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It was a cold weekend at West Kelowna’s Telemark Nordic Club but that wasn’t slowing down Okanagan biathlon athletes.
Kelowna’s Colton Hay recorded a first place finish in Saturday’s Sprint race, and both Natalie Beniot from Summerland and Makenna Banser from West Kelowna recorded first place finishes in Sunday’s Pursuit races.
Biathlon is steadily growing in popularity around the country and is already massively popular overseas in Europe.
The BC Cup event held at the Telemark Nordic club drew over a 100 athletes from around B.C., Alberta and Washington.
Biathlon comprises both cross country skiing and percision shooting in a fast pace and competitive sport.
Competitors are required to ski a two kilometre root then shoot five targets, if a target is missed a penalty loop is required. The process is repeated twice and the athletes times determine the winner.
“West Kelowna’s Telemark Nordic Club has multiple competitive athletes that call the club home,” said Andrew Hay
“To rise to the competitive provincial or national levels these athletes train 11 months of the year so it’s exciting to see them perform so well at their hometown event.”
Hay and Beniot are both eyeing Nationals this year and are inspired by local biathlon legend Julia Ransom who represents the Okanagan on the World Cup circuit in Europe.
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