Scott Gow of Canmore is getting better with age.
The 30-year-old senior member of Canada’s national biathlon team nailed down his top solo result of the season Saturday on the BMW IBU World Cup tour when he shot clean and finished 19th in the men’s 10-kilometre sprint in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
The native of Canmore, Alta., ended up 56.4 seconds behind race winner Simon Desthieux of France, who completed the course in 22:58.0, 2.4 seconds ahead of Sebastien Samuelsson of Sweden and 4.4 seconds ahead of bronze medalist Arnd Peiffer of Germany.
For Gow, it was his best result since Feb. 15, 2020 when he placed 16th in the sprint at the world championships in Anholz-Anterselva, Italy.
His 27-year-old brother Christian Gow finished 31st with one miss on the range (0+1, +1:12.7). Adam Runnalls of Calgary placed 43rd (0+1, +1:35.2) and also qualified in the top 60 in the sprint to make the cut for Sunday’s pursuit.
Trevor Kiers of Sprucedale, Ont. (2+1, +3:15.4) finished 94th out of 105 starters in the men’s race.
It was a difficult day on the range for Canada’s four female biathletes and they all were all shut out of the pursuit after struggling with their shooting.
Emma Lunder of Vernon shot seven-for-10 (2+1, +2:07.0) as the top Canadian in the women’s 7.5 km sprint in 66th place. Nadia Moser of Whitehorse, Yukon (1+1, +2:13.1) placed 72nd, Sarah Beaudry of Prince George (1+2, 2:30.3) was 80th and Megan Bankes of Calgary (2+2, +2:36.7) ended up 81st.
Tiril Eckhoff of Norway won her 13th World Cup race of the season, finishing in 18:48.4 with one prone miss. Yulia Dzhima of Ukraine (0+0, +9.3), captured silver while Lisa Vittozzi of Italy (0+0. +15.0) claimed the bronze medal.
The race drew 106 starters.
