Tandy qualifies for Olympic pursuit
Tandy misses start Monday
Megan Tandy fought off windy conditions on the shooting range Saturday in the Olympic women’s 7.5-kilometre sprint in Pyeongchang, South Korea and made the cut for the pursuit race.
The 29-year-old from Prince George managed to hit eight of 10 targets and finished 47th out of 87 competitors.
In the first biathlon event of the Pyeongchang Olympics, Tandy finished 2:36.6 behind gold medalist Laura Dahlmeier of Germany, who shot clean and covered the course in 21:06.2. Marte Olsbu of Norway won the silver medal, 24.2 seconds behind Dahlmeier, and Veronika Vitkova of the Czech Republic captured bronze, 25.8 seconds off the winning pace.
Julia Ransom of Kelowna placed 40th as the top Canadian. She had just one miss and finished 2:08.8 behind Dahlmeier. Rosanna Crawford of Canmore was 53rd, 2:23.0 behind with three misses and Emma Lunder of Vernon was 54th with two missed targets, 2:24.2 behind.
With their top-60 results, all four Canadian women qualified for Monday’s 10 km pursuit. Dahlmeier will have a head start over the other 59 competitors in the pursuit. The rest of the field will have to wait to leave the start gate for a time period which reflects how far each finished behind the sprint winner.
“Just like that, my 3rd Olympics are underway!” said Tandy, on her Facebook page.
“Although I am somewhat disappointed with today’s result (57th with two misses and heavy legs) I am thinking positive: Eight years ago I was the only woman to qualify for the pursuit, this Olympics all four of us will be putting up a fight.”
The women’s pursuit is scheduled to start at 2:10 a.m. PT on Monday.
Sarah Beaudry of Prince George, 23, an alternate on the Canadian team, is also in Pyeongchang and is expected to compete in one of the team relays during the second week of the Games.
“I am super-excited to be here in Korea,” said Beaudry, in an email to The Citizen.
“It definitely wasn’t easy and I am proud of my hard work paying off. Its fun being here with Megan as she definitely was someone I looked up to growing up with her always being the first PG girl on the international biathlon scene.
“It’s so fun being here in the
It’s been a cold and windy for the start of the Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and the conditions there took a toll on Prince George biathlete Megan Tandy.
She woke up with chest cold Monday morning and was forced to miss her start in the women’s 10-km pursuit. Tandy, 29, was among the top-60 qualifiers in the sprint race on Friday, placing 57th out of 87.
“Disappointing news, but it is for the best,” said Tandy, in her Facebook post. “I have decided not to start the 10km pursuit tonight in order to get healthy for our upcoming individual race. I will be cheering on my girls from bed, I know they can rock this stadium tonight.”
Turns out, Tandy was right. Rosanna Crawford of Canmore qualified 53rd and made up 34 positions in the pursuit to finish 19th. Julia Ransom on Kelowna also made up for her 40th-place sprint result to finish 29th in the pursuit. The other Canadian in the race, Emma Lunder of Vernon, was 54th.
Sprint winner Laura Dahlmeier of Germany had a 24-second lead to start the pursuit and ended up winning gold in 30:35.3 with just one miss in 20 shots at the range. Anatstasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia and Anais Bescond of France won silver and gold respectively.
The women are back in action Wednesday night in Pyeongchang (3:05 a.m. PT) for the 15 km individual race.
In other Prince George Olympic news, Meryeta O’Dine will begin her medal quest in the women’s snowboardcross competition on Thursday. O’Dine, 20, will begin with the qualification round Thursday night.
village see all the athletes from different countries and learning about other winter sports from my Canadian teammates. I have definitely gotten into pin trading with all the countries.”