In the twilight of the best season of his career, Canmore’s Nathan Smith survived a tough day in the range en route to a tenth-place finish in a 12.5-kilometre world cup biathlon pursuit race in Kontiolahti, Finland on March 16.
Smith shot 15/20 and finished with a time of 34:09.5, a mere 32 seconds out of first place and 12 seconds off the podium in what was an extremely close race. He started the race in eighth spot before moving up to second at the quarter mark.
“It was an interesting race and quite windy overall. Sometimes really gusty and other times it calmed down. Shooting was definitely the key to success today. I started with a perfect, fast prone which bumped me into second position. It took me a little by surprise that everyone was still laying down when I jumped off the mat,” Smith said.
He struggled in his next two trips to the range as swirling wind made for tough conditions.
“On my second prone the wind picked up, and then dropped back a little. The rest of the race I was working my way back into the top five. For the final shooting, it was really windy and a lot of guys were missing two or more shots.”
He began his last leg in fifth position, but his legs gave out on the last uphill.
Last season, Smith, 28, struggled to make the world cup team, but he’s emerged as Canada’s biggest threat on the world cup scene, as he’s rarely finished out of the top 30. One of the fastest and most accurate sharpshooters on the scene, he led the breakout year for the nation’s biathletes.
As well, Brendan Green improved on his ranking, moving up eight spots to 20th in the pursuit. He shot 17/20 and was jut over a minute off the pace. Scott Gow moved up one spot to 43rd in his late appearance on the world cup circuit.
Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe won the race in 33:37.1, followed by Martin Fourcade of France and Bjoern Ferry of Sweden.
Rosanna Crawford was the lone Canadian woman in the 10-km pursuit. She shot 14/20 and finished in 27th. Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen won the race, followed by Darya Domracheva of Belarus and Olga Zaitseva of Russia. Canada’s Zina Kocher and Megan Heinicke both missed the pursuit event due to injury.
The world cup season wraps up next weekend for biathletes in Oslo, Norway.
