On a beautiful day at the Riverbend Golf and Recreation Centre, BC athletes performed well in the individual pursuit events. BC swept the gold medal spots today with Larissa Black (Squamish) winning the women’s 7.5km in 25:42.4 and Ryan Elden (Quesnel) winning the men’s 10k in 27:14.4.
"It is very rare that we have anyone at our events cheering. You defiantly don't see a crowd like this at Biathlon events so that was really motivating," said Black.
Larissa was immediately followed on the podium by Gillian Gowling (Whistler) at 25:48.8 securing the silver for Team BC.
"I had Gillian with me on the last lap and we are super competitive with eachother so that was really fun to go after it and really race to the finish," said gold medal winner Larissa Black. "I knew I had paced myself really well and still had a bit left in the tank to go for it at the end and it worked."
Another race another gold medal for Team BC in the men's 10km individual pursuit. Ryan Elden (Quesnel) won the gold medal while Andrei Secu (Coquitlam) won his second bronze medal of the games with a third place finish.
In what was described on course as a Team BC and Quebec sandwich, Elden and Secu were able to surround the favourite, Quebec's Leo Grandbois to secure a two-podium finish.
Elden, who shot clean in the race going 20 for 20, finished with a time of 27:14.4 and Secu was just behind at 28:59.6.
"The snow was super fast today, and it was warm which is really nice," said gold medalist Elden. "I was focused and everything turned out the way I wanted it today. The course is pretty tough and there are not a lot of spots you can gain time on other people, so I am very happy the range went well for me today."
All the biathletes will be back in action tomorrow with the team relays.