The Quintillio siblings, Henrik and Antija are not necessarily big fans of jewelry, but that doesn’t stop them from collecting their fair share of necklaces — most notably medals for their prowess at biathlon.
On the Family Day long weekend the pair added to their collection, winning three gold and two bronze medals competing for Zone 5 Black Gold/Yellowhead at the Alberta Winter Games in Fort McMurray.
Henrik’s came in the individual (gold) and mass start (bronze) events while Antija’s two gold were from the mass start and sprint events. Her bronze came in the individual event.
Biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting disciplines.
To qualify for the multisport games the Quintillios had to place in the top two or place high enough to grab one of the wildcard slots available at an event in December. Antija, 12, did this by winning her race, while Henrik, 14, managed to grab one of the wildcard slots by finishing third.
For the most part, Ntala Quintillio said the duo are pleased with their performances. Ntala, in addition to being their mother, coaches the pair along with her husband Kevin.
“Like with anything there is always something you can do better at, but by and large they had very strong performances, ” she said, adding their skiing was especially good.
The first event was the individual race.
“This race was a little bit different than most of the individual events in that they shot three times,” Quintillio said.
Most individual events have a staggered start, with competitors leaving the starting line one at a time, in 30-second intervals. The athletes then ski a set distance before shooting at a series of five targets, which at the Quintillio’s age level are done from prone positions. They then ski another loop of the course, before shooting once again, before skiing their final leg.
However, due to the length of the course, which was longer than the norm, competitors in Antija’s category had to shoot three times and Henrik’s four times with every miss being awarded a 40 second penalty. Antija skied five kilometres while Henrik raced 6.25 kilometres.
“Antija is really settling in her race series [Calforex Cup Biathlon Alberta] and is starting to shoot really consistently,” Quintillio said, noting Antija missed three targets and as a result finished third, just 43 seconds out of first place.
Henrik won his race, beating his nearest competitor by over one minute in large part due to the strength of his shooting, making 16 out of 20 shots.
“He was really happy with that, because he has been having a really rocky season when it comes to his shooting,” she said.
This season both Henrik and Antija have moved up in the level of shooting difficulty. For Henrik it means shooting his .22 calibre rifle from a rest to using a sling. For Antija it meant transitioning from an air rifle to the .22 calibre rifle.
The next day was the mass start event, where all the competitors start at once. Antija won the event, and was perfect on the range hitting all 15 of her targets. Henrik finished third, 21.5 seconds out of first having another strong shooting performance hitting 13 out of 15 targets.
Quintillio noted for a while it seemed the race was in jeopardy due to cold temperatures.
“They delayed the race for more than an hour, waiting for it to warm up and even when it did it just made the -18 degree [Celsius] cutoff,” she said, noting it was -16. “Cold enough that everyone raced in their warm-up suits.”
The Quintillios finished the games competing in the sprint race, the shortest of all the biathlon races, three kilometres for Antija and four kilometres for Henrik.
Antija won her race and was once again was a perfect 10 for 10 at the range. Henrik finished in 12th.
“Although he skied really well, we had some miscommunication. When we zeroed [rifle’s sights] the wind was coming from one direction,” Quntillio said. “When he started shooting we gave him a sight correction, but he moved his sights the wrong way. We then told him to move his sights back, but he didn’t continue to make the sight correction.”
As a result Henrik missed seven out of 10 targets and for every one he missed he had to ski a 100-metre penalty lap.
“He had a pretty rough day at the office,” she said.
The Quintillios will wrap up the biathlon season with a Calforex Cup Biathlon Alberta event next week in Hinton.
