Prince George is getting set to host its biggest biathlon event of the season in early January.
Otway Nordic Centre will be the site of the Biathlon Canada Youth/Junior World Championship trials, Jan. 3-7, hosted by the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club.
Five current Caledonia club members and four alumni members will represent Prince George in three days of competition which will determine Canada’s youth and junior teams for the IBU world youth/junior championships in Oestersund, Sweden, Feb. 26-March 5.
Athletes will gather at Otway for a training day Jan. 3, then compete the following day in sprint races, followed by the pursuits on Jan. 5. They’ll get one more training day before the mass start races on Jan. 7.
Athletes qualify in the youth age category provided they turn 17, 18 or 19 during the season from November to October. Junior racers must turn either 20, 21 or 22 during the season.
Athletes from across Canada will converge on the Otway course for the trials, competing for eight junior spots (four male, four female) and eight youth spots (four male, four female) on the team Canada will be sending to Oestersund.
Among the local biathletes coming to race on their home track are Liam Simons and Aliah Turner, who will both represent Canada at the World University Games in Torino, Italy, Jan. 13-23.
Simons, a UBC-Okanagan student who trains with the Sovereign Lake Nordic Club in Vernon, finished 18th overall at the Biathlon Canada national team trails at Canmore, Alta., in November. Turner, a University of Calgary student, trains at the Biathlon Alberta Training Centre in Canmore. She placed 17th overall at the trials.
Simons is entered in the junior men’s category for the world qualifier while Turner will compete in the youth women‘s class.
Also returning to their hometown to race is national development team member Moira Green (junior women), who captured the defending Canadian junior women’s aggregate championship, and Iona Cadell (youth women).
Green and Cadell, who train with the Biathlon Alberta team, both competed in the 2023-34 youth world championship in Estonia.
Caledonia members Isla Cadell (youth women), Gabby Hoehn (youth women), Nathanael Dean (youth men), David Hillhouse (youth men) and Ewan Hawes (youth men), will also represent the Caledonia club at the youth/junior world trials.
Payton Sinclair (youth women) of Prince George will compete for the UNBC Timberwolves varsity team.
UNBC and the Caledonia club entered into a partnership earlier this year to help provide opportunities for student-athletes to continue their racing careers while they study at the Cranbrook Hill campus.
Spectators can watch the races free of charge. Otway is built to give biathlon fans a clear view of the shooting range where much of the action occurs.
“There’s not that many facilities in Canada that are capable of hosting events like this,” said Aaron Sinclair, the Caledonia club’s biathlon competition lead.
The club hosted the Nordiq Canada Selection Trials and Nordiq Cup cross-country ski races last January, followed by the Para Biathlon World Championships and World Para Nordic Skiing World Cup Finals in March.
With 2,154 members, Caledonia is one of the largest Nordic clubs in Canada.
