Wednesday 24 December 2014

Recap post!


Finally back in the swing of things. I haven't posted in a while because of school, training with a new team, as well as other aspects of life holding me back. I will however attempt to do more posts, possibly on a monthly or bimonthly basis.

ANYWAYS! Lots of news! I joined the Biathlon Alberta Training Center, which is one of the best of its kind in Canada.  I am really happy to be a part of that group so that i may improve and compete to the best of my ability.

Most of the pictures shown are from World Junior Trails in Canmore earlier this month
Over the summer I trained with them, and also competed at both the Biathlon Canada Testival events, which is basically a week of testing both physical fitness and shooting skill.  I feel pretty happy with the results, and the second Testival week I improved.


So, now we are in racing season. The first races of the year were the Biathlon Canada IBU Cup Trials held in Canmore.  During both of the races I shot pretty well, like 80-90%, and was ranked 12th overall, and 2nd Junior.  Super happy with the result, I went on to Noram #2, also in Canmore and the first official race of the season, due weather Noram #1 was canceled.  Noram #2 was also World Junior Championships Trials. Now, for those of you who don't know, last year's Trials were very disappointing for me, because as the only youth male returning from qualifying last year, I did not make the team, finishing 6th overall in the averages. Not so good.

Junior Men Mass Start, Noram #2 - Photo credit: Jake Ellingson
Trails went really well for me! I had a couple very good races, felt like I skied my best in all of them, and shot clean in every one! Woo chocolate! All the training and shooting over the summer and fall have started to pay off.


And then I qualified! I am so stoked to be going to Belarus to represent Canada at the Junior World Championships. I have worked so hard to bounce back from last year's disappointing result, but I have made it.

Junior Men Mass Start Podium - 1st Stuart Harden, 2nd Matt Strum, 3rd Matt Hudec
In addition to competing at World Juniors, I have the opportunity to race at IBU Cup 6, in Slovakia, and tentatively Open European Championships in Estonia.  It will be a great adventure of over  a month in Europe, with lots of racing and traveling.


Speaking of traveling, it can be super expensive. So, to combat this expense, I have created a page on the crowd funding website Make-A-Champ, so that people like you can donate and help send me to Europe to compete for Canada. The link for the page is here, and I appreciate any and all donations.


Anyways, there is the recap. I will update more often now, with more info pertaining to recent events. And Europe will be super awesome, so I will get more info up about that.  Thanks for reading!

Photo credits to: Roy Strum, Jake Ellinson

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