December 3, 2009 (Canmore, AB) – The NorAm Cup #1/Calforex Cup #1 started the season off this past weekend with a Sprint and a Pursuit race in Canmore, a hotbed for biathlon in Canada. After nearly two weeks of unusually warm conditions the athletes were greeted with high winds and cold temperatures. With just over a 3km loop of manmade snow in place the course was hard packed and very fast. Canada’s Marc-Andre Bedard shot clean and finished in a time of 24:43, ahead of Scott Perras (CAN) and Wynn Roberts (USBA), both of whom missed two shots.

In the women’s Sprint it was again Canada 1-2 again as Megan Imrie shot clean for the win, ahead of Rosanna Crawford. USBAs Laura Spector was third.

Complete Sprint results are here.

The next day in the men’s 12.5km Pursuit, it was the quick skiing of Perras who took the win, despite missing nine of his 20 shots. Second place was Roberts and Bedard was third. Tracy Colliander (USBA) shot clean scoring 18 of 20 shots for her win over teammate Spector, with third going to Canada’s Crawford.

Complete Pursuit results are here.

Overall in the NAC points for women after the weekend, Spector and Crawford are tied, each with 102 points, followed by Colliander with 96. For the men it’s tight in the top three, with Canada’s Perras with 114, and Bedard just behind with 108 followed by Roberts at 102.

The next events, an individual race and another sprint are this weekend again in Canmore. Many of national team athletes have left for Europe as the World Cup is ongoing this week and the IBU Cup starts next weekend.

NAC points to date (after one event) here.