After already winning Bronze and Silver, Burns Lake native and Prince George resident Emily Dickson(17) completed the medal hat trick with Gold today at Otway in the woman 10k biathlon pursuit.
It was a dramatic come from behind win for Emily, who after going just 1/5 on her second to last shoot, shot a perfect 5 for 5 to launch her into gold medal contention for the final lap.
“To shoot clean there, it was awesome.” Emily said “I didn’t realize that I would be right up back for gold contention. But when I looked up, there was a smile there for sure, because I saw Leilani and was like ‘OK this could be an exciting lap, and I might have it in me.’”
Emily edged out Ontario’s Leilani tam van Burg(19), a favorite who had won gold by large margins in her previous two events, by just 0.8 of a second in a down to the wire finish. Emily started in the second spot, as per yesterday’s results, 5 seconds behind Leilani.
“It’s exciting.” Emily said “I feel really proud to represent Team BC, Prince George, Burns Lake and my team so well. To be able to bring this home is an awesome feeling.”
Another Prince George athlete, Claire Lapointe(16) shot a perfect 20 for 20 and placed 5th, way up from her starting 12 spot and reaching her goal of a top ten finish.
“I had a good feeling about this race.” Claire said on the finish line “I haven’t had the best results the last few days and I was just really pumped up today knowing this might be my day… on that last shot my vision was getting blurry, and I was thinking ‘oh god it’s not going to hit!’ But it went down so I’m really happy.”
In men’s action PG’s Arthur Root placed 5th. 16 year old Bobby Kreitz had a strong race and finished 17th after starting 20th. He described competing on his home track as “super exciting and overwhelming”, but he was very happy to be there.
He added that this year he was “soaking up the experience”, and if he has a chance to compete in another Winter Games he will ready to challenge for a medal.
The team relays are set to go on Friday at Otway. Team BC looks like a medal contender in both men’s and woman’s after todays strong results.
Emily in the starting gates wearing #52
Emily after crossing the finish line under a second ahead of Leilani
Emily, Leilani and Bronze medalist Nadia Moser(Yukon) on their first shoot
Emily, Leilani and Nadia atop the podium
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