Omenica Ski Club member Patrick Harraway may not be Russia's Evgeny Ustyugov yet but at the age of only 14 years he has taken gold home too. Skiing on borrowed skies last week, Harraway recently won a gold medal at the BC Cup which was held in Prince George. The six kilometre biathlon course had Harraway skiing and shooting four different times throughout the heat.
Because of this win and his time local coach Chris Paulson and his training camp coach Chris Werrell thought Harraway should attend the Canadian National Ski Championships so Harraway is off to Canmore, Alberta this week [March 11- 19]. He will be competing against 13 -14 year old age group and racing for 13 kilometres rather then six.
He has been skiing for fours years and coaches Werrell and Paulson both saw potential in the young skier.
"He is a great kid and he is super keen and motivated. He finds Biathlon a real challenge and he goes after what he wants with a sense of learning and adventure. It is very easy to coach kids like Patrick as he is so self motivated and loves what he does. He is also able to train on his own which is essential because he is on a year round training program that takes a lot of dedication and sacrifice," said Paulson.
Before the decision to go to the nationals Harraway said, "Chris Werrell said to me I think we should take you to Kamloops [Zone 4 Championships] and see how you do. I placed fourth out of 22 skiers and my time was great."
"I don't have any skies of my own so David Palmer has been really nice and he has been letting me use his skies," said Harraway.
When asked which he like better the skiing or shooting he replied, "I like them equally I like both parts of biathlon - I like skiing and if there wasn't biathlon then I would just stick with skiing and if there was no skiing I would just stick with shooting."
"I train five to six days a week, I ski but I also do core training and then of course I have homework to do every day too," said Harraway.
After the nationals Harraway said he has one more race, "March 20 I will compete at the regional biathlon our club holds and then that will be my last race, after that I will start summer training for next year.
I am pretty happy I am the seventh best in my category in the province."
Harraway explained that next year he will be 15 and his hope is to make the BC National team. "Once you gain a position on the BC National team almost all your expense are paid for, so that will be good."
He also said he was grateful to his family and Paulson for helping him out financially with the Canmore trip and is also looking for sponsorship. If anyone is interested in donating money to Patrick please make donations in care of the Omineca Ski Club, Box 1008, Burns Lake B.C. V0J1E0