Aliah Turner could not have picked a better time to have the race of her life.
She knew early on in Monday’s Canadian biathlon championships senior girls 7.5-kilometre pursuit she wasn’t likely to catch Nadia Klafki of Calgary, whose sharpshooting prowess early in the race gave her healthy lead.
But the 15-year-old Turner, sporting her Caledonia Nordic Ski Club colours, was on home turf, having grown up skiing the trails at Otway Nordic Centre practically since she started to walk, and she used her knowledge of the course and a fine-tuned engine to hold off the rest of the 42-athlete field.
She turned on the jets sprinting through the flats and crossed the finish 24 seconds after Klafki ended her race and collapsed in exhaustion, struggling to catch her breath after pushing herself to her first national title.
Klafki, competing for Foothills Nordics, shot a career-best 18-for-20 and stopped the clock in 23 minutes 51.1 seconds. Fourth in Sunday’s sprint, Klafki started the pursuit 15 seconds after sprint winner Flora Csonka started the pursuit. Klakfi got to the range first and cleaned her two prone shooting bouts, then had just one penalty in each of her standing sessions to maintain her lead.
“(Shooting) was better than usual so I’m really impressed with it,” said the 15-year-old Klafki. “I had a better mindset than I’ve had the whole season so it’s been really fun to come out here and race and have a good time.
“The sprint could have been better, and it was nice to have another day to work on it. I love the course here, just go up and you go down and it’s really fast. That was the longest race I’ve done all year.”
Sixth in the sprint, Turner left the gate 10 seconds after Klafki and the Otway crowd let her know right away they were behind her. She hit 16 of 20 targets, four in each bout, one of her best displays of marksmanship under the duress of a racing heart.
“I’m really grateful for everyone who came out to cheer me on and my coaches really helped,” said Turner. “All these girls are all so talented, so to come out second is important to me and special.
“It just meant that much more to be at home. It’s a beautiful facility and for the rest of Canada to see it and share with us makes it that much more special because we love it here. Every practice is like a training session for these four days of racing and our coaches (Ali Cadell and Simon Lamarche) prepped us so well for this. Home-court advantage helped, for sure. This is the highest I’ve come and I can’t wait to go farther.”
Turner comes from athletic stock. Her father Pat Turner won Olympic gold in the rowing eights in 1988 and her mother Nadine Caron was a dual-sport athlete at Simon Fraser University, playing for the varsity basketball team from 1988-92 and for the soccer team in 1993.
“I always bug him about that (medal) and he’s so humble about it and that’s something I always look up to because it doesn’t define him,” said Turner. “It’s just the experience of it and less the medal, so that’s always what I strive to do, the experience and not the placing. And, of course, the placing helps with the experience.
“Both my parents love sports and always taught me to love sports, so being in biathlon, which I believe is one of the greatest sports, is something that just comes naturally for my family and most of our friends around town.”
In other Caledonia junior girls results, Payton Sinclair was 12th (+4:10.9), Iona Cadell was 16th (+5:42.2), Artemis Douglas was 27th (+7:12.2) and Mya Blackburn was 33rd (+11.00.6). Cedar Wink started the race but did not finish due to a wrist injury suffered in a training run.
Two other Caledonia skiers were podium finishers in the afternoon session Monday (see other story).
In the women’s 10 km pursuit, Sarah Beaudry finished second to Megan Bankes of Calgary, her relay partner a few weeks ago at the Beijing Olympics. Moira Green of Prince George was a third-place finisher in the youth women’s pursuit, joining Foothills skiers Anna Marino (gold) and Ema Chlepkova (silver) on the podium. Beaudry was also second in the women’s sprint on Sunday, while Green won her sprint race.
Luke Hulshof of Foothills won the senior boys pursuit, completing the 7.5 km course in 27:33.8, 17.1 seconds ahead of Graham Benson of Sea to Sky Nordics, who won silver, and 4:38 ahead of bronze medalist Cole Germain of Biathon Yukon, the sprint winner. Liam Sinclair of Caledonia finished 27th (+6:43.4).
The morning session also featured the master men and masters women categories.
Jeannot Desaulniers, a 61-year-old pulp mill maintenance worker from Hinton, Alta., wrapped up his second win of the competition, winning the masters men 50 pursuit.
Chris Elden of Quesnel's Cariboo Ski Touring Club was just 6.1 seconds off the pace and claimed his second silver medal, with Bryan Swansburg of Bulkley Valley third (+43.8).
Desaulniers is relatively new to biathlon, having taken up the spirt five years ago as a cross-training activity for mountain bike racing. His two wins at nationals are a biathlon breakthrough for him.
“I had kids in different sports and always volunteered and I said once my kids I get older I’ll start this, I like the competition,” said Desaulniers. ”I wasn’t going to come, but the guys said, “You should go.’ I said I can’t hit nothing (on the range), but they said, ‘You can ski.’ I guess you’re never too old.”
In Sunday’s sprint, he shot clean in his prone shooting round, and as far as Desaulniers was concerned, the rest was gravy. After missing all five standing targets in the sprint he went 5-for-10 in the two standing bouts in the pursuit, after hitting half his prone targets.
“I shot 50 per cent today, but it’s not good because each of those penalty laps you do is 100 metres,” he said.
The fast conditions Monday pushed him to edge of disaster on the icy corners but he kept his balance and was rewarded for it.
“Going down that hill was sketchy, but that’s where I gained a lot of time,” he said. “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re not living.”
Desaulniers credited the volunteers behind the scenes and along the course for making the national event happen.
“If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here, they’re the unsung heroes,” he said. “Us, we’re just old men playing. At the end of the day, it’s always the same guys at different events and you get to know them. It’s camaraderie.”
Other medalists in the morning session Monday were: Masters women 35 – 1. Lea-Marie Bowes Lyon, Bulkley Valley, 34:39.7, 2. Callie Lancaster, Bulkley Valley, +3.13.6; 3. Michelle Simone, Kenora Nordic (Ont.), +6:44.9; Masters women 50 – 1. Jacqueline Hitchinson, Fast and Fossil (Canmore), 367:09.9; 2. Deborah Hall, Foothills Nordic, +58.7; 3. Claudette Maltais, Charlo (N.B.), +6:02.2.
After a training day Tuesday, racing resumes Wednesday at 10 a.m. with mass start races for the IBU categories (men, women, junior women, junior men). The individual event will be featured for the non-IBU classes in the afternoon (1 p.m.) race session. The event wraps up Thursday with single-mixed relays starting at 10 a.m. (IBU classes) and 1 p.m. (non-IBU classes).
