If you're going to be a team of one, you may as well make it count.

That's what Kason Coombs did in Valcartier, Que., last week and he gave the rest of the country a taste of just what they were going to be dealing with in the coming years.

The 14-year-old biathlete from Hay River had himself a week to remember at the Canadian Biathlon Championships as he ended up blitzing the field more than once. When it was all over, Coombs had scored himself two gold medals and one silver, which also could've been gold. 

More on that later.

Coombs began on March 8 in the U17 boys division with the 6 km sprint race and won his first gold medal there in a time of 23:34.9, more than 30 second ahead of B.C.'s Max Murray, who finished second.

"I was really surprised," said Coombs about his win. "When I heard I won, I just got so excited and I was proud of myself."

The following day saw Coombs hit the trails for the 8 km pursuit race. The pursuit is a chase race of sorts and because Coombs finished first in the sprint, that meant he set out first in the pursuit to set the pace in the staggered-start event.

Not that it mattered much as racers were leaving the start line every three seconds, said Coombs.

"I tried to keep myself ahead of everyone else as best as I could," he said. 

Here's how Coombs could've had his second gold medal: Coombs is used to racing five laps in a race instead of four. Among those five laps is four rounds of shooting at targets. In this race, Coombs made the mistake of going into the shooting lane after his fourth lap as opposed to going down the straightaway to the finish line on what turned out to be the final lap.

That meant Murray was able to take advantage and win the race with Coombs finishing second by about eight seconds.

"I was in first by about 30 seconds," said Coombs. "I saw the second place racer come across the finish line because I thought I had four shoots, but I only had three."

After a day off to recuperate, Coombs hit the start line for the 8 km mass start and there would be no mistake this time as he skied the right amount of laps and shot the right amount of targets to win his second gold medal in a time of 32.52.1, more than 50 seconds ahead of Murray this time.

"I was out in front after 1 km, but some caught up," said Coombs. "The way I made up time was on the downhill sections because I'm not very tall, so I can get a good tuck and fly by everyone."

There was one more race for Coombs - the mixed relays - and that meant he needed to find a partner. Being that he was the only one from the NWT, he didn't have a teammate to join up with, meaning he had to partner up with Elizabeth Atrens of Quebec. They made a fine pairing as they ended up finishing second in the U17 relay, but it ended up being declared an unofficial result because they weren't from the same team.

No matter to Coombs, though.

"I know I finished second, even if I didn't get the medal," he said.

Coombs was the first NWT biathlete to compete at a national championship in six years and he's hoping to do this again next year. If he does, he'll be in the U17 division again, but he'll have a technical change. This year, he did all of his shooting in the prone position, laying down. Next year, he'd be standing.

"It was a big deal for me and it felt great being able to represent the Hay River Ski Club and the NWT," he said.