November 28, 2013 (Oestersund, Sweden) – Canada’s Jean Philippe Le Guellec kicked off the Olympic biathlon year with a bang finishing a shade off the podium in 4th in the men’s 20-kilometre individual competition at the World Cup season-opener in Oestersund, Sweden on Thursday.

The 28-year-old two-time Olympian missed just one shot in his four trips to the range to clock a fourth-place time of 52 minutes, 42.2 seconds in difficult, windy and inconsistent shooting conditions .

“It was a super start to the season, but I definitely didn’t expect this,” said Le Guellec. “I think I started out my first two laps too conservative, and I just tried to muster up some speed because my skis were slow, but I knew shooting 19 of 20 in these conditions it was going to end up in something good today. I am super stoked!”

It was the best individual race result of Le Guellec’s career. The Shannon, Que. native has had good vibes in Ostersund. One year ago he fired into the history books after becoming the first Canadian male to win a World Cup medal in biathlon when he won the sprint race in Sweden.

“Thinking about winning here last year was the furthest thing from my mind because it is a new season and completely different conditions,” he continued. “I train to race and this being the start of the World Cup season excites me so maybe that is why I get up for racing here. But the course here is one of the most demanding next to Sochi, which I really like and resembles what we train on back home in Quebec.”

Martin Fourcade, of France, shot clean to win the men’s event with a time of 50:10.9, while Austria’s Simon Eder celebrated the silver medal with a time of 52:17.0 (0+0+0+1), and Daniel Mesotitsch, also of Austria, placed third at 53:31.1 (1+0+0+0).

Calgary’s Nathan Smith, 28, also had a career-best finish crossing the line in 16th spot with a time of 53:56.2 and three penalties (0+1+2+0). American Lowell Bailey from Lake Placid, NY took the top finish for Team USA placing 19th with a time of 54:08 and two penalties, at 3:57.9 behind Fourcade.

“I’m happy to get a solid race under me,” said Bailey. “I didn’t know what my ski speed would be like today compared to the other countries, so I just tried to focus on my own performance. We’ve been on snow less than half of the time that some of the other countries have, so I’m happy to be in the mix.”

The USA’s Tim Burke finished 60th (6 penalties), Jeremy Teela from Heber City, UT was 76th (5 penalties), Canada’s Scott Perras finished 81st (7 penalties) and Leif Nordgren (6 penalties) was 83rd.

The World Cup continues on Friday in Sweden with the women’s sprint competition. Le Guellec will look to successfully defend his sprint title from one year ago on Saturday.

Full results here.

With files from Biathlon Canada and US Biathlon