Team BC women have raced to another medal finish at Biathlon in Red Deer. Following the gold and silver performances yesterday in the 7.5km individual pursuit, Team BC add the bronze medal in the 3x6km team relay.
Gillian Gowling (Whistler), Natalie Benoit (Summerland) and Larissa Black (Squamish) crossed the line in 3rd position to secure the 5th medal for Team BC biathlon at the 2019 Canada Winter Games.
Danica Ariano (Coldstream) raced on an unofficial team with Karly Coyne from Alberta and Adrianna Emond from Quebec. This team unofficially came fourth with a time of 1:01.52.4
Each team member completes 3 laps each leg (about 2 km loops).
“I was the first leg of the relay today. I was feeling a bit tired on the skis, but my shooting was good on the range, so we were able to get a good head start,” said Gillian Gowling who was the first leg of the three person relay today.
Natalie Benoit was the second leg in the relay.
“Today felt a bit tougher. Gillian got me a huge lead. I had to make a comeback from 5th to 3rd after suffering a few spares. In the relay we shoot 5 targets every bout, but then you have 3 targets to make up any misses. I had to do three penalty loops today which was really tough and set us back.”
Larissa Black, yesterday’s 7.5km individual pursuit gold medallist, was the last leg in todays relay.
“The whole race I worked on closing the gap as best I could. I was trying to chase second the whole race. They got us by 30 seconds.”
The team describes the great atmosphere at Riverbend once again. “Everyone was cheering was really loud. It was very motivating. There were people all around the course so it was extremely motivating,” said Black.
Up next: Individual 10km on Thursday Feb 21st. This is a race with no penalty laps – it’s a shooters race. Each competitor receives a time penalty of 0.45 seconds for each missed shot.