Antoine Cyr and Olivier Léveillé teamed up with Graham Ritchie and Xavier McKeever on Friday in the 4 x 10 kilometer relay at the World Cross-Country Skiing Championships in Planica, Slovenia. Hard work from each member of the Canadian team enabled them to finish the competition in fifth place, an unexpected performance, but greatly appreciated.
” It’s incredible ! We clearly exceeded all of our objectives. We are a young team that is still there to learn, and to finish fifth at the World Championships is a great achievement for us today,” said Olivier Léveillé from the outset.
It was 19-year-old Albertan Xavier McKeever who had the mandate to start for the Canadians at the start of the day. After seeing Norway’s Hans Christer Holund break away solo, McKeever remained calm and was able to stay in the peloton with Finnish, French and Swiss cross-country skiers, among others.
Antoine Cyr took over thereafter, he continued on the momentum of his teammate to conclude the 10 kilometers in 24 min 53 s,7 s and propel the Canadian troop into the top 5 halfway through.
“Xavier and Antoine have done a colossal job to stay in the leading group. There are often breaks in the first stints, but my teammates were really excellent in giving us good positioning at the end of the race”, rejoiced Léveillé.
Sprint specialist Graham Ritchie was Canada’s third torchbearer and he clearly upped his game as he passed the difficult Planica course. The Ontarian spun at full speed and handed over to Olivier Léveillé in third place.
Then surrounded by the best skiers on the planet, including the German Friedrich Moch and the Swedish Calle Halfvarsson, Léveillé was able to pull out of the game. He was also able to get ahead of Halfvarsson in the last section of the course to allow the Canada to finish in the top 5.
“It was incredible to see my teammates doing so well, but I must admit that I felt a lot of pressure when I started, I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. We had decided the day before that I was going to be the last to start and I think it was a good idea. I felt great, I skied intelligently and I’m really happy to have been able to participate in this success for our team”, analyzed Léveillé.
“Everyone was going flat out on the home stretch. The Swede was in front of me, but I felt he was getting tired faster. I did everything to catch him and I didn’t give him a chance, I held on until the finish. »
It is also Canada’s best result in the 4 x 10 kilometer relay at the World Championships since 2009 when Alex Harvey and his teammates Devon Kershaw, George Gray and Ivan Babikov also finished fifth in Liberec, Republic of Czech.
After quickly taking the lead at the start of the race, the Norwegians never looked back, racing towards the gold medal. They were accompanied on the podium by the Finns (+46.9 seconds) and by the Germans (+59.8 seconds).
The World Cross-Country Skiing Championships will conclude on Sunday with the presentation of the 50 kilometer race in classic style. Cyr and Léveillé should both be at the start of this imposing event.
“I’m going to have to take advantage of Saturday’s day off to prepare as much as possible. A 50 kilometer race is very demanding, I don’t set myself a specific goal, but I’m going there to have fun and finish the world championships in style,” added Léveillé.