Dickson wins gold

By Carolynn Boomer, Team BC Mission Staff

What a day at the Biathlon range today with several highlights for Team BC.  Emily Dickson (Prince George), originally from Burns Lake and now living in Prince George, completes her medal set winning gold today in the women’s 10km pursuit with an exciting race against Ontario’s double-gold athlete Leilani Tam Von Burg.  Dickson found herself behind, missing four targets in her third round, but rallied like the fierce competitor that she is to shoot clean in the last round.  In terms of skiing, Dickson managed to go neck and neck with Tam Von Burg to take her by .08 of a second.  Dickson’s time was 34:14.0.

The rest of the girls all finished in the top 13, which will count for flag points.  Claire Lapointe (Prince George), was perfect in her shooting, placing fifth with a time of 36:57.3.  Right behind her was teammate Tekarra Banser (West Kelowna), taking sixth at 37:55.6.  Jennah Smailes (West Kelowna) posted a time of 39:42.1 for 13th.

In the men’s 12.5km pursuit, Arthur Roots (Prince George) finished fifth, shooting 14 for a time of 37:40.3.  An exciting finish between teammates Bobby Kreitz (Prince George) and Jarod Algra (Abbotsford) had them virtually racing in together with Kreitz’s time being 40:17.1 (17th) and Algra’s being 40:27.6 (18th).  Shooting clean to finish 23rd was Emile Vogel-Nakamura (Vancouver).

“Everyone was pumped and ready to go this morning as the pursuit is a really fun race,” said coach Erica Erasmus.  “Everyone was strong off the start.  This is a shooting race and everyone shot well under pressure.”  Erasmus told the athletes if they shot clean for 20 points she would buy them each a chocolate bar.  Needless to say, she ended up buying two chocolate bars for her team.

The team looks ahead for the relay coming up on Friday, February 20th, and hopes to be high up on the podium.

See Canada Games live streaming at www.canadagamestv.ca and follow live updates on Twitter from @GoTeamBC with the hashtag #TBCBiathlon.