Canada's Jean-Phillippe LeGuellac says he felt the presence of the home crowd as he skied and shot his way into an early lead in Sunday's (Feb. 14) Olympic men's 10-kilometre sprint biathlon event at Whistler Olympic Park.
The 24-year-old from Quebec City then carried it through to the finish, posting what one of his Canadian coaches called "the race of his life" in finishing sixth his best placing ever in a World Cup, world championships or Olympic Games.
LeGuellac certainly picked an opportune time for it, and he credited his success, in part, to the cheers of the crowd.
"It's just total positive energy. I'm just really grateful that the crowd was cheering me on. That's awesome," said LeGuellac, who hit nine of his 10 shots in the range and was leading the race after the first round of shooting.
"The crowd was cheering for me when I made my shots, and I could really feel that."
Jay Vincent of France captured the gold medal, besting many of the race favourites including World Cup overall points leader Tim Burke of the United States and nine-time Olympic medalist Ole-Einar Bjorndalen of Norway in a time of 24 minutes, 7.8 seconds. Vincent also won the individual event during last season's World Cup at WOP.
Emil Svendsen of Norway captured the silver, placing 12.2 seconds behind Vincent, while Jakov Fak of Croatia placed third, 14 seconds behind the winner.
The race started in a light rain that picked up as the event proceeded, then turned to heavy, wet snow. Bjornalen, who wound up 17th, missed three of his first five shots and said of his race overall, "It was really bad. The skiing was OK, but there was a lot of snow."
LeGuellac, who finished 40.7 seconds behind the winner, placed seventh and eighth, respectively, in pursuit races last season. Sunday's race set him up in a strong position for Tuesday's (Feb. 16) 12.5 km pursuit race, where he will start close to the front of the pack.
"Pursuit is my favourite race," he said.
His best previous World Cup finish this season was a 10th place in an individual event early in the season in Östersund, Sweden.
Canadian team coach Geret Coyne said last season, LeGuellac started strong but faded as he World Championships approached in February. After this season's early 10-place finish, he and his coaches changed up his training regimen in an effort to change LeGuellac's late-season fortunes.
"He had difficulties at past World Championships so we adjusted his training cycles and it seems to have worked," Coyne said. "It's good to seem him get it sorted out at this time of year.
"I think he had the race of his life today."
