Canadian biathlete Nathan Smith secured a 16 th place finish in Saturday’ s (Feb. 6) mass start and is set to anchor the single mixed relay with fellow Canuck Julia Ransom.
Canadian biathlete Nathan Smith secured a 16th place finish in Saturday’ s (Feb. 6) mass start and is set to anchor the single mixed relay with fellow Canuck Julia Ransom.
Despite windy conditions on the track, Smith was “pretty happy” with his performance at the Canmore Nordic Centre for the BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon races.
Smith crossed the line at 41:49.2 and shot 17/20 on the range in the men’ s 15-kilometre race.
“I’ m still feeling kind of tired on the skis,” said Smith. “I was picking up some time in the range thankfully, so I could kind of maintain my position in the middle of the pack.”
The sport is a combination of cross-country skiing and target shooting.
It was a gold medal sweep for the Italians in both mass start races Saturday.
The gold medalist in the men’ s was Dominik Windisch (40:37.1; 16/20).
The silver medalist was Benedikt Doll of Germany (40:41.2; 16/20) and placing in third was Quentin Fillon Maillet of France (40:35.7; 17/20).
Smith was the only Canadian competing Saturday due to none of Canada’ s women biathletes qualifying for the 12.5 km mass start.
Grabbing top honours for the women was Dorothea Wierer, an Olympic bronze medalist (36:50.0; 19/20).
The silver medal performance went to France’ s Marie Dorin Habert (37:10:8; 19/20), and earning bronze was Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic (37:40:3; 19/20).
After the races, Biathlon Canada revealed what athletes would be in Sunday’ s (Feb. 7) - the final day of races - single mixed relay and four-person relay.
Canada’ s single mixed relay team is Smith, and Ransom, who placed 19th in the women’ s 7.5 km sprint on Friday.
“(Julia’ s) definitely in a really good mindset and in great physical shape right now, so I think she could do really well in the race for sure,” said Smith.
Biathlon Canada’ s High Performance Director Eric de Nys said Ransom has been quicker over the weekend and Crawford, who had been scheduled for the spot previously, is dealing with a cold and is not 100 per cent.
The four-person relay team will be Sarah Beaudry, and then Canmore’ s Crawford, and Macx Davies will each get a leg, with the anchor spot going to Brendan Green.
“All the younger athletes have really stepped up,” said de Nys.
The races get underway at 10:10 a.m. with the single mixed relay starting things off.
For those in the public looking to watch the free event, a shuttle will run from the downtown Canmore bus stop on 9th Street to the Canmore Nordic Centre. The shuttle runs every 15 minutes on race days, beginning at 7:45 a.m.
