January 06, 2011 (Oberhof, Germany) – The IBU World Cup resumed in Oberhof, Germany on Wednesday with the men’s 4×7.5km relay that saw the home team take off with the early lead and stay ahead, winning their first men’s relay since 2006 in a time of 1:23:53.0. While the Germans lead consistently all race, the battle for the next two podium steps was dynamic, changing at each shooting stage. In the end, the Czech Republic edged out Norway for second, finishing with a time of 1:26:15.8 over the Norwegians in third at 1:26.17.0.

The top North American result was an 11th place finish by the Canadian men’s team at 1:27:25.8 represented by Marc-André Bedard, Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, Scott Perras and Brendan Green. The American team of Lowell Bailey, Tim Burke, Leif Nordgren, and Russell Currier placed 16th in a time of 1:28:41.4.

The men were beset by hostile weather conditions with howling winds blasting through the stadium making shooting difficult and no team shot clean. Competitors, who collected ten times the typical number of penalties and used more than three times the number of spare rounds expected, were resigned to doing penalty laps.

“The winds were so strong that it made standing shooting extremely difficult because it was gusting so bad,” said Le Guellec. “It was best not to fight the wind today but take your penalties, do the laps, and make up your time that way. We had fast skis so was a good day for our team.”

The result is a promising performance from the newly formed young Canadian relay team lead by two-time Olympian, 25 year-old Le Guellec.

“This is the first time us four have raced together. We have a really young team that is young and I believe is going to be very good for a long time,” added Le Guellec. “Everyone on the team has had some good results before Christmas so I think we will be strong in year’s to come. You can’t approach the relay any different. You have to focus on your individual performance and we did that today.”

Full results HERE.

Results

1. Germany (2+16) 1:23:53.0
2. Czech Republic (3+14) 1:26:15.8
3. Norway (6+14) 1:26:17.0
4. Ukraine (5+14) 1:26:37.2
5. Slovenia (5+16) 1:26:48.7

11. Canada (6+14) 1:27:25.8
16. USA (7+11) 1:28:41.4