Heading into the third of her four shooting bouts, Emily Dickson of Burns Lake was still flirting with a top-10 finish at the World Cup biathlon single mixed relay Saturday in Oberhof, Germany.
While her teammate, Adam Runnalls of Calgary, stood in the stadium with his race complete, Dickson reeled off four lightning-quick hits from her prone position on the range, but the gusty crosswinds were no friend of the shooters and Dickson needed all three spare rounds to knock down her fifth target.
That dropped her to 12th place heading into the eighth of nine laps and Dickson’s troubles continued in the range for her final standing bout with the wind continuing to gust. She missed two of the five targets, blasted off all three spares and left one target unhit, which forced her to ski a 75-metre penalty loop.
Dickson/Runnalls ended up 18th in the 27-team race, 2:27.4 behind Russia’s Kristina Reztsova and Anton Babikov, who claimed gold in 41:37.1. Austria +41.5) and Ukraine (+1:03.6) also made the medal podium.
It was still an impressive performance for Runnalls, coming off a career-best 31st-place sprint result Dec. 17 in France, and for Dickson, who made the jump to World Cup level for the Oberhof events after just one race weekend this season on the IBU Cup tour. Runnalls went penalty free in his four shooting bouts, using seven spare rounds, while Dickson used nine spares and had one penalty.
In her first World Cup race since March 2020, the 24-year-old Dickson finished 60th in Friday’s women’s sprint. She’s the only Canadian to qualify for Sunday’s pursuits in Oberhof.
Earlier Saturday, the Canadian mixed relay team finished 21st out of 24 teams. Jules Burnotte of Sherbrooke, Que., had the lead leg for Canada, tagging Trevor Kiers of Sprucedale, Ont., who later made the exchange with Sarah Beaudry of Prince George. The Canadian team was lapped and the race was over before Beaudry had a chance to tag anchor skier Benita Peiffer of Whistler.
Canada went penalty-free in the range. Burnotte used three spare rounds, Kiers needed four and Beaudry used just two.
Norway (Tarjei Boe, Johannes Thinges, Ingrid Landmar Tandrevold, Marte Olsbu Roeisland) captured gold, stopping the clock in 1:28:51.4. Belarus (+23.1) and France (2:01.3) won silver and bronze respectively.
