February 23, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – Canada had a strong seventh-place finish in the men’s 4 x 7.5km relay edging out France by 0.2s, as Russia took home the gold in 1:12:15.9 using eight spare rounds, their first Olympic biathlon medal of the Sochi 2014 Games. Germany was only 3.5s behind claiming the silver having used two spare rounds while Austria, landed third on the podium using seven spares for the bronze at 29.8 seconds back.

Team Canada including Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, of Shannon, Que., Regina’s Scott Perras, Calgary’s Nathan Smith, and Brendan Green, of Hay River, N.W.T. was in a tight race with France after a rough start.

“I did everything I could to put everything in place so that it would happen in the race today,” said Le Guellec post race. “I was disciplined in the second lap and I geared a bit at the beginning to get past that swing but after the second round I just kind of started shaking and for me standing is a bit more of a challenge. When I’m not in that comfort zone or under control I struggle a lot and that’s what happened.

“I would have preferred not to go into the friggin’ penalty booth as it put me 43 seconds off and we came in seventh. The race is still young but yeah that mistake we can’t afford any other like that.”

“Mainly, during the two weeks I was here I had the energy, I was in shape, but there was always something, one thing that happened each time that stopped me and that kept me from doing what I wanted to do, like the ice patch, so certainly some frustration but…,” he added.

Team USA’s relay squad consisting of Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, NY), Russell Currier (Stockholm, Maine), Sean Doherty (Center Conway, NH) and Leif Nordgren (Marine, MN) closed out the 2014 Olympic Games with a 16th.

Bailey had a strong start for Team USA, skiing the lead in the first loop and cleaning both stages. “I wanted to push the pace in the first loop, so things went well there,” said Bailey. “On the range, I didn’t try to push the shooting and I didn’t try to do anything but hit the targets. A lot of times in relays, you try to shoot faster because you have those extra rounds, but I just tried to take quality shots. I shot a little slower, but I was able to hit everything.”

For Green it was a solid day but as he was not at 100% he knows there’s more to come. “Yeah it was a pretty tight race – I didn’t know how we were doing up until when I came out of the tunnel. The skis were good and the shape was there and the team also. The potential’s always there for me especially with this group of guys we have here right now, but yeah I’m definitely satisfied.

“It’s been a stressful last couple of days, I woke up yesterday feeling kind of sick so I went to see the doctor again and I started on another dose of antibiotics.”

Smith battled with France’s Martin Fourcade for 7th. “I thought I had good chances, I’m usually pretty good at sprint races. It seemed like he was holding back a little bit, on the last lap, I didn’t want to pass him until the last uphill so, I held back a little bit too, for the end.

“I think we did okay, no as good as in the individuals, I did use a couple more spares than I would have liked, so I dunno, it was a good race but not like the best relay I ever had. My best skiing was definitely in the individuals. I’d like to continue, gain some more top 16s and hopefully a couple more top 10s – I’d really like to get into the mass start in Slovenia and redeem myself, so.”

Norway took an early lead with Germany and Russia in second and third. The positions remained intact but Slovenia and Austria were in striking distance. On the final leg it was a four-man race as Austria’s Dominik Landertinger put them in contention.

Norway’s Svendsen cracked with a penalty as Simon Schempp and Anton Shipulin cleaned setting up the final battle as Landertinger needed a spare round. Shipulin out-skied Schempp for the gold as the Russian team of Alexey Volkov, Evegeny Ustyugov, Dmitry Malyshko, and Shipulin celebrated their victory.

Full results here.