Growing up on the shores of Lake O’Hara, Aidan Millar spent his winters digging tunnels with his brother under mountains of snow surrounding the historic alpine lodge, 12 kilometres deep into the backcountry, and 2,000 metres above sea level.
Maybe it was the fresh mountain air, maybe it was the elevation, but from those humble beginnings, Millar, 20, has turned into a heck of an athlete.
Millar had a career-best eighth-place sprint finish at the world junior championships on Saturday (Feb. 21), shooting 9/10 and stopping the clock at 27:33.9, a mere 12 seconds off the podium in the biggest race of his career to date.
He followed that up with a 14th-place result in Sunday’s pursuit, finishing with a group of skiers who were all 20 seconds away from the top 10. Millar shot 14/20 in the pursuit.
“My skiing felt really good, maybe the best I’ve ever felt on skis,” said Millar, who was also happy with his shooting on Saturday. “I don’t know if I can pick one aspect that I would say was my strongest.”
The result is even more remarkable considering Millar’s raucous season. He suffered a concussion last spring playing soccer, which severely limited his training regime. His headaches were so bad he struggled to finish the 30 minute walk around Lake O’Hara in July.
After a slow comeback, he had a strong IBU Cup weekend overseas and barely made Canada’s world junior criteria. Now, he’s among the top 10 junior biathletes in the world.
This isn’t his first taste of success at world juniors. After a few standout youth results, last year in Presque Isle, Maine, Millar finished ninth in the sprint, but he’s more impressed with his races this year.
“I am happier with my results this year. Between the step up from youth to junior and the fact that there are more teams here this year makes the field that much deeper. I was about 30 seconds closer to the leader than last year, so I was happy about that,” Millar said.
Alex Dediukhin of Russia won the sprint race in 24:49, shooting clean.
Matthew Strum, also of Canmore, finished 46th in the sprint, followed by Carsen Campbell (55th). Stuart Harden didn’t start the race due to illness.
In the pursuit, Campbell was 48th and Strum finished 49th.
Eduard Latipov of Russia won Sunday’s race.
Sarah Beaudry is the lone Canadian female at the world junior championships. After dominating the competition last year, she struggled in the range in Minsk, finishing 38th in the sprint after shooting 7/10. She then dropped back to 40th in the pursuit. Lena Arnaud of France won the sprint, while Marie Heinrich of Germany won the women’s pursuit.
Beaudry and Millar have been chosen to represent Canada at IBU Cup 8 in Canmore based on the strength of their world championships result. Although both have raced a lot this year, they’re hoping a hometown advantage will result in a strong showing, and maybe time to dig a tunnel or two.
