February 10, 2014 (Sochi, Russia) – Simon Fourcade (FRA) claimed gold in the men’s 12.5km pursuit with a superb performance today as Canadian Jean Phillipe Le Guellec’s bid for the podium ended when he hit a patch of ice suffering a disasterous fall and a broken ski. Yet teammate Nathan Smith, a first-time Olympian, cruised to a strong 11th-place career-best Olympic result to salvage some Canadian pride.

Nathan Smith © Nordic Focus

Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic took the silver shooting clean at 14.1 seconds back while Jean Guillaume Beatrix (FRA) was the surprize bronze medal winner also missing one target at 24.2 seconds behind Fourcade, his golden teammate.

The USA’s Tim suffered two penalties finishing 22nd at 1:48.4 behind while Lowell Bailey was 38th with three penalties and Leif Nordgren placed 53rd suffering seven penalites. Following Le Guellec in 26th was fellow Canuck Brendan Green in 35th with four penalties to round out the North Americans.

Jean-Philippe Le Guellec © Biathlon Canada

Le Guellec was in a lead group of four skiers following the second round of prone shooting and looking very much a podium contender. “I turned on the first lap and there was a huge ice patch that I saw at the last minute, and it sent me flying,” explained Le Guellec. “Then when I got back up the first four guys had passed. I tried to catch up to them, on the second downhill but had to bail because my ski was actually broken – so then I had to wait to get a ski. Things just went downhill from there.”

Things went better for Smith who was pleased with his shooting missing only one target on the day as he hopes to get into the upcoming mass start race.

“Yeah 11th place…I’m really happy with that. I moved up a few spots with some awesome shooting,” said Smith. “I felt like I faded a bit on the fourth loop with my skiing, then I brought it back a bit from the fifth, but my first two loops I think were really good – so it was good overall. I mean, just being out there with those guys… they’re fast.”

“I feel really good about my shooting. I’m not sure why I missed that one standing shot [in the first standing session]. I don’t know, but I was really careful, focused, and had good rhythm…in one race this year I missed the podium probably from missing the last standing shot, so I was really focused [he cleaned the final round].”

Ondrej Moravec © Nordic Focus

Fourcade was also focused cleaning the first two rounds in prone but ran into trouble in the first standing session. His strong skiing kept him in the lead over Dominik Landertinger (Aut) as Moravec cleaned his first standing targets and headed out in third place behind Landertinger for the third leg.

In the final standing session Fourcade pumped his fist as cleaned knowing the gold was in his grasp. It was academic at that point as Landertinger fumbled dropping his rifle and missing two shots while Moravec cleaned and took over second. Beatrix cleaned as well and sensing his opportunity fought hard to hang on to third as Norway’s Ole Einar Björndalen was closing fast but had to settle for fourth.

Men's Pursuit podium (l-r) Moravec 2nd, Fourcade 1st, Betrix 3rd © Nordic Focus

“I knew before the race that the only thing that would keep me from winning was me…I felt on the first loop that I was really strong,” Fourcade told Biathlonworld.com. “In the final standing I knew that if I cleaned I would be Olympic champion. It was just a celebration with all of the people who helped me. I still do not believe that I did it. I am incredibly proud of what I did.”

For Canada’s Le Guellec it was a tough day at the office as he missed three targets in standing…” and then on the last bit it was just a matter of finishing the race. I don’t know how the ski broke – maybe my knee hit it when when I went down or something. Things like that happen sometimes…I guess I had to break a ski before retiring.”

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