There were 24 participants in this year’s Sept. 24th biathlon at the Terrace Rod and Gun Club, in an event where cyclists and marksmen pulled together to give people a taste of biathlon.
Members of the biathlon chapter of the rod and gun club worked with the Terrace Off Road Cycling Association (TORCA) to plan out the day, and organizer Maryka Rypma said the event was fantastic.
“It was just really great to see young people come out and try something entirely different,” Rypma said.
Most of those signed up were children, all of whom received thorough training from the rod and gun club before the event, to ensure the safety of all participants.
TORCA members were also on hand to make sure the cycling portion went smoothly, performing bike checks.
The circuit included three laps of a course on a bicycle (1 km for youths and 2 km for adults), with participants breaking in between laps to calm their heartbeats and shoot at targets using .22 calibre rifles.
Rypma said the targets were closer than normal, to give new participants an easier learning curve with the shooting portion of the event, which was new to a lot of people.
“Accuracy is something that comes though time, but some people did really well,” she said.
Rypma said it was really neat to see people combine a sport they were comfortable with, like riding a bike, with something new like shooting targets.
“It certainly gives the flavour of biathlon,” she said.
Brian Ness was another organizer of the event and he was pretty happy with the number of participants and volunteers.
“Some people were new to shooting, and putting biking with it...it just turned out to be a fun day,” he said.
Winners at the event were:
Women’s junior – Emily Gunn
Men’s junior – Levi Dame
Women’s youth – Magda Vandenberg
Men’s youth – Jonus Lecuyer
Women’s masters – Nicole Wallace
Men’s masters – Willie Muller