It was the perfect weekend for the Quintilio siblings.
On the weekend of March 5, the Quintilio family travelled to Hinton to watch Henrik Quintilio, 12, and his sister Antija Quintilio, 10, compete in Biathlon Alberta’s Provincial Championships’ mass start and sprint biathlon events. Both of the Quintilio’s won both events.
However, that shouldn’t be a surprise given the family’s background. The Quintilio family name is well known in biathlon circles.
That’s because Henrik and Antija’s parents, Kevin and Ntala Quintilio, competed on the World Cup circuit from 1993 to 1998. Ntala, then known as Ntala Skinner, for the United States team and Kevin for Canada. Besides racing on the World Cup circuit, Ntala qualified for both the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway and 1998 in Nagano, Japan. Kevin also qualified for the 1998 Olympics for Canada.
Biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting disciplines.
The Quintilio’s golden weekend began on Saturday with the mass start event.
In a mass start race all the competitors start the race at the same time with the winner being the one who crosses the line first.
In Henrik’s category, air rifle 2, the race is four kilometers. As the competitors ski throughout the course they have to periodically stop to shoot at a series of five targets. In the mass start event they shoot three times, all in the prone position. For every target an athlete misses they have to ski a 50-metre penalty loop.
“Henrik didn’t miss any targets, he went 15 for 15. That is a personal best,” Ntala said, adding he has never had a perfect shooting score in a mass start race.
In addition to his strong shooting, Henrik also skied very well and ended up with a final time of 16:00:77, finishing more than two minutes ahead of his nearest rival.
Antija also performed well. Like her older brother, she hit all of her targets, which helped her cross the finish line in first place, with a time of 17:48:39, about 30 seconds ahead her closest competitor.
In the sprint race or individual race, on Sunday, once more both Anjita and Henrik finished in first place in their prospective categories hitting all of their targets.
Once again, shooting clean as Ntala calls it was another personal best for Henrik, but it is something biathlon aficionados have come to expect from the younger Quintilio.
In her previous four events this season Antija hasn’t missed a target.
As added incentive for Henrik to improve his shooting accuracy, Ntala said she made a deal with her son.
She said for the last few months Henrik has asked her if he could move his room into the basement where he would have access to his own bathroom.
His parents finally agreed on the condition that he shoot clean in his next set of races. Something he accomplished during the provincial championships.
The next day when the Quintilios returned home, they spent the day moving Henrik into the basement.
“I guess we’ve figured out how to motivate him now,” Ntala joked.
Another thing that made the championships special is race organizers named one of the ski loops at the Hinton cross country skiing facility after Henrik and Antija’s father who is a Hinton native.
“They actually raced on Kevin’s loop,” she said.
After the races Ntala asked her kids how they felt being able to race on a course named after their father.
“Mom, it’s all up hill,” they told her. “It was really cute, but they really enjoyed skiing on daddy’s course.”
To top off the weekend, Henrik and Antija’s cousin, Tomas Quintilio, 11, finished in first and second place in the mass and sprint races respectively.
