Moira Green came back to her home trails at Otway Nordic Centre as the defending junior women’s champion and after three days of racing at the Biathlon Canada Youth/Junior World Championships trials it turned out nobody in Canada could wrench that crown from her head.
A Norwegian gave her good run for her money in Tuesday’s mass start race. But Green fought off that serious challenge from Canmore training partner Vilde Boerseth and ended her hometown tour the way it began - on top of the podium.
“It was really fun, it was really hard, a mass start is so mentally hard,” said the 20-year-old Green. “It was really fun skiing with Vilde but then after that the mental game of being in front, I was trying not to think about it and I couldn’t quite focus, it’s just a learning curve.”
Green fell behind Boerseth after the second trip to the range and got her lead back after the final bout right after both skiers had climbed the first hill out of the stadium.
“Being with Vilde just made it feel like intervals at home (at Canmore Nordic Centre) and coming in (for the fourth bout) I knew I needed to shoot well but I couldn’t think, everything hinges on this, then I’ll miss,” said Green.
For a while there it looked like the 23-year-old Boerseth, one of the senior racers in the blended senior/junior race, might have what it took to keep Green from breaking the beam first at the finish. The Norway native had her rifle working for her (17-for-20, 0+1+0+2) until she faltered slightly in the fourth and final round.
That opened the door for Green who shot 15-for 20 (0+2+2+1). Limiting her last bout to one single miss made all the difference.
“I just set up and shot like it was an interval session,” said Green. “It was so hard just to look at my targets but I knew (from the sound of it) both the girls in front of me missed two, so one miss was alright. I was so glad I didn’t give up on the fourth lap because things can change so fast.
“It was super fun, I love this course, it was really good to do that at home.”
Green won in 33:29.6. Ema Chlepkova (35:11.4, 0+1+1+1) and Anna Perry (35:16.9, 3+2+0+0) joined her on the junior medal podium. All three medalists train together in Canmore with the Foothills Nordic Ski Club, coached by Prince George native Matt Neumann.
Boerseth finished in 33:51.9, with Janice Grundahl of Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley Nordic Club hot on her heels to finish in silver medal position in the senior class (33:54.7, 2+0+0+2). Gillian Gowling of Canmore (Sport Performance Under Development) won bronze (36:18.8, 2+2+0+1).
“I started our really good with 14 out of 15 hits and then coming into the last shooting the thought of having 19 out of 20 was hitting my mind sometimes during the race and it was tough,” said Boerseth. “I’m happy with my race anyways. I was really pushing hard and it was nice having Moira to push me most of the race. I could not keep up to her in the last lap.”
Her win Tuesday assured Green will be among the four Canadian junior women who will get to race Feb. 24-March 5 at the world championships in Oestersund, Sweden.
In the youth women’s race, sprint winner Cheyenne Tirschman topped at 22-skier field to lock up her first trip to the youth world finals. Tirschman, skiing for Biathlon Yukon, went back and forth with pursuit winner Flora Csonka of Foothills and won the race by a 65-second margin.
Sage Taylor of Foothills held off Aliah Turner of Prince George in the mad dash for bronze.
Tirschmann finished in 25:22.7 (1+1+2+0), Csonka clocked 26:28.3 (0+1+1+1), followed by Taylor (27:01.2, 1+0+1+0) and Turner (27:05.5, 1+1+2+0). Tirschmann took a few extra seconds to tune her radar in her last bout and it paid off.
“I honestly didn’t expect to hit them, that was a little bit of a shock to myself because I don’t shot well in standing under pressure but I did not want to ski another penalty lap,” said Tirschmann. “I think that’s what gave me the motivation.”
Tuesday’s race set the stage for the 18-year-old Turner, who leaves Friday for the FISU World University Games Jan. 13-23 in Turin, Italy. After discouraging results in the sprint and pursuit, she had just four misses and ended up with a clean sweep in her second standing bout.
“I was really happy about that because it’s been a really rough and disappoint week on my end, performance-wise,” said Turner. “I was very happy with how I finished off trials, regardless of placements or anything like that. I made something go my way in the range at the end. I was hunting down Sage but she had too much gas.
“Fourth or 100th, I’m just happy with how today went. It was a very fun race. Everyone brought their A-game this week and that just helped me kind of level up.”
Iona Cadell of Prince George finished sixth (27:51.9, 0+1+1+3), dropping out of medal position with a single miss in the third bout.
In other Caledonia results in the youth class, Gabby Hoehn was 14th (30:13.7, 1+0+2+2) and Payton Sinclair was 16th (30:34.6, 1+1+2+0). Isla Cadell, who won bronze in the sprint, was sick and did not race.
Race results are on Zone 4 website.
