Moira Green of Prince George helped Canada to a ninth-place finish Wednesday in the women’s 4 X 6-kilometre relay at the IBU youth/junior world championship in Oestersund, Sweden.
The 20-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club racer skied the second leg of the relay and was nearly perfect in two shooting bouts, requiring just one reload to nail all 10 targets.
The daughter of three-time Olympian Brendan Green and world championship medalist Brendan Green teamed up with Calgarians Alexandria Hulshof, Anna Perry and Eva Schlepkova to finish 8:07.6 off the gold-medal pace of the French team.
France (Celia Henaff, Voldiya Galmace Poulin, Anaelle Bondoux, Amandine Mengin) finished the 19-team event in 1:15:12.4.
Canada had the fifth-quickest shooting time – 6:44.9. They went through the range with two penalty loops and 11 reloads (0+5, 2+6). Green went 0+0, 0+1.
In the men’s 4 X 7.5 km relay, 20-year-old Liam Simons of Prince George went penalty-free in his race (0+1, 0+3), skiing third in the order to help Canada to a 14th-place finish out of 22 teams.
Canada (Simons, Jean-Nicolas De Broeck of Saint Foy, Que., Jasper Fleming of Squamish, Gavin Johnston of Campbell River) ended up 7:56.9 behind the pace-setting Norwegians.
Norway (Andreas Aas, Sivert Gerhardsen, Haavard Tosterud, Kasper Kalkenberg) clocked 1:20:43.0 (0+5, 0+5) and shared the podium with Germany (+19.5) and Poland (1:52.2).
On Tuesday, Matus Chlepko of Calgary, Malcolm McCulloch of Duntroon, Ont., and Luke Hulshof of Calgary teamed up in the youth men’s 3 X 7.5-kilometre relay and placed fifth in the 28-team event.
They finished 2:46.7 behind the gold medalists from France, who completed the course in 1:02:04.1. Germany (+19.5) and Czechia (1:52.2) also made the podium.
Canada (Cheyenne Tirschmann of Whitehorse, Flora Csonka of Calgary, Julia Bartlett of Calgary) placed 20th in the youth women’s 3 X 6 km relay. They 11:38.3 behind the gold medalists from Germany.
That concludes the youth/junior world championships.
The IBU Cup tour resumes Thursday in Otepaa, Estonia with sprint races.
No Canadians are entered.
Green and Simons are among several Caledonia club members who will compete in the Biathlon Canada national championships that start Saturday in Valcartier, Que. The competition runs through next Thursday.
