Hay River, NT (November 24, 2013) - Not even the most optimistic Canadian Biathlon supporter would have predicted that Canada would take the lead in IBU Cup in standings after the first IBU Cup Race in Idre, Sweden, but at the end of day 1, that’s what happened. The Canadian Team stunned the powerhouse teams from Norway, Russia and Germany by taking 3 of the top 10 Sprint finishes. Brendan Green was part of the story, finishing 9th in the event, while team-mates Marc Andre Bedard placed 7th and Nathan Smith reached the podium in 2nd. For Brendan, his results were encouraging as he managed to shoot clean, with no missed targets. He commented, “I gave it my best and the result was pretty solid considering the field, but all the Canadian guys threw down huge races today. It would have been nice to ski faster but I'm pretty happy with my shooting.”
The sprints on day 2 were a different story. In Brendan’s words ….”yesterday was tough…We raced in what felt like hurricane winds. I’ve never competed in winds that strong. …when I came for prone, it was hard to hold my rifle on target. Standing I just shot on whatever target the wind blew my barrel closest to. Needed a lot of luck shooting to do well.” More than half the competitors failed to hit half the targets and no one shot clean!
Brendan just managed to hit half the targets, but the 5 misses dropped him back to 33rd place. Still, that gave him the top Canadian finish in his race. More encouraging - his skiing was faster ranking him 16 out of the 132 biathletes in skiing speed. Brendan concluded “My skiing time was quite a bit better, but still think my best is yet to come. When I consider where I was with my injury this time last year, I'm pretty happy to be back in action.”
The Canadian Team is now ranked 5th overall in the IBU Nations Cup standings, and Brendan is ranked 15th. Brendan and the team will move on to Beitostolen, Norway for the IBU Cup 2 races November 30 and December 1, 2013.
For more information contact
NWT Biathlon
(867) 874-2956
www.nwtbiathlon.com