March 08, 2015 (Canmore, AB) – Ecstatic over the historic news of Canada’s first male biathlon world championships medal was extra motivation for Canadian biathletes at the final race of IBU Cup – the mixed relay. The team of Emma Lunder, Zina Kocher, Marc-Andre Bedard and Macx Davies was considered one of the strongest relay teams to date on the IBU Cup as all four have World Cup experience.

Mixed Relay start © Pam Doyle

While Canada performed well and finished a respectable seventh, the French, Austrians and Italians surprised the field by  reaching the podium in that order on the final day of competition.

The heavily favoured Germans finished fourth, while the Russians, who had reached the podium all week – finished eighth. The upstart Italians wowed the crowd early on by holding onto first place until the final leg, when they were caught as France took the win in 1:07.05 ahead of Austria by 11 seconds with Italy at 25 seconds behind the winners.

© Pam Doyle

Lunder started the relay for only the third time in her career, and shot extremely well to keep Canada in the mix early on. As the last race of a long week, she left it all on the line.

“I was really happy with today’s race. The first loop was super relaxed. I was so happy to be starting,” said Lunder. “On the last lap, last IBU race of the season, I just went for it.

Kocher tags Bedard © Pam Doyle

She shot clean in standing and couldn’t believe it when she caught the favoured Germans on her final lap. She had raced many of the same athletes earlier in the year on the IBU Cup circuit.

“To be skiing with them, and passing them was confidence boosting, for sure,” added Lunder.

Kocher kept the team in the mix, while Bedard and Davies took risks to make up time, however they couldn’t catch the strong skiers in front of them. The US Team of Kelsey Joan Dickinson, Katrina Howe, Patrick Johnson and Wynn Roberts finished 11th after being lapped.

Final podium © Pam Doyle

Following the race, Biathlon Canada High Performance Director Chris Lindsay said he was happy with Canada’s performance over the week, as they achieved their goal of two medals. The Canadian women won two medals, and had two more top six performances.

“Overall, it was a fantastic week,” commented Lindsay. “I think we had a lot of successes, especially on the women’s side… (with the men) we saw some improvement. It was difficult, especially yesterday. The conditions broke down really quickly and unfortunately we weren’t as ready for those changing conditions as we could have been. But it’s true, I would have like to see more performances out of the men.”

Team Canada © Pam Doyle

Lindsay said the men’s field in Canmore was extremely tough, and he praised Marc-Andre Bedard for his string of strong races. The organizing committee will now debrief the races, and begin preparations for the World Cup races in Canmore in February 2016.

Full results here.