Lunder, Gow make biathlon top-20, Beaudry 70th in World Cup opener

Canadian biathletes Emma Lunder and Christian Gow started the BMW IBU World Cup season with a bang.

Both cracked the top-20 in their respective individual races Saturday in Koniolahti, Finland.

Lunder finished 13^th out of 102 racers in the women’s 15-kilometre individual event. The 29-year-old from Vernon shot 18-for-20 in her four trips to the range (two prone bouts, two standing bouts) and ended up 2:35.1 behind the winning 44-minute pace of Italian Dorothea Wierer.

Wierer shot clean and won by just eight-tenths of second over second-place Denise Hermann of Germany, who had one miss. Bronze medalist Johanna Skottheim of Sweden also went without a miss and was 24.1 seconds behind Wierer.

Sarah Beaudry of Prince George struggled with her prone shooting range and placed 70^th (1+0+3+0, +6:33.1). In other Canadian results, Megan Bankes of Canmore was 76th (+6:50.6) and Nadia Moser of Whitehorse finished 80^th (+7:14.5).

In the men’s 20 km race, Norwegians Sturla Holm Laegreid and Johannes Thingnes Boe captured the top two podium positions. Laegreid won gold in 48:57.0, hitting all 20 targets. He was 19.6 seconds ahead of Bow, who had one miss. Erik Lesser of Germany (+1:03.6, no misses) claimed bronze.

The 27-year-old Gow, of Canmore, went 20-for-20 on the range and was 2:57.0 off the winning pace. His brother Scott placed 65^th (+6:44.0), Adam Runnalls of Calgary was 93^rd (+11:08.8) and Aidan Millar of Canmore was 98^th (+11:48.2).The race drew 100 starters.

The sprints are scheduled for Sunday. In the women’s 7.5 km event, Lunder will start 27^th, Beaudry will be 66^th out of the gate, followed by Bankes (77^th) and Moser (86^th). In the men’s 10 km sprint, Christian Gow drew the 21^st start position, followed by Scott Gow (39^th), Jules Brunotte of Sherbrooke, Que (58^th) and Runnalls (92^nd).