Under sunny skies, enjoying warm temperatures and great snow, the Golden Nordic Ski Club kicked off their very first biathlon race ever on Saturday, March 1st. Surpassing everyone’s expectations, a mighty thirty-five participants ranging from 8 through 70-some years old joined in to have fun and to test their skills.
The first two events involved speed skiing and precision shooting. Avery Levesque from Biathlon BC, who first came to Golden a year ago to facilitate a demo day, brought a radar speed gun for this. We clocked skiers near the bottom of Leaping Lynx trail at speeds ranging from 22 to 42 km/hr.
Everyone had two tries to beat their personal best. Notable winners in this event include Malcolm Labonville (U18) as the fastest male and fastest under age 18 with a speed of 42 km/hr, Deanna Andersen as fastest female of the day with a speed of 36 km/hr, and Wiley McLeod as fastest U12 skier (male or female) with a speed of 34 km/hr.
For the precision event, participants had plenty of time to aim for the highest score on their target shooting. Ecoaims rifles are optical, electronic rifles, so after taking a shot at the target, the computer generates a number that represents how close to the centre you hit. Hitting the exact centre provides biathletes with a score of 11.
There are five targets for each round. The totals were combined of these five shots. The sharpshooters of the day were biathlete and biathlon coach Nienke Rientjes with the highest score of 50.2, Ash Smith with a score of 47.6, and Rob Wilson with a score of 47.0. In fourth place overall and in the top under 12 is Parker Lathion, who scored 44.6.
The final event involved a more traditional biathlon event. Participants take off in a mass start, then come into the range to shoot, then ski a second lap, shoot, and ski for their final lap. If one misses one of the five targets, they ski a short penalty lap before continuing on the regular course. Those missing two shots need to ski two extra penalty laps.
Thus, in this event it really pays off to have clean shots to avoid extra skiing. First off were the youth and novice adults. Encouraged with the ringing of cowbells and friends and family cheering, skiers pushed hard and did amazing. Once again, Wiley McLeod came out on top with a finish of 4:04 on the 1k course (overall winner as well as fastest U12 Female).
Second place was taken by Graeme Harvey with a time of 5:01 (also fastest U14 male). Third place for the 1k course went to River Zayac with a time of 5:53 (and fastest U12 male). The adult’s event started next. It was a very close race with several take-overs throughout the race. Cote-Jacob crossed the finish line first with a time of 7:02 on the 1.5 k course.
Malcolm Labonville was not far behind at 7:35 as second overall and fastest U18 male. Although he was a faster skier on the course, he had some penalty laps that slowed him down. Coach John Denham was close behind at 7:45 as third overall. Nienke Rientjes put down a solid run as fastest female with a time of 8:15.
Last weekend’s race took place only one year after the Golden Nordic Ski Club hosted their first biathlon demo day at Dawn Mountain Nordic Centre. This demo day garnered a lot of interest for the sport of biathlon. Since then, the club has offered several demo events at local schools, summer kids camps, and the Fall Faire.
This winter, the club has offered adult and youth programming specific to biathlon using Ecoaims rifles. The club welcomes folks who are interested in joining us as a coach or biathlon participant next season. Please reach out to Sanne at programcoordinator@goldennordicclub.ca
A huge shout-out goes to Biathlon Canada and to Avery Levesque and Roddy Ward from Biathlon BC who have supported us in developing biathlon in Golden.
