Thunder Bay biathletes sweep the podium at Sunday's junior boys biathlon

Thunder Bay biathletes made a strong showing at Kamview Nordic Ski Centre on Sunday, with local competitors in the junior boys category sweeping the medals during the Ontario Winter Games.

The race, which took place Sunday morning, saw Palmer Hunt earn a gold medal, followed by Brock Balabuck, who finished with a silver. Both ski out of the Big Thunder Nordic Ski Club.

They were followed by Lappe Nordic Ski Centre's Griffin Abbink-Davis, who won bronze, while fellow Lappe racer Jake Vaillant ended in fourth.

"[Saturday], my gun was kind of broken, so it was good to get redemption," Hunt, 13, said following the race.

Biathlon is a combination of cross-country skiing and target shooting. Biathletes ski a cross-country trail, with stops to shoot targets; misses on Sunday resulted in extra distance added to the route.

The strategy, Hunt said, is to "kind of take it slow near the end, so that you can breathe better for shooting."

"Every time you miss, it's about 10 seconds in the penalty loop."

Vaillant, meanwhile, had an enthusiastic cheering section — his 10-year-old sister, Maddie.

"Sometimes I feel nervous for him because I would feel very nervous," Maddie Vaillant said prior to her brother's race. "But also I'm excited because this is his first time, and I just want him to have a fun time."

Cheering, she said, "is an important part of the races because then the people feel like they're actually going. They feel power when they're skiing."

"If they're sad, they just look at the fans and they're all cheering them on, so they're happy."

In the junior girls race, the gold medal went to Ottawa's Evelyn Budzinski; it was her second gold medal of the weekend.

"It feels awesome," she said Sunday. "I'm really happy to be here, and to have done pretty well."

Budzinski said the need to perform both physically and mentally is what she likes about biathlon.

"I love the switch in-between the whole physical part of it, and then just kind of switching over to the mental part, calming down and then shooting," she said. "I think it adds a really interesting component to the whole thing."

Clara-Joy Bartlett from Kanata Nordic placed silver in the junior girls category on Sunday, while Lappe Nordic's Emmi Puiras earned the bronze medal.

In the senior girls race, Olivia Stachow of Lake Superior Biathlon won silver, while Rudy Balabuck and Kai Cameron, both of Big Thunder, placed second and third, respectively, in the senior boys race.

Full results from all of Sunday's races are available online.

'Confidence' the key to local bowling wins

Medals were also presented in five-pin bowling on Sunday.

The competition, which was held at Mario's Bowl, saw Thunder Bay District teams win silver in the men's and women's categories, and bronze in the mixed.

"We were so confident the whole tournament," said Alex Geravelis, 18, of the Thunder Bay District men's team. "Going into it, I was confident."

"Couple bad frames to start it off, and a lot of our team's confidence and swagger was gone."

Eric Berg of the champion men's team from Region 3 (Grand River) noted that his team had to manage three wins on Sunday to earn its gold medal.

First, since Region 3 finished round-robin play in second place, they had to defeat the third-place team earlier in the day to earn the chance to face Thunder Bay for the gold medal.

Then Region 3 had to defeat the Thunder Bay team twice, in back-to-back games, to actually win the gold medal. Meanwhile, Thunder Bay only needed to defeat Region 3 once to win the gold medal.

Berg said his bowling experience helped with the pressure of those two games.

"It really comes down to getting up there, standing, breathing and taking your time and just letting yourself do your own thing," he said.

It was a similar situation with the women's gold medal game. The Thunder Bay District women's team was in first place after round-robin play, as well, but dropped two games in a row to Region 8 on Sunday afternoon.

"I'm feeling pretty happy," Region 8's Chloe Russell said following her team's gold medal win. "It's my last year of Youth Challenge, and to have a Winter Games and to win as well, there's a lot of emotions going into that last game."

"It's very intense," she said. "It's very difficult, but it's so much fun, and so worth it."

All results from Sunday's Ontario Winter Games competitions can be found on the event's website.

The games wrap up Monday in Thunder Bay, with medals set to be awarded in archery, hockey, curling, artistic swimming, and fencing.

A full schedule is available online.