Team BC female biathletes bring home gold
The sun was golden out at Otway Nordic Centre and so was Team BC’s women’s 6km relay team! To start the race was Tekarra Banser (West Kelowna), who had two misses in her first round then shot clean her second with a time of 21:10.5. She tagged Claire Lapointe (Prince George), who shot clean in both prone and standing positions with a time of 20:20.3. Next was local multi-medalist from the 2015 Canada Winter Games, Emily Dickson (Prince George). Dickson was behind and so the pressure was on for her to ski fast and clean. She was 10 for 10 and posted a time of 18:36.1.
Team BC’s combined time was 1:00:06.9, giving them the gold medal. The silver went to Team Quebec and the bronze to Team Alberta. Rob Swan, Team BC manager, calls the team the “Golden Girls,” and they definitely owned the name today. Jennah Smailes (West Kelowna), also receives a medal as part of the team.
For the men’s 7.5km relay, there were a few jockeying for a podium spot, especially between Team BC and Team Ontario. Starting the race was Jarod Algra (Abbotsford), who shot clean with a time of 22:45.3 and tagged teammate Bobby Kreitz (Prince George), who shot for eight with a time of 23:58.7. The last leg of the relay was another local athlete, Arthur Roots (Prince George). Roots missed one in the prone position but was 100 per cent in the standing position with a time of 21:31.9.
“Just missing the podium, these boys raced their hearts out,” said Swan. Their overall time was 1:08:15.9 for fourth place. Team Quebec captured gold, Team Alberta the silver and Team Ontario the bronze.
Coach Glenn Rupertus said, “most of the team will be racing the BC Cup next weekend in Vanderhoof and then Nationals in Hinton, Alberta in two weeks time. After a tremendous Games the athletes will be continuing their quest for great racing results.”
See Canada Games live streaming at www.canadagamestv.ca and follow live updates on Twitter from @GoTeamBC with the hashtag #TBCBiathlon.