January 31, 2005 – Canada’s Robin Clegg and Marie-Pierre Parent powered their way to a gold medal in the team aggregate race at the Canadian Biathlon Championships in Edmonton, Alberta on Sunday.

Parent, of Ancienne Lorrette, Que., crossed the finish line in the women’s six-kilometre mass start to take the gold medal with a time of seventeen minutes 42.9 seconds, hitting all ten targets.

“I had a successful weekend at the shooting range, and I am thrilled to be named national champion,” said the 22-year-old, who secured the Canadian title after collecting two silver and one gold medal in the three-day event. “Today I skied very fast and I felt confident throughout the race. I started and finished strong and I am extremely happy with my overall performance.”

Clegg, who has been competing on the World Cup circuit in Europe, picked up the Canadian title with his third consecutive gold medal win, crossing the finish line in Sunday’s 7.5 kilometre mass start with a time of nineteen minutes 09.8 seconds, with a clean shooting score.

The 27-year-old veteran of the Canadian team, who flew home to Canada for the national event, secured his best-ever result on the World Cup circuit in Antholz, Italy earlier in the month with a 17th place standing. Clegg and Parent will join the rest of the Canadian team on the World Cup campaign February 10-13 in Torino, Italy.

Rounding out the women’s podium in Sunday’s event, was Martine Albert, of Rimouski, Que., who crossed the finish line in second place to claim the silver medal at 19:22.6, with two shooting errors. Annik Levesque, Camrose, Alta., rounded out third to take the bronze medal at 20:57.6, hitting all ten targets.

Joining Clegg on the men’s draw was Jean Paquet of Loretteville, Que., who finished the day at 19:37.2, while Gerhardt Klann of Edmonton grabbed the bronze medal at 20:10.8. Both Paquet and Klann hit all ten of their targets.

Biathlon Canada also named the athletes, based on this weekend’s Canadian Championship results, who will compete with the maple leaf at the 2005 junior and youth World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland, March 14-21.

“We’ve been doing exceptionally well with our youth and junior programs,” said Roger Archambault, technical director, Biathlon Canada. “When we established a new development strategy, we took on the task of implementing it, and we are already seeing high levels of success with our athletes.”

Biathlon Canada, which implemented a new development strategy nearly five years ago that was designed to build a strong talent pool of athletes to compete on the world stage, has two national training centres, in Canmore, Alta., and Valcartier, Que.

“The Canadian team is strong as a whole, and we are hoping to see some podium finishes out of this group at the World Championships,” said Archambault.