BROOKVALE – Andre Boudreau takes sibling rivalry seriously when it comes to the biathlon as he considers his twin brother Lucas one of his main competitors in the province.
The 15-year-olds are members of 107 New Haven Army Cadet Corps and both were competing on the weekend to qualify for the national cadet biathlon championships in CFB Valcartier, Que., in March.
Saturday, Andre earned first place by a 49-second margin over Josh Richard while Lucas came in third. All three qualified for the nationals in March.
They also competed Sunday at the provincial championships at the Brookvale Nordic Centre.
Andre has been involved with cadets and biathlon for four years - he joined the cadets and then got interested in the sport.
"My friend was in it and he told me it was a good opportunity for lots of travelling so I joined up, but I did not know biathlon was a part of it . . . so I joined the corps' biathlon team and it has just kind of gone from there," he said Saturday during a break in the competition.
And indeed it did go. Boudreau won the cadet nationals last year "and that was a really great experience . . . I had a really good season last year."
Besides the nationals, competition has taken him to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec.
He competes in the senior class and that is the toughest.
Competitors Saturday included army, navy and sea cadets from across the province, said Lt. (N) Bruce Ferguson, championship director for the event.
There were 25 competitors in the event Sunday.
To get to the provincial championships, cadets had to compete in run and shoot zone events which required a cadet to run a kilometre and shoot and repeat that three times.
Once a cadet qualifies for the provincials then they get on the skis and practise. Snow was late coming this year so there has not been as much practice time as the cadets would have liked.
Ferguson said that two Island teams will go to Quebec - one is a unit team and the other a composite team consisting of the top athletes who are not on the unit team.
Biathlon is a sport that combines cross-country skiing and shooting with competitors completing a round of shooting after each lap of the course.
The challenge of the sport is to be quick and an accurate shooter under conditions of aerobic stress.
