NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Neither a back injury or fog was going to stop Brendan Green.

In 2012, Green's injury troubles began after racing in a mass start event on the World Cup circuit.

Hay River's Brendan Green had the best finish for a Canadian biathlete at the 2014 Winter Olympics to date – a ninth place finish in the men's 15km mass start Feb. 18. - Canadian Olympic Committee photo

He was back in a mass start race, this time at the Olympics, and it would appear his back is doing just fine.

The Hay River biathlete had himself a terrific race Feb. 18 in the men's 15km mass start as he finished in ninth place, the best individual finish by any member of the Canadian biathlon team in Sochi.

He finished just over a minute behind the winner and had he not had to ski two penalty laps for missing two targets on the course, the result could have been a lot better.

Green said he was extremely pumped by that result.

"It was a really great way for me to finish my individual races at the Olympics," he said.

The race was actually held two days later than normal as the weather conditions didn't co-operate.

Heavy fog rolled in on race day, which forced the postponement Feb. 16, and the fog simply wouldn't let up the next day, either.

Green said it was beginning to get exhausting waiting for the race to actually happen.

"You show up to the venue and you're getting ready to race and the fog would thicken and not let up at all," he said.

"The fog was dumping sleet and snow and it just turned into a

miserable time but I was able to persevere through the conditions and had a great ski."

The mass start featured the top 30 skiers from the 20km individual race held earlier in the competition and everyone began together. Green managed to pick his way through the other competitors in front of him and eventually found himself in good shape.

"I know all the athletes were beginning to get frustrated the longer the race was delayed," he said. "You just have to stay positive and stay focused on the process.

"You try to not let things like that disturb you but that's easier said than done."

Green was also part of the team for the mixed relay the very next day, where the team ended up in 12th place overall.

He said the team got off to a bit of a slow start, aided in part by an unfortunate accident.

"Our first skier, Meghan Imrie, had a crash on her first loop and she never really seemed to be able to recover from that," he said.

"We had some technical downhills and the conditions were a little faster and that happens once in a while.

"It's unfortunate that it happened at the Olympics but we managed to make up a little ground on the field but still not a representative performance of our group."

Green had one more race left, that being the men's 4 x 7.5km relay yesterday and the team ended up in seventh.

Green said a top-six finish is what the team was shooting for but being that this is the Olympics, the potential for big things was there.

"Top-six would have been a fantastic result for sure," he said. "But it's biathlon and crazy things could happen."

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