Sarah Beaudry knew the Chinook wind blowing at Canmore Nordic Centre was playing havoc with the racers ahead of her on the start list at Friday's World Cup biathlon sprint.
But by the time Beaudry left the gate, starting 77th on a list of 87, that stiff breeze had dropped to a whisper and that helped boost the 21-year-old from Prince George to a best-ever 38th-place finish.
Beaudry finished 2:02.3 off the winning pace of 21:41 set by Olina Pidhrushina of Ukraine, who stopped the clock 7.5 seconds ahead of silver medalist Kystyna Guzik of Poland. Dorothea Wierer of Italy captured bronze, 12.4 seconds off the winning pace.
"It was an awesome day, my first day in the points," said Beaudry, whose top-40 finish puts her into the World Cup point standings for the first time in her career. "I was really happy to hit nine out of 10 on a windy day. I started out strong in skiing and kind of died, but I can definitely say I gave everything I had."
Beaudry blasted through her first of three laps, nailed all five of her prone targets and was up to eighth place by the time she started her second lap. On her second shooting round while standing she had just one miss and after one penalty loop, she was in 19th place to start her third lap. But her energy level dropped off significantly in the final segment of the 7.5-kilometre race, which dropped her down the standings.
World Cup rookie Julia Ransom of Kelowna, 22, was Canada's top woman Friday in 19th place, 1:19 behind Pidhrushina. Ransom shot clean in both rounds and matched her best World Cup finish, set a month ago in a pursuit in Antholz-Anterselva, Italy.
Zina Kocher of Red Deer finished 56th Friday and Rosanna Crawford of Canmore was 72nd.
Megan Tandy of Prince George, a veteran of two Olympics, was unable to take her place on the Canadian team for the start Friday. Tandy, 27, broke a bone in her wrist when she broke through the snow, tripped and fell while on a training run Tuesday in Canmore.
Beaudry made the jump to the World Cup circuit in December 2014 in Hochfilzen, Austria, where she was 63rd in the sprint and helped Canada's women's relay team to an 11th-place finish. She also posted a 66th-place sprint result that year in Slovenia. This past January in Ruhpolding, Germany, Beaudry was 55th in the sprint and 54th in the pursuit. Until Friday, that was her best World Cup result.
"This was definitely better than I thought," said Beaudry. "Before the season started I had a goal of getting a top-60 and making the pursuit and I did that in Ruhpolding. To come out here and improve my personal best by almost 20 is awesome.
"It feels good to have a race like this going into world championships in a couple of weeks. I feel like I belong."
Although this was the first World Cup biathlon race at Canmore since 1987, Beaudry raced there last March in an IBU Cup event, where she posted a career-best sixth-place result. She has consistently placed in the top 20 this season in IBU Cup events. Beaudry has been based in Canmore for four years and her knowledge of the course was an advantage for her in Friday's race.
"I can't count the number of times I've done that loop," she said. "It was definitely nice to be familiar and know where everything was. It was so neat to see the course lined with so many Canadian fans. Every metre there was someone cheering. I definitely felt the love out there."
In most World Cup races, the sprint is the qualifier for a pursuit and the top 60 sprint finishers race the next day in the pursuit. Instead, a mass start race is scheduled in Canmore. Only the top 25 World Cup points leaders as well the five highest-ranked biathletes who competed in the sprint qualify for the mass start. Nathan Smith of Calgary, who was 31st in the sprint, is the lone Canadian racing today.
Beaudry will get a day to rest before Sunday's mixed relays. A single mixed relay (one male, one female per team) is scheduled for Sunday morning, followed by the traditional mixed relay (two males, two females) Sunday afternoon. Beaudry will likely race for Canada in the four-person relay.
"They haven't decided the relay teams but know I'm on the team," said Beaudry.
