Benjamin Churchill was not expecting to be standing atop the podium at the Otway Nordic Centre on Sunday.
So much so he didn't even bring what he needed if that were to happen after the junior men's 15-kilometre individual biathlon race at the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
It turned out he needed them after all.
The 16-year-old from Calgary won the gold medal for Team Alberta, clocking a time of 46 minutes, 29 seconds. He was also successful on the range, making 19 of his 20 shots.
Churchill was surrounded on the podium by a pair Quebec athletes - Jules Burnotte, who won the silver medal, and Teo Sanchez who claimed the bronze medal.
"I'm pumped. I was not expecting to be on the podium at all," said Churchill, who was more than happy with how his skis performed on the course. "I was just getting ready to race against these guys as as well as I could. That sort of freed me up, knowing everybody else is competing at a very high level. I was free to do my own thing - the skiing, the shooting. I was relaxed and fluid and I was able bring it home.
Churchill started 13th, but he made up for it with his precise shooting.
He shot clean on three of his four rounds, only missing one target in his final prone position.
"I talked to the coaches today, they said to focus on your strengths," he said. "A strength of mine was on the range so my race was crafted around the range as opposed to the skiing. I really liked the course, it's technical with lot of tight corners and it got really soft towards the end."
Burnotte, 18, who calls Sherbrooke home, mistakenly brought his training skis to Otway on Sunday instead of his race skis.
It didn't seem to matter. He used his speed to clock 46:56 and win the silver medal, 26 seconds behind Churchill.
He was good on 15 of his 20 targets, going clean on his first prone round, but missed three on his first standing round. He only missed two shots on his next two rounds.
"I really liked the course, it's new to me and the best one I've ever raced," he said. "It's a really good course, wide tracks, nice uphillls and nice downhills too. It's technical and I like it.
"After the race, I just thought I was expecting fourth or fifth because it was not going as well as I thought."
Sanchez, 17, won the bronze medal with a time of 47:14. He started out of the gates first, but lost time on the range, missing three of his 20 shots.
"We did the course a few times (Saturday) and got a feel for it and a feel for the range since not every range is the same," said Sanchez, who's from Wakefield. "It all came together. On the second prone I started listening to what the announcer was saying. Blame it on me, I was just not paying attention. But I pulled it together for the last round and cleaned it up.
I'm really happy. This guy (Burnotte) is a really fast skier, I took the right skis."
Arthur Roots of Prince George was Team B.C.'s top athlete, finishing sixth with a time of 50:07, 3:37 behind winner Churchill.
He missed seven of his 20 targets on the range.
"My skis were good, but I didn't feel that great. I put in a pretty solid effort," said Roots afterwards. "It's my first real race on this new course."
Another Team B.C. athlete, Bobby Kreitz of Prince George, finished 21st with a time of 55:11.
