Wodonga's Lynn-Maree Cullen stars at International Masters Biathlon Championships in Finland

Wodonga's Lynn-Maree Cullen competed at the International Masters Biathlon Championships for the first time in 10 years at Kontiolahti, Finland, but despite having no major competitions since 2019, she came away with gold in the women's 50 years individual biathlon, raced over 7.5 kilometres.

Her skiing and shooting scores were second best for the entire championship and eclipsed all other women 35 years and above.

The SSAA Wodonga Rifle Range coach outperformed all of her rivals from Finland, Great Britain, France, Estonia, Latvia and Canada.

She also helped Australia secure silver with a strong performance in the mixed relay, while her bronze medal in the five-kilometre biathlon sprint rounded out a strong return to the world stage.

Mrs Cullen's results saw Australia retain "The Ashes" - a minor challenge between Great Britain and Australia.

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She contested the masters competition 10 years ago with her father, Bob Cranage, and they returned in 2022 to celebrate their 50^th and 80^th birthdays. Mr Cranage came away with two individual bronze medals.

"We had a week-and-a-half before the competition started to train on snow, but other than that we've been here on roller skis," Mrs Cullen said.

"We felt a bit underdone from a skiing perspective getting back up to speed, but if we had of had a month on snow it would have been very different.

"There were 20 women at the event and the women I was against had been competing all season for Finland. I didn't know how I was going to fare, so it was good to come away with a gold and a bronze medal."

Mrs Cullen was on the shadow Olympic team for three Olympics in 1992 (Albertville, France), 1994 (Lillehammer, Norway) and 1998 (Nagano, Japan).

Her daughter, Jorja, hopes to one day reach those heights as one of Australia's rising stars.

The 18-year-old was selected alongside three other Australian juniors for the International Biathlon Union/International Olympic Committee camp in Italy last year.

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