P.E.I. – The Bow Valley’s winter sport muscle is being felt on the other side of the country.
As of Wednesday morning (March 1), local athletes have won six medals (three silver, three bronze) in two sports at the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island, which is to give a proving ground for elite athletes, aged between 13-20, wanting to compete at the international level.
In biathlon, Alberta won bronze in mixed relay with the team of Kase Repp, Aimee-Rae Morin, and locally-based skiers Liam Tinworth and Lucia Baergen.
However, some controversy during the race had put the medal up in the air.
“We had a good idea we were in third, but one of my teammates came up to me and he said I don’t know if I actually tagged you within the tag zone,” said Baergen, 16. “So we were thinking, oh my gosh, we got a penalty, we’re not going to get this bronze.”
As it turned out, Alberta was given a stern two-minute penalty added to its overall time. Quebec and B.C., the first and second place teams were also penalized. However, Alberta were so far ahead of fourth place that they still had a minute and change on the fourth-place Yukon team.
“It a was more of a relief,” said Baergen.
Racing at the Mark Arendz Provincial Ski Park, the 16-year-old Canmore biathlete also earned a pair of top-10s, despite her shot being off the mark in the national competition.
“My skiing pulled me through,” she said. “It was really nice trials out there. The hills weren’t too big so you could really push it on the course.”
Baergen and Canmore’s Theo Fradette placed sixth in the single mixed relay.
In solo races, Fradette won bronze in the male’s 12.5-km individual, and just missed the podium 7.5-km sprint, placing fourth.
Tinworth, who trains at Alberta Biathlon Training Centre in Canmore, won a pair of silvers in the male sprint and 10-km pursuit races.
In cross-country skiing, Canmore’s Sabine Comeau started her 2023 Canada Winter Games with a bronze medal in the female 7.5-km sprint at a time of 23:07.4 on Tuesday (Feb. 28).
Edmonton’s Noah Weir-Chaba, who trains in Canmore, took silver in the male’s 10-km sprint at a time of 27:19.0.
“That first race was amazing and the course is definitely a fun one,” said Weir-Chaba in a media release. “The course doesn’t have a lot of long hills, but it is all up from the bottom. I think I paced it pretty well today. I stayed ahead of Garrett [Siever of B.C.] for most of it but the last bit he got me. It was a great race.”
The Games continue until Sunday (March 5) with local cross-country skiing athletes Comeau, Weir-Chaba, Seb Parent and Felix Clement, and alpine athletes Emma Fynn, Maxim Cater, and Thomas Cais, are scheduled to race.
