World Junior/Youth Championships, Kontiolahti, Finland

Yukon biathlete Erin Oliver-Beebe skied her first race (midnight Yukon time) Sunday Feb 19th at the World Junior and Youth Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland.  This was Erin’s first race out side of Canada and with 75 Youth Women from all over the world starting in her category, it would be by far the largest biathlon race she had ever experienced. 

To add a bit of perspective to the experience Erin is having, Biathlon in Europe is an incredibly popular sport, similar to hockey in Canada, the spectator seating at the Kontiolahti Biathlon Facility is 10,000, and a sell out crowd of spectators at the Yukon Biathlon Facility is closer to 30!

The race had live results streamed and Erin’s parents were able to track Erin and her team’s progress live and actually see how each bout of shooting unfolded as well as her ski times per lap.  This was almost as exciting as being there at the race! 

Erin was up against an incredibly strong field of young women 17 and 18 years old with some of the competition already competing in the Biathlon World Cup Series.  Erin was 7^th on the start list of the 10 km Individual race. This race is made up of five laps of 2 kms separated by 4 bouts of shooting. In her first bout of shooting, Erin shot clean (‘clean’ means hitting all of the five targets in a bout of shooting and receiving no penalties). Each missed shot is worth a one minute penalty and added to her final race time.  On the second bout of shooting, Erin missed three targets which earned her a 3 min penalty, in the subsequent two bouts of shooting Erin missed one each bout for a total of 5 misses for a total time penalty of  5min for her race.  At the end of the day Erin placed 50^th out of 75 competitors.  In a brief email to her parents Erin commented on her race, “My race today was good. I did a face plant though right after coming out of the range”.

Erin’s team mate Julia Ransom from BC had an incredible race with an 8^th place finish for Team Canada, Sara Beaudry from BC finished 33^rd and Rose-Marie Cote of Quebec came in 47^th.  The IBU Youth and Junior World Championship can be found at  www.biathlonworld.com.

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Yukon Biathlete qualifies for World Junior/Youth Championships

Media release from Biathlon Yukon 

January 30th 2012

Yukon biathlete Erin Oliver-Beebe qualified this past weekend to represent Canada at the World Junior and Youth Championships to be held in Kontiolahti, Finland, next month.

The trials, held at Canadian Forces Base, Valcartier, were attended by Oliver-Beebe along with two fellow Yukoners, Jennifer Curtis and Ryan Burlingame and joined by the best biathletes in Canada vying for four spots on the National Youth and Junior Teams.

Oliver-Beebe excelled at the trials finishing 4^th in the 7.5 km mass start; 7^th in the 7.5km sprint and, 2^nd in the individual 10.0 km pursuit, so finished 4^th overall to fill one of the four spots.  Erin, who is training with the Canmore Nordic Ski Club, but along with Curtis, travelled with the Alberta Biathlon Training Centre said, “I’m really glad I had the opportunity to go to the trials. I had some good races where my skiing felt solid and I was focused with my shooting. It was also great to travel with a new team and new coaches. It’s always fun to get to know new people. This year has had a lot of “firsts” for me and going overseas will just top it off.  I’m pretty excited for this opportunity”.

Also performing well was Jennifer Curtis who had a slow start in the first race, after having just recovered from illness, earned an 11^th, 8th and 7^th place finish, ending up 8^th overall in Youth women. Curtis, along with Oliver-Beebe were on the podium last month at a NorAm race in Canmore, Alberta, and have been steadily improving in their national standings.

Ryan Burlingame who is attending the University of Alberta at Augustana, finished 7^th overall in a strong junior men field.  Burlingame, respected for his shooting accuracy, medaled at a recent Calforex Cup in Canmore, in early January; he came in 3rd in the 15km Individual, and 5th in the Sprint. 

Contact Bill Curtis 633 5717 or cell 332 1616