The 2013 Yukon Biathlon Championships saw a new group of athletes and the return of a past champion Sunday at the Biathlon Yukon Range on Grey Mountain Road.
The sprint competition included three local cadets who are preparing for the Cadet National Biathlon Championships next week in Valcartier, Quebec.
“They’ve always trained on their own and we’d like to work more with them,” said Mary-Jane Oliver, vice-president of Biathlon Yukon. “We’re welcoming them in as much as we can.”
After not competing at all this season, past champion Erin Oliver-Beebe was back in action.
Oliver-Beebe, who had the fastest time of any biathlete on the six-kilometre course, tied just three others for the highest success rate at the range with 90 per cent.
The Whitehorse biathlete won the first medal by a Yukoner in 14 years at the 2011 Canadian Biathlon Championships. She competed at the World Junior and Youth Championships in Finland last year and represented the Yukon at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax.
The pre-junior divisions were the largest with five competitors in each. Dana Sellars, who shot clean in her second trip to the range, won for girls, and Micah Taggart-Cox shot at 70 per cent to win for the boys.
Biathlon Yukon’s Velocity Squad racers Tristan Sparks and Nadia Moser won the senior boys and senior girls titles.
Moser won four medals, including a gold, while representing the Yukon at the 2012 Arctic Games. Sparks captured two silver at the Games.
Maria Peters, who won the juvenile female division last year, topped the junior girls division, shooting at 70 per cent.
Velocity Squad’s Liam Adel, who took in an eighth place finish at the B.C. Cup two weeks ago, won the junior boys division.
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Results
Pre-junior girls (2.4 km)
1st Dana Sellars - 17:50.9
2nd Isla Hupe - 21:48.5
3rd Pascale Halliday - 22:04.7
4th Bronwyn Goodwin - 22:23.6
5th Emma Marknik - 40:25.7
Pre-junior boys (2.4 km)
1st Micah Taggart-Cox - 16:12.0
2nd Aidan Hupe - 20:00.1
3rd Ewan Halliday - 20:11.3
4th Caius Taggart-Cox - 21:38.3
5th Noah Marknik - 26:55.7
Senior boys (6 km)
1st Tristan Sparks - 32:21.7
Senior girls (6 km)
1st Nadia Moser - 35:30.5
Junior women (6 km)
1st Erin Oliver-Beebe - 27:52.4
Junior boys (4.5 km)
1st Liam Adel - 23:31.0
2nd Daniel Sennett - 24:20.1
3rd Pelly Vincent-Braun - 26:16.0
Junior girls (4.5 km)
1st Maria Peters - 24:43.1
2nd Amanda Thomson - 27:33.5
Junior female cadet (4.5 km)
1st Alexandria Duchaine - 45:45.1
Junior male cadet (4.5 km)
1st Ryan Thompson - 29:19.7
2nd Gordon Taylor - 31:07.0
Open men (6 km)
1st Land Pearson - 32:28.2
Masters men (6 km)
1st Brian Healy - 28:03.3
2nd Dave Brekke - 57:49.0
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com