement to finish 27th, followed by Erin Yungblut (29th), Claude Godbout (30th) and Leilani Tam von Burg (33rd).
Lunder thinks since the event is in Canmore there is added pressure to the Canadians, but following the race of her life she thinks momentum is now firmly on her and her teammates’ side for the remainder of the cup event.
“We didn’t have an amazing start, but to have one person on the podium, that just sets everyone else up knowing that if I can do it they can too,” Lunder said. “I’m a little bit overwhelmed and I think in shock right now. I’ll probably go back to my house and spend a few hours alone and refocus for my next race.”
Lunder started her training at age 15 and moved to Canmore from Vernon B.C. four years ago. She has been a member of Canada’s national B team for one season and this is her third winter competing on the IBU cup circuit.
Canadian biathletes are back in action against international competition on Friday and Saturday (March 6-7) starting at 10 a.m. at the Nordic Centre.
