With 42 competitors hitting the trails for the Biathlon Yukon championships last weekend, it’s safe to say the sport is making a comeback.

Club president Bill Curtis said he believes the field was the largest in the club’s history.

“Success by our athletes gets the sport a little more publicity, which gets people interested,” he told the Star.

“And we are a Nordic skiing community and this really just combines skiing and shooting. It’s quite an electric atmosphere in biathlon.”

The Yukon Championships was held over two days at the Grey Mountain biathlon range.

Saturday’s event was an individual start, with racers leaving the blocks every 30 seconds, while Sunday saw athletes participate in a mass start with additional penalty laps handed out for missed targets.

On Saturday, senior athletes added a minute to their overall time for each miss, with juniors adding 40 seconds.

Canada Winter Games athletes Nadia Moser and Maria Peters once again flashed their talent in the junior women category, while a group of senior boys also logged exemplary performances in the event’s largest field.

“Senior boys is a category where we really have a lot of competition,” explained coach Dennis Peters. “Liam Adel had a standout performance this weekend. He has struggled a bit with his shooting, but it all came together and he just had two really good races.”

Peters also spoke highly of junior girl competitor Micah Hildes, who strung together two strong performances to win on consecutive days.

Both Hildes and runner-up Bronwyn Goodwin-Williams shot two clean rounds Saturday, hitting all five targets on two of their three attempts.

“They both had amazing shooting,” said Dennis Peters.

In the junior boys division, Torsten Petersson topped the field two days in a row.

“He was definitely our strongest junior boy,” said Dennis Peters.

A number of adult athletes competed this year, something Curtis called good for the program.

Also present at the weekend championships were two Bears groups, made up of young athletes between nine and 13 who are new to the sport.

“Biathlon is popular right now,” said coach Peters. “We’ve been turning kids away. We don’t have enough coaches or facilities or rifles to actually handle all the athletes who have been asking to join.”

Both Moser, 17, and Maria Peters, 16, were skiing in the junior women’s category in an attempt to push themselves in advance of the upcoming Canada Winter Games in Prince George, B.C.

Moser – whose 12.5-kilometre race Saturday was the longest so far in her career – will lead a small contingent of local athletes into a B.C. Cup event next week in Whistler. A Yukon team will be selected for the biathlon nationals in Hinton, Alta., following that race.

For full results from the weekend, visit www.biathlonyukon.org/by-events.html.

Top results

SATURDAY - INDIVIDUAL START

Junior Women

Nadia Moser (12.5 km in 56:16)

Men

Jordan Lindoff (12.5 km in 1:32:07)

Senior Boys

Liam Adel (7.5 km in 34:30)

Senior Girls

Clodagh Berg (7.5 km in 1:01:20)

Junior Boys

Torsten Petersson (5 km in 33:05)

Junior Girls

Micah Hildes (5 km in 27:17)

Masters Men

Brian Healy (7.5 km in 31:40)

Masters Women

Judy Hartling (7.5 km in 55:47)

SUNDAY - MASS START

Junior Women

Nadia Moser (10 km in 37:06)

Men

Brian Healy (12.5 km in 49:36)

Senior Boys

Jake Draper (6.25 km in 27:48)

Senior Girls

Marika Kitchen (6.25 km in 49:59)

Junior Boys

Torsten Petersson (4 km in 20:57)

Junior Girls

Micah Hildes (4 km in 19:17)

Masters Men

Bernard Johnson (7.5 km in 38:45)