Two Yukon biathletes have faced the best in Canada and have broken into single digits.
Ryan Burlingame and Nadia Moser placed top 10 at the Canadian National Biathlon Championships in Charlo, New Brunswick, on Wednesday.
Burlingame placed seventh out of 13 in the open men’s 10-kilometre sprint. He shot nine out of 10 to be the best shooter in his division, which includes two Sochi Olympians, Scott Perras and Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, who placed first and second.
Moser placed 9th in the senior girls six-kilometre sprint, cracking the top 10 in the largest senior girls division in the championship division with 28 entered.
Yukon teammate Maria Peters placed 16th in the same division in Wednesday’s six-kilometre sprint.
Yukon’s Tristan Sparks raced to 27th out of 32 in the senior boys six-kilometre sprint, shooting seven out of 10 at the range.
Thursday’s pursuit races were postponed after a blizzard dumped 50 centimetres of snow in Charlo Thursday morning.
“They are all very positive about their experience,” said Yukon coach Dennis Peters. “Three of them are brand new at the nationals, so it’s a new experience. It’s a high calibre event; there are a lot of very good athletes over here.
“Tristan shot really well. Maria and Nadia weren’t as happy with their shooting but they both skied very well.
“It’s unfortunate that it looks like we’ll miss the next race because we’re heading back to Whitehorse tomorrow morning to catch the plane to the Arctics.”
Moser, Maria and Sparks, who are members of Biathlon Yukon’s Velocity Squad race team, will represent Yukon at the Arctic Winter Games next week in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Moser won a gold, two silver and a bronze at the 2012 Arctic Games in Whitehorse, claiming hardware in every race she started.
Sparks won two silver at the 2012 Games.
Burlingame, who is not going to the Arctic Games, will remain in Charlo for the rest of the championships. Burlingame was the only Yukoner to compete at the nationals last year, placing 11th in three races.
He also competed for Team Canada at the Winter World University Games in Trentino, Italy, this past December. Burlingame, who studies at the University of Alberta, led Team Canada in the 10-kilometre sprint at the Games, placing 45th. He also helped the team take ninth in the mixed relay.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com