December 01, 2012 (Ostersund, Sweden) – Jean Philippe Leguellec is on top of the world at he shot clean and skied his way into the history books as the first Canadian man to win an IBU World Cup taking home a solid victory today in the men’s 10km sprint in Ostersund, Sweden.

His closest rival, Alexis Boeuf (FRA) with one penalty, was 18s behind demonstrating just how superb Leguellec’s performance was, as Christoph Sumann from Austria claimed the final podium spot. Leguellec best previous result was 6th in the 10km sprint at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.

“It’s huge… I’m really surprised that it happened but it all came together today. I couldn’t be happier,” said the ecstatic winner. “It’s been an objective since the Olympics and a dream come true.”

Le Guellec first cracked the seal on the Canadian biathlon history books in 2009 with career-best seventh place finish in Antholz-Anerselva, Italy. In addition to grabbing a handful of top-10 performances since, including two eighth-place finishes last season, the sharp-shooting Canuck gave the country a glimpse of his potential at the 2010 Olympics when he finished in the top-15 in all four events, including a sixth in the sprint competition.

The previous best World Cup result by a Canadian male was in 1993 when Glen Rupertus finished sixth. Two-time Olympian, Zina Kocher of Red Deer, Alta., was the only other Canadian to reach the podium at a World Cup race in the last two decades. Kocher also celebrated her breakthrough in Oestersund, Sweden when she was third in the women’s individual competition in 2006. Kocher was the first Canadian to reach the international biathlon podium since Myriam Bedard won double gold at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games.

All of the big guns were stunned and silenced by the Canadian as Emil Hegle Svendsen (NOR) was 7th, Germany’s Andreas Birnbacher and Arnd Peiffer were 8th and 9th, with overall leader Martin Fourcade (FRA) in 10th.

The USA’s Tim Burke had a respectable day in 18th suffering two penalties followed by teammate Lowell Bailey in 30th also with two misses. Both advance to Sunday’s pursuit along with Canada’s Scott Perras in 45th and Leif Nordgren (USA) who placed 50th as only the top 60 qualify – Nathan Smith (Can) was 61st and Russell Currier was 80th.

Full results HERE.
With files from Biathlon Canada.