Whitehorse’s Dahria Beatty and Katherine Stewart-Jones of Chelsea, Que. came up short in their bid to earn a spot into the finals of the Women’s Team Sprint classic skiing discipline Wednesday, finishing 12th overall, at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Ski Centre in China.

They missed the finals by two spots. In the team sprint, athletes each ski three laps, handing off to their teammate after completing each 1.5-kilometre leg. The top-four teams in each of the two heats advanced to the finals, along with the next two fastest times overall.

“I gave it everything I had and was happy with how I skied. It was a super tough race and lots of strong teams today out there. Also super-excited to see the boys make it into the final,” said Beatty.

“It was a tough race today. I didn’t quite have the energy I wanted in the legs. I gave it absolutely everything. Dahria skied really well,” added Stewart-Jones.

The Germans won the women’s race. Sweden skied to the silver, while the Russians secured the bronze medal.

In the men’s race, Graham Ritchie and Antoine Cyr combined to deliver Canada’s best-ever team sprint result in the classic-skiing discipline at an Olympic Winter Games when they finished fifth on Wednesday.

Canada’s previous best was an 11th place finish by George Grey and Devon Kershaw at Turin 2006.

Beatty has had several strong results at the 2022 Olympic Games. She started out with a 28th place finish in the Women’s 7.5 km + 7.5 km Skiathlon on Feb.5, and followed that up with a 25th place finish in the Women’s Sprint Free Qualification Feb. 8. She had a best-ever individual Olympic result in the Women’s 10 km Classic Feb. 10, finishing in 18th. She combined with three teammates to finish 9th in the Women’s 4x5 km Relay Feb. 12.

Beatty has one more race to ski. She will be competing in the Women’s 30 kilometre Mass Start Freestyle on Feb. 20 (Feb 19 at 11:30 p.m.Yukon time).

By Morris Prokop with files from Nordiq Canada