February 14, 2010 (Whistler, BC) – With clean shooting, Vincent Jay of France, took

advantage of an early start in a clear weather on Sunday to capture the gold medal in the men’s 10km Sprint in 24:07.8, at Whistler Olympic Park.

The silver medal today went to Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway who had a single penalty, while finishing 12.2 seconds behind Jay. Jakov Fak of Croatia won the bronze medal, matching Jay on the shooting range, but finished 14 seconds back.

Canada’s Jean-Philippe Le Guellec lead the North Americans with a  solid race claiming a career-best 6^th to the delight of the home town crowd – his previous best result was 7th in the pursuit at a 2009 World cup in Antholz, Italy.  Le Guellec can also lay claim to the best ever Olympic result for a Canadian man, previously held by Steve Cyr who was 8th in the men’s 10km sprint in Albertville, France in 1992.

Joining him in the record books is the USA’s Jeremy Teela who delivered the best-ever US Olympic biathlon  result claiming 9^th (the previous best was  Jay Hakkinen’s 10^th in Torino 2006).

Today’s competition was marred by a driving snowstorm that began slowly as rain just as the first starters left the stadium. It quickly turned into heavy wet snow (about 20 minutes after the 11:15 start) that slowed the tracks considerably and changed the complexion of the competition.

The top six finishers who all started in the first five minutes, only encountering the heavy storm for a short period. They were virtually unscathed by the wet heavy snow that shrouded the Whistler Olympic Park venue. According to US Coach Per Nilsson, once the wet heavy snow started, “No one else (outside of the top 10-15 starters) had much of a chance as the waxing conditions were completely different. The competition became a lottery that was won by the early starters.”

Olympic gold medalist Jay picked up only the second victory and podium result of his career. Ironically, he won the 20km Individual at the pre-Olympic Whistler World Cup here last March. After the press conference, he smiled broadly as he said, “I really like Whistler Olympic Park!”

At the same time, he knew that he benefitted from the foul weather. “I was very lucky today in terms of the weather. In the beginning of the race, there was no snow. The shooting was all me and was not affected by the weather. I have to say that I had very good skis today; I thank all of our technicians.”

Both the US and Canadian teams benefitted from the weather gods. Canada’s Le Guellec started eighth and finished sixth, with a clean shooting performance, just 49.8 seconds behind the gold medalist. The 24-year-old Le Guellec was his typical animated self after his outstanding performance. “I feel awesome, it was an awesome race. I stayed focused on my technique and on my skiing and I had fast skis too so the skiing part went well. On shooting, I came in prone, shot clean, shot fast. I really fed of the crowd that was cheering after every target. That’s something I always hear in Ruhpolding when the people are cheering for the Germans but to have it here for me was actually really exciting – it was awesome. Being the only Canadian is frustrating and I think we should have been four here for sure, but I am happy to pull off a good race for my team mates.”

Canadian Coach Geret Coyne was equally ecstatic, stating, “There is no question that I’m pleased with his performance today.  He did everything he could to get a good result. It’s extremely satisfying to see him be back up there, after he struggled during most of the World Cup season.”

Teela of the USA started 13th but finished 9th, with two penalties 1:13.9 back. That performance by the 33-year-old Teela was the best-ever US Olympic Biathlon result, surpassing Jay Hakkinen’s 10th place in Torino four years ago. Teela had his career best result last year with third place in the same 20km here that Vincent Jay won. Both Teela and Leguellec, now have a reasonable chance of making the 30-man Mass Start field next weekend. Top 15 performances in Tuesday’s 12.5km Pursuit will probably put them in the field.

The rest of the US men did make the 60-man Pursuit, but all three were hampered by the deteriorating snow conditions. Lowell Bailey shot clean for the first time in a year, as he finished 36th, 2:18.8 back, while the top US man, Tim Burke had three penalties and ended up 47th , 2:47 back. Hakkinen had his best shooting performance of the year, also cleaning but finished 3:09.4 back.

Like the three US men, many of the pre-competition favorites were defeated by the weather gods. Among those farther back in the results were Ole Einar Björndalen of Norway in 17th place, with four penalties, 1:41.1 back, Torino gold medalist Michael Greis of Germany, 21st, with three penalties, 1:48.2 back and 2009 mass start World Champion Dominik Landertinger of Austria, 34th, with four penalties, 2;15.9 back

Monday is an off day for the biathletes, with both the men’s and women’s Pursuits on Tuesday.

Full results here. 

Results (brief)

1. Vincent Jay (FRA), 24:07.8

2. Emil Hegl Svendsen (NOR), 24:20.0

3. Jakov Fak  (CRO), 24:21.8

6. Jean-Philippe Le Guellec (CAN) , 24:57.6

9. Jeremy Teela (USA), 25:21.7

36. Lowell Bailey (USA) 26:26.6

47. Tim Burke (USA) 26:54.8

54. Jay Hakkinen (USA) 27:17.4