CANMORE – With the sprint races in the books at the 2024 BMW IBU Biathlon World Cup in Canmore, five Canadians qualified for Saturday’s (March 16) pursuit races.
Making the cut were Nadia Moser, Emma Lunder and Benita Peiffer for the women, and Adam Runnalls and Zachary Connelly for the men. The Canucks advanced after finishing in the top-60 in Thursday’s and Friday’s (March 14-15) sprint races at the Canmore Nordic Centre.
Olympian Runnalls had the best result of all Canadians, finishing 41st and shooting eight-for-ten at a time of 26:33.7. It was Calgarian’s debut World Cup on home soil.
“I raced the IBU Cup here last year and kind of felt the energy from that, but this one has a little bit more weight and nerves to it,” said Runnalls, 25. “It gives you a lot of energy and a lot of extra drive to keep going when it hurts.”
Starting with the No. 2 bib, the Canmore crowd behind Runnalls early on. After two quick laps, he shot clean in prone, but missed two shots standing at the range, which sent him two times around the 150-metre penalty loop.
“I had some shaky legs and fumbled a bullet trying to put it in,” said Runnalls. “I think it was a little bit of nerves knowing it could have been really good and just really wanting to perform here, so a little disappointed in not being able to finish it off.”
Winning gold in the men’s 10km sprint was Norway's Johannes Thingnes Boe (10/10) at a time of 23:37.0. Rounding out the podium were Italy's Tommaso Giacomel (9/10) and Norway's Tarjei Boe (9/10), respectively.
Connelly finished 58th to squeeze into the top-60 and qualify for Saturday’s 12.5 km pursuit at 3:10 p.m. However, Canadian Christian Gow (68th) and Logan Pletz (98th) missed the cut off.
The two-time Olympian Gow started with the No. 60 bib and said snow conditions slowed down as the day went on and warmed up. He shot nine-for-10 on the day.
“I gave it my all today and racing here at home in front of friends and family, there are no bad days,” said Gow, 30.
A day earlier in the women’s 7.5km sprint, Moser finished as the top Canuck and crossed the finish line in 55th spot on eight-for-ten shooting.
She, along with Emma Lunder (58th) and Benita Peiffer (59th) made it into Saturday’s 10km pursuit race at 11:10 a.m.
Canadian Emily Dickson (76th) did not qualify.
Winning gold in the women’s sprint was Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi (10/10) at a time of 19:38.2. Finishing in second was France's Lou Jeanmonnot (10/10), and taking third was Switzerland's Lena Haecki-Gross (10/10).