Sarah Beaudry of Prince George won’t get to race Sunday in the pursuit but her Canadian team will be well-represented on the course in Pokljuka, Slovenia at the biathlon world championships.
Six of the eight Canadians competing in Pokljuka qualified for the pursuit races after posting top-60 sprint results.
In the women’s sprint Saturday, Megan Bankes of Calgary led the way for Canada with a 35th-place result. Bankes missed one prone and one standing target and finished 1:54.9 behind gold-medalist Tiril Eckhoff of Norway. Anais Chevalier-Bouchet of France won silver (0+1, +12) and Hanna Sola of Belarus (0+0, +14.4) claimed bronze.
The other Canadians to crack the top-60 on Saturday were Emma Lunder of Vernon (2+0, 2:10.7), who was 42nd, and Nadia Moser of Whitehorse, Yukon (1+2, +2:48.4), who just made the cut in 60th place. Beaudry drew the last start position in the 99-skier event and ended up 83nd (0+3, +3:56.3.
The men’s 12.5 km pursuit is first on the schedule Sunday. Sprint winner Martin Ponsiluoma of Sweden will have an 11-second head start in front of Simon Desthieux of France, the silver medalist in Friday’s sprint. Christian Gow of Canmore will start 17th (+57.9), Trevor Kiers of Calgary will head out 48th (+2:00.1) and Adam Runnalls of Calgary will be the 56th racer on the course (+2:08.2).
The women’s 10 km pursuit follows the men’s race Sunday.
Coming off her best World Cup finish this season two weeks ago in Antholz, Italy, where she was 34th in the individual event, Beaudry will get her next crack at the world championship podium when she competes Tuesday in the women’s 15-km individual race.
