Yukon biathletes prevailed despite cold temperatures and drifting snow at the Western Canadian Biathlon Championships in Camrose, Alta., last weekend.

Junior and senior Biathlon Yukon team members took part in the championships/Calforex Cup #5, open to top-level athletes from Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

Yukon sniper Erin Oliver-Beebe took gold Saturday in the senior girls 7.5-kilometre individual race, hitting 12 out of 20 targets, good enough for the best shooting results in her category.

Teammate Jeremy Johnson was also top shooter in his category with 13 out of 20 hits for eighth in the junior men 15-km individual event.

Ale Peters and Jakov Tokic both competed in the junior boys 6-km individual.

Tokic shot 10 out of 15 and cleared all five of his targets in his final bout.

Will Rees shot seven out of 15 to earn the boys eighth, ninth and 10th places respectively. (In a biathlon individual race, each missed shot receives a penalty of one minute added to the athletes ski time.)

Bad weather delayed Sunday's races for roughly an hour.

After braving difficult conditions the previous day, Team Yukon rose to the challenge to face a prairie blizzard in the sprint race on Sunday.

But all the blowing snow, wind and plummeting temperatures brought out the best in the Yukon team.

In the junior boys categories, strong shooting in gusting winds helped Peters and Rees move up in the standings, taking sixth and eighth positions respectively.

Peters had four hits and one miss on the second round, a rare occurrence for the day as the athletes were finding the conditions extremely difficult to shoot in. Tokic rounded out the Yukon contingent in ninth place.

Strong skiing propelled Oliver-Beebe to another gold medal and a sweep of the senior girls events for the weekend.

Johnson rounded up the day with strong shooting in prone position and battled the blowing snow to an eighth-place finish.

The Yukoners were the only team not complaining about the weather.

"Training in the particularly cold Yukon winter prepared us well,” reported coach Laurie Jacobsen.

Following the race the team required hydro-therapy and headed to West Edmonton Mall water park to undergo treatment.

• Article submitted by Mary-Jane Oliver, vice president for Biathlon Yukon