The Omineca Ski Club had athletes and coaches out on the snow at the biathlon provincials held in Prince George at the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club.
The Odlum Brown Biathlon BC Championships were held on Feb. 24-26 under heavy snows the first day of official racing and blowing wind the second day.
There were three local results to report from the Sprint event, all of them from one family, plus one Lakes District athlete competing this winter for the Caledonia club.
Ella Broadworth came 5th out of nine racers in the Junior Girls age division (13-14). Her time was 29:56.3 compared to Maisie Hoehn’s top mark of 24:16.7 for the host Caledonia team.
John Broadworth, Ella’s brother, took part in the U13 Recreation division which allows athletes to go through their skiing and shooting motions, but the scores are not officially documented.
Their dad Sean Broadworth took bronze in the Masters Men (35+) with a time of 42:29.8 compared to the 1st place finish of Max Sterelyukhin of the Vancouver Island Biathlon Club who finished with a 36:10.7 time and his teammate Jonathan Kerr in 2nd place at 38:08.9.
Ewan Hawes is a longtime member of Omineca Ski Club but this year is racing with the Prince George organization in the Senior Boys (15-16) division. Hawes won the Sprint gold medal handily with at time of 24:58.6, about two and three full minutes faster than the 2nd and 3rd place finishers, respectively.
The Pursuit event the next day is scored differently, using a series of shooting scores and lap times. Final placings were 4th for Ella Broadworth in the Junior Girls category, and 3rd for Sean Broadworth in the Masters Men.
Ewen Hawes had his scores unofficially recorded, but a course violation caused a disqualification in his overall day.
Omineca’s Allie Dickson, the club’s premier biathlon coach, was one of the five official jury members for the event.
Other coaches on site included Bryan Dickson and Karen Broadworth.
Three other athletes - Randy, Julia and Nicole Hamp - all had places in the provincial championships but opted to focus their training attention on the upcoming nationals to which they are going in Valcartier, Quebec from March 13-19.
