Team Alberta had Ben (Machine Gun) Churchill knocking 'em down on the range but it couldn't surpass the 1-2-3 biathlon efficiency of the Quebec artillery.
The combined efforts of Teo Sanchez, Zachari Bolduc and Flix Brub-Larochelle set the gold standard in Friday's Canada Winter Games men's 3x7.5-kilometre relay, adding one more win to Quebec's astounding medal count at the Games.
"It's amazing to be the one to bring that flag in," said Sanchez, a native of Wakefield, Que. "My teammates kind of gave it to me on a silver platter but I was really worried I was going to drop that platter. I just kept a clear head. I was a bit nervous on my prone (shooting) and had to use two spare rounds to get that last target and standing was smoother and I just had to use one spare."
Brub-Larochelle, of Lac-Mgantic, avoided any penalty trouble while Bolduc, who is from Laval, ran out of bullets and had to ski one extra loop. Brub-Larochelle was second in the race at the time he tagged Bolduc.
"The race was awesome, I was nervous at the beginning and I came close to falling on the hill but I didn't make any mistakes and I was happy to get the relay into second place," said Brub-Larochelle. "We are really proud - it was a hard race and close at the beginning."
Churchill took over the anchor leg of Friday's race and wasn't as fast as Sanchez on the ski course. But, on the range, it was no competition. The 16-year-old from Calgary moved into the range for his second shooting bout just as Sanchez was heading back out onto the course. It took Churchill just 20 seconds from the time he got to the mat until he hit the last of five targets without having to reload and that closed the gap behind Sanchez to about half a minute.
But Churchill, the gold medallist in the individual race Sunday, didn't have the energy to catch up to the fastest skier in the race and Sanchez coasted across the finish line waving the blue and white Quebec flag to the cheering rows of spectators.
Churchill had a phenomenal week on the range, shooting 58 of 60 targets in four races.
"In November was the first time I shot clean in a race and this has been a pretty unreal week in terms of shooting and I'm very happy to take home two medals from the Canada Winter Games," said Churchill.
"It's a strength of mine and before the week we discussed our strategy with our coaches and they said to play to our strengths and I crafted my races around the range, as opposed to around the course, and because of that I was able to shoot well."
Churchill's teammates - Calgarians Jacob Chamber and Adam Runnalls - also did their part on the range. Chambers had just one penalty, and that kept them in the hunt for gold.
Quebec finished in 1:04:25.8, 0.95 of a second ahead of Alberta (1:05:20.6), followed by Ontario (1:07:32.7) and B.C. (1:08:15.9).
Sharing in the bronze medal were Ontarians Jacob Lawton of Orleans and Tobias Quinn of Thunder Bay, who skied ahead of anchor Alexandre Dupuis of Ottawa.
Quebec had no alternates for the relay and had any of the three been unable to race they would not have been able to compete. Jules Burnotte, who won silver in the individual race and bronze in the sprint, had to leave Prince George Thursday to fly to Colombia for an international cross-country running race.
B.C., which included hometown favourites Bobby Kreitz and Arthur Roots of Prince George, flirted with a bronze medal halfway through the race after Jarod Algra of Abbotsford shot clean on the first leg. Kreitz had one penalty loop to ski after his standing bout but had a great ski and was right on the heels of Saskatchewan's Branden Notschaele as they each tagged off.
Roots, the B.C. anchor, passed Saskatchewan's Jason Reimer but couldn't hold off Dupuis. He got to the range just ahead of Roots and each had to go to spare rounds but Roots left one target untouched while Dupuis hit his with his third spare. Roots had enough bullets to put them all down while standing but was too far behind to get back into contention for bronze.
"Right off the start it was pretty obvious we weren't going to catch Alberta or Quebec, they were pretty far ahead, so it was between me and Alex Dupuis for bronze and that seemed like it was going to be a fun race," said Roots. "I'm not sure how I missed four targets (including his spares) but I ended up probably 15 seconds behind Alex and made up about five seconds on the first lap. I came in and hit five with two spares standing and I think Alex just used one spare.
"I tried to push him, but we're both pretty good skiers and there was no way."
Roots finished the week with two fourth-place results. He was fourth in the pursuit, fifth in the sprint and sixth in the individual race. Roots will now prepare for a Biathlon Canada qualifying race Sunday in Canmore to determine the IBU Cup team for races later in the week, also in Canmore.
Friday's race wrapped up the Games biathlon competition. Otway and its army of volunteers will now turn its attention to cross-country skiing, which starts Monday.
