Emily Dickson is back on the IBU Cup biathlon train, and she’s intent on not being a passenger.
She wants to drive that engine and proved this past weekend in Obertilliach, Austria she’s back where she belongs, racing for her country.
On Sunday, she teamed up with Matthew Strum of Canmore to finish seventh out of 22 teams in the IBU Cup single mixed relay. The Canadians went penalty-free in eight shooting rounds and needed just seven reloads on the range and finished just 71 seconds behind the gold medalists from Russia, Evgeniya Burlasova and Anton Babikov.
Dickson, a 24-year-old native of Burns Lake, had two reloads in her prone shooting round and needed just one extra round while standing in her relay, picking up where she left off in Saturday’s sprint race, in which she shot clean.
Dickson competed in the national team trials in Canmore in November but did not make either the World Cup or IBU Cup teams. She was told in early December she would not be going to Europe to race until January, but a spot on the team opened when Nadia Moser of Whitehorse broke her leg and suffered ligament damage in a tobogganing accident before World Cup races in Hochfilzen, Austria.
Megan Bankes of Calgary took Moser’s position on the World Cup team, which created a vacancy for Dickson on the IBU Cup squad. She arrived in Austria from her home in Canmore less than a week before the races
Dickson was the top Canadian in the 7.5-kilometre sprint on Saturday, finishing 33rd, 1:33.1 off the winning pace of Anastasia Shevchenko of Russia. Darya Sepandj of Calgary was 68th, Jenna Sherrington of Calgary was 71st and Gillian Gowling of Ottawa placed 72nd.
“A step in the right direction,” said Dickson, in her Facebook post. “I didn’t expect to be in top form on my skis this week- but I laid down a solid, all-out effort out there today and I’m proud of that. I’m also really stoked I was able to put together another clean shooting race today. Avoiding the penalty loop sure is nice. I think I’ll have to do it more often.”
In the men’s sprint, Strum was 39th, Trevor Kiers of Sprucedale, Ont., was 61st, Aidan Millar of Canmore was 85th and Zachary Connelly of Ottawa was 87th
Gowling, Sherrington, Kiers and Millar combined for a 17th-place result in Sunday’s mixed relay.
Dickson placed 63rd in Thursday’s 15-km individual event, her first international race since March 2020, when she was on the World Cup circuit.
“Not quite the race I was hoping for… but given I put myself through a couple full days of travel and an eight-hour time change less than a week ago, I’m trying to not be too hard on myself, or read too much into this one,” said Dickson. “It was a solid, hard effort to test the system.”
In September 2020, Dickson fell while training on roller skis and suffered a serious concussion that forced her to miss the entire 2020-21 season.
Bankes competed in the World Cup women’s 10 km pursuit Saturday in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand, France. She qualified 57th with her sprint result Thursday and gained 24 positions in the pursuit to finish 33rd. Bankes and Emma Lunder of Vernon each went 18-for-20 on the range. Lunder placed 41st, after qualifying 56th in the sprint.
Sarah Beaudry of Prince George woke up with a cold Thursday that affected her ski time in the sprint and she missed the cut for the pursuit after finishing 73rd.
Adam Runnalls of Calgary placed 39th in the men’s 12.5 km pursuit Saturday, his best-ever finish in that event, That came two days after he finished a career-best 31st in the sprint. Christian Gow of Canmore was the top Canadian in 29th place, after starting the pursuit 36th. Jules Burnotte of Sherbrooke, Que, was 52nd.
The World Cup team will be back in action Jan. 3-9 in Oberhof, Germany. That will be followed by tour stops in Ruhpolding, Germany, Jan. 10-16, and Antholz-Anterselva, Italy, Jan. 17-23, leading up the Olympics in Beijing, Feb. 4-20.
The IBU Cup tour resumes Jan. 5 in Brezno Osrblie, Slovakia.
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