Twenty-four skiers competed in the Grey Mountain Cup Biathlon Individual Competition last Sunday at the biathlon range off Grey Mountain Road in Whitehorse.

The age range of the competitors was 12 to 29. Twenty-five skiers were registered, but only 24 started.

"This is our pre-competitive program and our competitive program," explained organizer Sophia Marnik.

"So we had our Pursuit athletes, and those are kids 12, 13, 14, that have just come out of our Biathlon Bears program.

“So they're the beginning to learn to compete program, and then we have our competitive program, which is kids in high school."

Stella Mueller took part in her first competition last Sunday, competing in the Senior Girls 7.5 km Individual category.

"It was good. Tiring."

When asked if it was what she expected, she replied, "Yeah. I shot better than I thought I would, so that was good.

"It was good. I liked it. It was fun."

Mueller said she would be willing to try it again.

"Probably, yeah."

Mueller finished second in the category in a time of 39:26.2.

Isadore Champagne competed in the Youth Men's 12.5 km category.

"It was pretty hard," he said.

When asked if this was his first competition of the season, Champagne replied, "no ... we've already done a lot of time trials ... and we also went down (south) to do some Outside races."

According to Champagne, he had mixed results.

"My shooting was pretty bad ... but the conditions were really good for skiing, so the skiing felt good."

Champagne hit 12 out of 20 targets and finished third in 58:22.8.

Ian Campbell, 29, was competing in the Open Men's category.

"Pretty tiring. It's been a while since I raced. I used to compete when I was younger. Retired from the sport in 2011 when I was 19 to go to university, so I haven't raced competitively since then. Now it's just for fun, and to stay in shape.

"My last year, I was racing for the Ontario team, then I retired from that," he added.

So how did he feel out there?

"A little bit rusty. It's my first time on skis since last year, actually – first time skiing and shooting since last year. I did one race here last year around the same time and thought I'd come back and try to do a couple this year and kind of keep my foot in the sport, so to speak."

Campbell had a decent day shooting.

"I think I shot maybe 14 for 20; 14 or 15 for 20, I think.

"I used to shoot better," he stated.

"I used to be around 17, 18 for 20 consistently, sometimes 19 for 20, but that's when I was shooting probably 15,000 rounds per year.

“Well, maybe not that much. But a lot of rounds per year. Now I'm shooting maybe a 100 rounds a year. So just the two races and that's about it."

Campbell is planning on entering the next competition on Feb. 13.

"I just do it for fun now. Just the local stuff. I'm pretty out of shape from when I was racing before."

Campbell was just happy to be out there.

"Yeah, it's a great day for it too. It's mild. I know they had to delay the race from a couple weeks ago just because of the sheer cold, so you can't ask for a better day and conditions than we have for this one."

Campbell was the only entrant in the Men's 12.5 km category and finished in 1:13:56.0.

Marnik explained why this was the first competition of the season.

"We had to cancel one because it was too cold. And then the next one – we had to postpone it to this date. So we had one scheduled for the beginning of December. We had to cancel it. And then we had one scheduled for the beginning of January. We just postponed that one to here."

Marnik was feeling quite happy that they finally were able to hold the competition.

"Oh, so good. The kids are chomping at the bit to perform today. And to shoot in competition is very different than practice. It raises the stakes a bit and they like that."

The effort of the competitors was apparent, as many of them collapsed in exhaustion at the finish line.

For some kids, like Champagne, it wasn't their first competition of the season.

"We had our senior trip, so senior athletes – which is kind of the kids in Grade 10, 11, 12 – get to go Outside for competition, which is a smaller group, and they went to Canmore, Alta., and they competed there.

“So that was good, because it was the first Outside competition they've had in two years," recalled Marnik.

She was pleased with how the Grey Mountain Cup went.

"I think it went really well, despite the COVID restrictions, 'cause that meant I couldn't have as many volunteers, and we had to limit severely the amount of people that we were allowed to have on the field of play, but we made it work.

"The only thing I would have done was started a little earlier so that all the competitors could be done by one o'clock."

As for what's next, "They were going to go to an Outside competition, but they can't, because it got cancelled, because they didn't have enough volunteers, because volunteers are what actually makes this work. There was 25 athletes, and there are 25 volunteers (at the Grey Mountain Cup). If we don't have the volunteers, we can't do it. So that's what happened to the Outside competition in Grande Prairie," related Marnik.

"So now we have another competition on Feb. 13, which will be – I do believe it's a pursuit competition, where athletes follow after each other – their start order depends on the results from today."

The Grey Mountain Cup Race, which is a Velocity/Pursuit competition, will take place Feb 13.

That event is followed by the Yukon Championships, which are scheduled for Feb. 19-20. Both events take place at the same biathlon range off Grey Mountain Road.

"That's a two-day competition for all athletes of all ages, so we're really hoping the COVID restrictions change by then. Otherwise it will be a bit of a long day. And then Nationals," added Marnik.

The Nationals are scheduled for March 11-17 in Prince George, B.C.