SLOVENIA – The rifle smoke has cleared from the biathlon world championships in Pokljuka, Slovenia, with Canada's big guns turning in big time results.
In the men’s and women’s mass starts, the final competition of the 2021 world champs on Sunday (Feb. 21), Canucks Christian Gow and Emma Lunder flew to career-bests, finishing 11th and 17th, respectively.
Emma Lunder & Christian Gow reflect on a terrific Mass start! pic.twitter.com/8w97EDsBPR
— Biathlon Canada (@biathloncanada) February 21, 2021
“Really exciting to do my first-ever world champs mass start today,” Gow said on social media after the event finished on Sunday. “[It’s] hard to do seven races in such a short period of time, but I had enough today on the skis and I’m really happy to post a PB in 11th.”
Earlier in the world champs, Gow secured another personal best, placing 17th in the 10-km sprint after shooting clean in the race.
The impressive sharpshooting continued on Sunday, where he shot 19/20 and finished at a time of 37:29.3. He was just under four seconds behind 10th place Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden.
Canmore serves as the hub for the national biathlon team, and head coach, Justin Wadsworth said he was impressed with Gow’s solid effort.
“Having to leave the range with some of the best skiers on the biathlon circuit, in the world like Johannes Thingnes Boe, Christian was really battling with them out on the tracks as well, and really hanging tough and showing his fitness, so that was really exciting to see,” he said.
Lunder shot 17/20 in the final race, finishing at a time of 38:26.3.
"The mass start was the seventh race of world champs for me, so I was feeling fairly tired leading into it," said Lunder.
Like Gow, it was Lunder's best result at a world championship.
“Had she missed a few less she would have definitely been obviously really in the hunt, so again, a really solid effort in her overall ranking 18th going in the last trimester,” said Wadsworth.
“That just shows her consistency being in that upper-tier of athletes on the world cup," said Wadsworth.
The Canadian duo also competed in the single mixed relay, racing a "fast and aggressive" relay against the world's best, Lunder and Gow finished eighth against 27 other nations on Feb. 18.
Clocking in at a time of 38:06.8 (0+6), only 3.2 seconds behind Germany.
“It was a little unfortunate," said Wadsworth. "They had a little bit of a gap, so part of the race they skied alone, which is always tough in short, fast relay like that. But that said, when they were with the world’s best, they were skiing at the same speed and doing really well, so overall I think it was good - good effort by both of them.”
France won gold with a time of 36:42.4 (0+5), followed by Norway (0+9) in second and Sweden (0+8) in third.
"The single mixed relay was one of the more exciting races because it's so fast-paced. I think Christian and I did a good job, especially with the teams we were up against, and eighth was a solid result for our team," said Lunder.
The relay was undoubtedly circled on the calendar of Canada’s top male and female biathlete duo, which was thought to be one of the nation’s best shots at contending for a medal.
Eight was the magic number for Canada’s mixed relay teams.
To kick off world champs, the firing squad of Gow, Lunder, Scott Gow, and Nadia Moser took eighth place.
Currently, the Canadian men and women are 13th on the Nation Cup ranking – the women’s highest rank in five years, and four years for the men.
"We didn’t get a podium at world champs, but we’re chipping away at it and the team is really working hard and staying really positive on the road, and doing a great job during these challenging times," Wadsworth said.
