Zina Kocher did not make Biathlon Canada's national team criteria this season, but successfully appealed under an injury/illness provision to regain her Athlete Assistance Program funding through Sport Canada. She believes a national team nomination should follow. Her federation does not.
Nathan Smith made history for Canadian biathlon this year, becoming the first man to ever win a World Championships medal; he later won his first World Cup. Teammate Rosanna Crawford came oh-so-close to her own first podium.
We caught up with Canadian biathlon staff and athletes to chat about the significance of Nathan Smith's World Cup in on Saturday, just the second in history for a Canadian man. It's good for Smith and good for the program - but Own the Podium is unlikely to reward it with money, because the funding body only considers World Championships and Olympic medal performances.
Nathan Smith had the confidence he needed for Saturday's sprint on the first day of individual racing at 2015 IBU World Championships, even if the soft-spoken Canadian didn't show it. "I knew if I had an average day ... that it could be really good," Smith said. What he didn't expect was silver, Canada's first-ever medal for a male at World Championships.
The Canadian men have a new relay team this year, but that isn't stopping them from achieving new heights: Christian Gow, Nathan Smith, Scott Gow, and Brendan Green finished fifth in Oslo today, a minute and a half behind the winning Russian team.
Canada's Nathan Smith made headlines for the second-straight day with his second-straight clean race, hitting all 20 targets to place fifth in Sunday's IBU World Cup pursuit. Leif Nordgren led the U.S. in 20th, and Slovenia's Jakov Fak remained untouchable in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
Canada's Nathan Smith improved 71 places since his last World Cup sprint for a career-best seventh with perfect shooting in the Saturday's IBU World Cup sprint in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. Three Canadian men qualified for Sunday's pursuit, with Brendan Green in 22nd and Macx Davies in 54th.
He felt a little weird saying it, but Bernd Eisenbichler viewed Friday’s single mixed relay — a brand-new event which was first tested in Oslo last season — as a “good training opportunity” for US Biathlon's Annelies Cook and Tim Burke. The two teamed up for ninth on the first day of the IBU World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
Brendan Green couldn't say for sure what's brought him so much success lately -- could be the venues or the minor cues he's been working on -- but his coaches have a hunch. The Canadian biathlete became the first man on the circuit in the last two seasons to shoot 50-for-50 in four-straight IBU World Cup races.
Missing the wax meant that Susan Dunklee's good feelings about Friday's sprint didn't show up on the results sheet. But the U.S. biathlete turned it around in the mass start, taking her now-fast skis all the way up to third before falling to 16th place, still a season best. Megan Heinicke, in the first mass start of her career, finished 23rd for Canada.
Confidence builds on itself. Despite having a cold earlier this week, Rosanna Crawford took Sunday's fifth-place finish on the biathlon World Cup and turned it into a fourth-place follow up, finishing the 7.5 k sprint 36 seconds behind winner Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic.
With a goal of a top eight on Saturday, the Canadians did two places better to tie a team-best sixth in the IBU World Cup men's relay in Hochfilzen, Austria. Russia won it by 20 seconds over France, and Norway was another 7.7 seconds back in third.
Rosanna Crawford worked out her pre-World Cup nerves by leading the World Cup mixed relay halfway through leg one. The team's early advantage was negated by Zina Kocher's two penalty loops, but Crawford, Nathan Smith, and Marc-Andre Bedard can still call themselves the best three shooters in the race.
Three biathletes from Switzerland ventured to Canmore earlier this month for three weeks of training with the Canadian biathlon team. Before heading home, they headed to the Yukon for a little R & R.
Chris Lindsay and Matthias Ahrens of Biathlon Canada have both confirmed that the national team's Valcartier training center will be closed down later this spring, and with it coach Jean Paquet's contract has not been renewed. Ahrens hoped that Paquet would still provide staffing on race tours; Paquet's athlete Jean Philippe Le Guellec lamented the centralization push that was a major part of the decision.
For the first time, Canada qualified two women for a biathlon mass start: Zina Kocher, who skied in second and third place for the first half of the race, and Rosanna Crawford, who achieved a longstanding goal of making the top ten. Crawford was racing with injuries sustained in a collision with a Russian coach in yesterday's pursuit.
Rosanna Crawford was in 13th place in the World Cup pursuit when Russian head coach Vladimir Korolkevich, cheering for an athlete on another trail, stepped between her skis and sent her flying. Despite a time adjustment by the jury, she lost several places - as well as her hat and sunglasses.
North American men had their moments in the 12.5 k World Cup pursuit in Kontiolahti, Finland. But biathlon giveth and biathlon taketh away, especially when it’s as windy as it was in Kontiolahti today. And so at the end of the race, Nathan Smith of Canada landed in tenth and Lowell Bailey of the United States in 14th. Bailey started in third, 19 seconds behind leader Johannes Thingnes Bø of Norway, after Results
In incredibly gusty conditions, Kaisa Mäkäräinen won the 10 k biathlon pursuit by a minute over Darya Domracheva of Belarus. Susan Dunklee of the U.S. moved from eighth up to seventh despite a whopping seven penalties, thanks in part to the second-fastest ski time of the day - and other racers' struggles on the shooting range.
Coming into the last prone stage of Friday's Olympic relay, the Canadian women were in second place - an unprecedented position. But five spare rounds and two penalty loops from Zina Kocher knocked them back into 8th. Even though It was still their best Olympic relay result ever, disappointment showed: "This is a relay we could have medaled in, flat out," said High Performance Director Chris Lindsay.