February 28, 2015 (Canmore, AB) – Marc-Andre Bedard is accustomed to jumping through fire and hucking javelins in the off season as a Spartan racer, but he relied on strong shooting to lead the Canadians by finishing 21th in the sprint in the kick off to IBU Cup 7 in Canmore, Alberta.

Bedard, 29, shot clean, but was still 1:15 back of winner Alexey Kornev of Russia, who continued his pursuit of the overall IBU Cup title. Antonin Guigonnat and Babtiste Jouty of France finished second and third respectively on a strong day for the French.

Macx Davies (Canmore) finished 23rd and Scott Perras (Regina) was 25th as the only Canadians to crack the top 30. Perras said he is overcoming illness and believes his results will improve as the week wears on, as does the rest of the team.

“It’s been a rough year. I got a flu a couple weeks ago. Today it was about slowly building into the race. I couldn’t go to red line, otherwise I was over. So I tried to ski smart, hit my targets and get what I could,” said Perras.

Blue skies and a boisterous crowd greeted the Canadian athletes in Canmore, who were competing against IBU Cup athlete on home soil for the first time since 2012. The community will host a world cup in March 2016.

“I’ve raced at home and Whistler and home a couple of times, but it still caught me off-guard at the start when everyone cheered at the start,” added Perras.

The rest of the Canadians had middling results. Matthew Hudec of Saskatchewan skied in the top 10 for half of the race, but faltered on his second bout of shooting to finish 40th. Matthew Neumann (Prince George) was 43rd and Andrew Chisholm (Calgary) finished 46th.

The men race again Sunday, at 10 a.m.

Full results here.