At training today, the athletes practiced their shooting and skiing. The Team BC athletes were shooting well in practice and are looking strong for tomorrow’s pursuit. It was very cold up at River Bend today reaching -19 with the wind chill. The wind was extremely strong as the course is a large open area. The forecast shows warmer temperature for tomorrow’s competition.
Keiran Marchand (Nelson) stayed back at the village during practice today due to a shoulder injury. Despite having this shoulder injury and only skiing with one arm, Keiran still managed to beat out the competition and make Team BC to join the squad here in Red Deer.
On Tuesday, February 19, the Men’s 7.5km Individual Pursuit and Women’s 6km Individual Pursuit starting at 2:00 pm. In this race, athletes will start in the same order in which they finished the sprint competition on Sunday. This will have Andrei Secu (Coquitlam) starting third, hoping to catch up to first place finisher Leo Grandbois from Team Quebec. In the women’s race, Larissa Black (Squamish) will start fourth and Gillian Gowling (Whistler) will start fifth, giving them a great shot at a medal.
Athletes in the pursuit start 5 seconds after the person in front of them. In this race, the first person to cross the finish line is the winner.