February 08, 2014 (Sochi, Russia] – Canada is off to great start at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games courtesy of biathlete, Jean Phillipe Le Guellec, who shot clean for an amazing run in the Biathlon men’s 10km Sprint claiming 5th. The gold went to Norway’s legendary Ole Einar Björndalen, 40, with one penalty and a time of 24:33.5. Often regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time, this was Björndalen’s 7th Olympic gold medal and his first individual victory since 2002 in Salt Lake City where he won four golds.

Austria’s Dominik Landertinger shot clean as well to take home the silver at 1.3 seconds behind Björndalen, while clean-shooting Jaroslav Soukup (Czech Republic) finished 5.7 seconds back for the bronze. Also in the top 20 was Canada’s Nathan Smith with a strong 13th place finish while the USA’s Tim Burke was a solid 19th.

Le Guellec performance was one spot better than his previous career-best Games result in the same race at Vancouver 2010. “Honestly, right now it’s what cheers me up a little. In Vancouver, I got sixth place with one penality. That was my main objective. From the start, in Sochi I wanted to ski well, but also do better at the shooting range than in Vancouver, so I’m extremely happy to have had a perfect score,” commented the 28-year-old biathlete from of Shannon, Que.

Yet being so close to the podium was also somewhat disappointing as Le Guellec was looking for better than moving up only one spot. “I came very close…that’s a bit where the disappointment comes from, actually. During the last lap, technicians would tell me that I was two seconds from third, six seconds from first and it was like that every time I passed them. I was like – oh my god, everyone pushes harder during the last lap, of course. And then when I crossed the line in fifth, I was honestly a bit disappointed, I wanted to at least get fourth place.

“Looking back on the performance, I couldn’t have done better. 10/10 at the shooting range, my ski performance was on par with my performance at the Vancouver Olympics. I felt great on my skis, it’s an extremely tough race, you needed a lot of discipline. From start to finish I stuck with my plan, and it worked. It gave good results, so I’m very happy,” Le Guellec added.

His teammate and first-time Olympian, Smith, wore bib #1 and was first out of the gate. “It’s a little bit nerve-wracking, starting first, the crowds pays a little more attention to you. I’d never started first before. Last night when I found out I was starting first I was having some thoughts and thinking about strategies for the race, to keep my focus,” said Smith.

“I knew I could do this sort of race, and you can’t always shoot clean, so I’m really happy with that. It’s probably going to be a personal record. I had ambitious goals, but this year has been a big step up for me so I didn’t want to expect too much here [in Sochi]. At the end of last year I had no qualifications and now I’m having great results so I’ll take what I have,” he concluded.

The USA’s Burke finished with a time of 25:23.3 and one penalty – 49.8s behind Bjoerndalen. “To be at my best today I needed to have a great training camp coming in and be healthy, that was not the case,” said Burke. “This is the first race in many weeks for me, and I ran out of gas towards the end. It wasn’t that bad, and I feel like I’ll get better with each race. I’m happy with the performance, but not very happy with the result.”

Canada’s Brendan Green finished 23rd with one penalty at 58.2s behind while American Lowell Bailey suffered two penalties to finish in 35th place at 1:30.6 behind the winner. “I felt ok today, not great,” said Bailey. “It’s a tough course, and 80% is well under my average for shooting this season. I’m disappointed, but I will put it behind me and move forward.”

Debuting at the Games, the USA’s Leif Nordgren was 45th with clean shooting while teammate Russell Currier, also at his first Olympics was 61st with four penalties. Canada’s Scott Perras, another first-time Olympian, finished 74th with three penalties.

Björndalen, the “King of Biathlon”, had his doubts about winning gold after his penalty. “I thought that gold was not possible, but I still had a chance at the podium. I was worried that I could not keep my speed on the last loop; I know Dominik is really fast in the last 100 meters, but my skis were perfect and that was important,” he told Biathlonworld.com

Full results here.