March 08, 2010 (Canmore, Alberta) – A fun, relaxed atmosphere greeted racers and fans on the final day of the 2010 Canadian Biathlon National Championships, with the athletes forming teams of three (two men + one woman) for the relay event. Most provinces entered official teams, but there were also a few ‘unofficial’ teams comprised of athletes from different clubs and provinces as well.

The main goal of today’s race was simply to have as much fun as possible, which was reflected in the inclusive nature of the medals awarded. Provinces were allowed to count only their fastest team for the podium spots, though unofficially everyone recognized the powerhouse provinces of Quebec and Alberta. The event had each athlete skiing a 6km leg and shoot twice. Racers were also given five spare bullets yet for some the time to load each bullet individually after a miss took longer than skiing the 150m penalty loop.

Officially, the results for the Senior category saw Alberta (Tyson and Nathan Smith, and Melanie Shultz) in first, Quebec (Marc-Andre Bedard, Claude Godbout and Maxime LeBoeuf) in second and Saskatchewan (Matt Stachura, David Johns and Jodi Etcheverry) in third.

Junior results were BC (Matt and Aaron Neumann, and Emma Lunder) in first, Quebec (Vincent Blais, Yolaine Oddou, Samuel Laforest-Jean) in second and Alberta (Beau Thompson, Tana Chesham and Scott Gow) in third.

Scott Gow’s brother Christian anchored a very strong Alberta Youth team and, along with Max Davies and Emma Lodge, took 1st in their category but also third over all in the unofficial results. Second in the Youth category went to Quebec (Edouard Cote, Audry Vaillncourt and Maxime Giguere-Viger) followed in third by Ontario (John Colwell, Travis Parr and Alison Bortolon).

Biathlon Canada also announced the final selections to compete in the final World Cups of the season, to be held in Kontiolahti, Finland; Oslo Holmenkollen, Norway; and Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia respectively. The team will consist of the following members:

Women’s Team:
– Zina Kocher
– Megan Tandy
– Megan Imrie
– Rosanna Crawford

Men’s Team:
– Jean-Philippe Le Guellec
– Brendan Green
– Scott Perras
– Nathan Smith

Coaching Staff will be:
– Geret Coyne
– Jean Paquet
– Tom Zidek
– Jarkko Siltakorpi

More information on the upcoming World Cups is available here.