Sick of watching his girlfriend Rosanna Crawford kick his butt on the world cup, Canmore’s Brendan Green finally decided to do something about it.
Green had the best race of his career on Thursday (Jan. 22) to finish fifth in a world cup sprint in Antholz, Italy. He missed the podium by a mere four seconds and continued his hot shooting streak, shooting 10/10 on the day, bringing his perfect streak to 50/50.
“It feels good. To be just four seconds off the podium is pretty sweet. I’m sure I’ll think about those four seconds eventually, but for now I’m especially happy with the race I executed, and the end result,” said Green.
With his parents in the crowd waving the Canadian flag, Green had extra motivation to perform on the day. The Hay River, NWT native who moved to Canmore a decade ago still has close ties to the northern community, which has named a ski trail after the Olympian.
“My parents arrived Wednesday night after travelling three days from Northern Canada, and it is just great to have them in the stands to see this race. They’ve dedicated so much time and energy toward my career,” he said.
“It was really special to be able to share this result with them, and I think that is what I will remember most from today – seeing my parents smiling and waving a flag from the grand stand during the prize ceremony.”
His previous best on the world cup was an eighth-place finish, also in Antholz, Italy.
“I’ve always loved racing here in Antholz and it is definitely my favourite stop on tour. It’s hard to say exactly why I’ve been able to find success here. It’s a fun venue to race, the atmosphere and fans are awesome, the weather is almost always perfect and the course is one that maybe plays a little more into my strengths,” said Green.
“I know this is usually a venue where I can ski strong, so I knew that with solid shooting a good result would be possible, but I didn’t necessarily think it would be this good. The fact that I have had some of my better results here, like my sprint race last year, is definitely a motivator as well.”
Simon Schempp of Germany shot clean to win gold, finishing ahead of Russia’s Evhenly Garanichev and Slovenia’s Jakov Fak.
Christian Gow was the only other Canadian to crack the top 60. The world cup rookie finished 52nd, while his brother Scott was 74th. Nathan Smith struggled in the range, missing four to finish in 78th.
Crawford wasn’t to be outdone in her sprint. Coming off illness, she was 29th in the women’s sprint on Friday (Jan. 23). Megan Heinicke finished 40th, Julia Ransom was 76th and Audrey Vaillancourt finished 83rd.
On Sunday (Jan. 25), Green’s deadeye streak ended in his second trip to the range.
After hitting 55 straight targets in a row, Green missed twice in his second trip to the range in the pursuit. He missed twice more the next round before cleaning his last standing bout to finish in 33:25.8, good enough for 18th, two minutes away from the podium.
“I knew my clean shooting streak would have to come to an end eventually. It would have been amazing to keep it going for one more race, especially today, but it was great that it lasted so long and hopefully I can continue to have strong shooting throughout the season,” said Green.
Starting in fifth, he matched ski speed with the top four racers for the first two laps and found himself in third spot until his second trip to the range.
“Saturday’s race was a tougher one for me. I had anticipated that I would likely have to redline it to catch and then ski with the leaders on the first loop which I was able to do.”
Crawford moved up to 26th in the pursuit on Saturday, while Heinicke had a solid race, moving up from 40th to 29th.
The relay brought awful weather to Italy, which wreaked havoc in the range on Sunday. The Gow brothers, Green and Smith ended up in ninth, while the women’s squad of Heinicke, Ransom, Crawford and Vaillancourt ended up 10th.
The Canadians have had a string of top 20 performances, as this has been one of the most consistent teams in years. While individual results have varied, Crawford, Green and Smith have kept Canada in the medal hunt week after week.
“The atmosphere on the team is filled with excitement and anticipation. The great individual results have shown what is possible and serve as great motivation for younger athletes,” said head coach Matthias Ahrens.
“Knowing that we can be on the podium when everything aligns was started by Jean Phillippe LeGuellec two years ago and has instilled confidence in athletes like Rosanna, Nathan and Brendan. Of course, that is based on hard work during the training year.”
The success is rubbing off on younger athletes such as Vaillancourt, Christian Gow and Ransom, who are benefitting from more world cup starts. Gow made his first pursuit on Saturday.
“We now have a mix of older, more experienced and younger, eager athletes on the team. This is the start of forming a new team towards the 2018 Olympics. They are adjusting fairly quick and are already a key component in our relay teams,” Ahrens said.
