STORY UPDATED WITH QUOTES
Quick skis and world-class rifle shooting paid off handsomely for the Canadian women’s 4 X 6-kilometre biathlon relay team.
Their total team effort Wednesday at the Beijing Olympics resulted in a top-10 finish - a season-best for Canada.
Sarah Beaudry gutted out the anchor leg of the relay and in rapid fashion she cleaned her targets, going 10-for-10 on the range with no spare bullets needed. The 27-year-old two-time Olympian from Prince George collapsed in exhaustion, finishing in 10th place, 4:30.4 off the gold medal pace set up Sweden.
The Canadian women – Beaudry, Emma Lunder of Vernon, Megan Bankes of Calgary, Emily Dickson of Burns Lake – worked their way up as high as sixth place at several checkpoints early in the race and their cool under pressure on the shooting range allowed them to avoid any penalties in eight rounds of shooting.
"I'm disappointed because I never found the ski speed I was looking for at these Games, but I'm happy because this season I've been shooting really well" said the 27-year-old Beaudry. "The first three races I didn't quite find that and today, to hit 10-for-10 was really nice and what we needed to keep in the top 10 in the last leg and I was happy to do that for the team.
'I'm just so thankful for the support, no matter the results, everyone is there for me and that means so much."
The Swedes (Linn Persson, Mona Brorsson, Hanna Oeberg, Elvira Oeberg) took over the lead from Italy, 17 km into the 24-km race, and held it the rest of the way, finishing in 1:11:03.9. They went penalty free with just six spares used.
The silver medal went to the Russian Olympic Committee (Irena Kazakevich, Kristina Reztsova, Svetlana Mironova, Uliana Nigmattulina), who were 12 seconds behind Sweden, with one penalty and seven spares. Germany (Vanessa Voigt, Vanessa Hinz, Franziska Preuss, Denise Herrmann) took bronze (+37.4, 1+7).
Race conditions were sunny and cold (-16 C) with a light wind that kept the flags fluttering on the range in Zhangjiakou, China.
Inspired by the Canadian men’s relay team (Adam Runnalls, Jules Brunotte, Christian Gow, Scott Gow) and its best-ever sixth-place result on Tuesday, the Canadian women used just eight spares and were the third-most accurate shooters in the 20-team relay. Lunder needed just one spare in each of her bouts, Bankes used three extras in her standing bout, Dickson used one spare in prone and two in standing, and Beaudry went clean to keep Canada ahead of the 11th-place United States and they finished their two-week Olympic experience on a high.
"I think it was pretty incredible," said Bankes, who led Canada with her 32nd-place result in the individual race last week. "I just wanted to come into the Games and do the best that I could and overall I'm pretty happy. I'm super-happy with how the race went today. I think as a team we put forward a really good effort and I'm super-proud of all of us."
For Beaudry and Lunder, Wednesday’s relay result equaled their 10th-place Olympic finish in 2018 in the women’s relay in PyeongChang, Korea, when they teamed up with Julia Ransom and Rosanna Crawford. Lunder competed in five races at the Beijing Olympics, starting with a 14th-place finish in the mixed team relay with Beaudry, Scott Gow and Christian Gow. Lunder was the lone Canadian women to qualify for the pursuit and finished 54th in that race after placing 32nd in the sprint.
"It was quite a different experience for me this time," said Lunder. "I had pretty high expectations coming in I definitely struggled with my individual performances but had really good support from the team and good support from back home, so I'm leaving with good memories. I do really like the relay events and to get our season-best at the Olympics, that's what you always want to do and I feel quite proud of the four of us for putting together a solid race and knowing we can do even more next time."
Dickson, 24, took over the fourth spot on the Olympic team as an injury replacement after Nadia Moser of Whitehorse broke her leg tobogganing in early December. Dickson was ninth in the Canadian team trails in November and because of that placing she did not go to Europe to race ether the World Cup or IBU Cup circuits until December. Being part of the Olympic team in China more than made up for the disappointment she felt early in the season, coming off an entire year of inactivity due to a concussion suffered in training.
"There's just so many emotions that go into the last few weeks, just the highest highs of being here and getting to compete and realizing the childhood dream of being in the Olympics and also dealing with a few races that didn't go as well as I'd hoped," said Dickson. "But at the end of the day I'm coming out of it with a lot of experience, a lot of lessons learned, and I'm feeling really good about working towards the next four years coming back fitter, stronger and ready to push even harder in four years time. I'm coming out of it motivated and excited and really thankful for the experience."
The best-ever Olympic finish for Canada in the women’s relay was an seventh-place result which came in Sochi, Russia in 2014. That team included Crawford, Megan Imrie, Zina Kocher and Megan Heinicke (Tandy) of Prince George.
In their last race of the Beijing Games, the Canadian women exceeded expectations, going in as the 16th-ranked relay team.
"It was amazing, to see every one of my teammates have a good race, each in their own way, was incredible and I'm really proud to be part of that," said Dickson. "I gave it everything I had and as much as I wish I could have given even more I'm proud of every effort here. It was a really solid day for us."
Just two biathlon races are left on the Beijing Olympic calendar.
The Gow brothers of Canmore Alta., and Brunotte, a native of Sherbrooke, Que., all made the top-30 ranking and will represent Canada in Friday’s 12.5-km mass start race (1 a.m. PT). No Canadians qualified for the women’s 10 km mass start on Saturday (1 a.m. PT).
In other Canadian results Wednesday, Canada, Antoine Cyr of Gatineau, Que., and Graham Ritchie of Parry Sound, Ont., finished fifth in the men's cross-country skiing team sprint classic - the best-ever Olympic results for Canada. Their result eclipsed George Gray and Devon Kershaw's 11th-place result in Turin Italy in 2006.
