Happy New Year,

We had a blast this past weekend at our regional Biathlon competition. All of the top spots on the podium were held by cadets that practice at AFGC.

Noteworthy accomplishments:

  • 13 year old Olivia Xu was the top shot in all the Lower Mainland, with only 2 misses out of 10.  The average for all competitors was 8 misses.
  • Daniel Fang was the next top shot with only 3 misses. He was also the only cadet to “clear” all 5 targets in a bout.
  • Justin Jiang skied the race almost 3 minutes faster than anyone else in the lower mainland. 2nd and 3rd fastest out of all athletes were Sohia and Olivia Xu.

Fun fact: on a proper biathlon target, the reactive portion you need to hit, while shooting in the prone position, is only 45mm wide at 50 meters. With a pounding heart rate and heavy breathing, that’s a tough mark to hit with iron sights below freezing. 

Thank you for the opportunity to train at your facility. It is a key part to our success and has enabled us to introduce marksmanship and firearm safety to over 60 youth this season alone.

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Thursday nights have been increasingly busy as we lead up to the Zone/Regional competition on January 14th at Whistler Olympic Park. Dozens of new shooters have come out and we regularly see at least 5 squadrons/corps per night.

This Saturday will be the first ski and shoot competition since the pandemic and we are stoked!  The top athletes from each zone will then be selected to compete on Mount Washington next month. We are very grateful to be able to practice the shooting component of our sport with your club.

Thank you for your continued support of shooting sports for youth.

Elizabeth Martin 
Civilian Instructor 
907 RCACS Black Knights