PYEONGCHANG (South Korea), Feb 17: Norway’s Ole Einar Bjorndalen became a triple biathlon world champion, speeding to victory in the men’s individual race here on Tuesday.
Bjorndalen missed three targets in the crucial four shooting sessions, but skied fastest to win his third gold medal at the World Biathlon Championships.
He finished the 20K individual race in 51 minutes, 28 seconds to beat Christoph Stephan of Germany by 14.1 seconds. Stephan hit all but one of the targets.
The world championships also double as a World Cup meet, and the win means the 35-year-old Bjorndalen beat Swedish alpine skiing great Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 World Cup victories.
Croatia’s Jakov Fak missed one shot to finish 17.1 seconds behind Bjorndalen for the bronze, his first ever medal in any world championship or World Cup event.
Athletes were punished for every missed target by an extra minute added to their race time.
Bjorndalen won the men’s pursuit on Sunday after the race jury initially stripped him of his first place. The jury punished Bjorndalen and several other athletes for skiing off course, adding a one-minute penalty that put Bjorndalen in third place and handed the gold to Maxim Tchoudov of Russia. An appeals jury later reversed the decision.
Results (penalties in brackets):
Men’s 20-km Individual:
1 Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (Norway) 51:28.0 (3); 2 Christoph Stephan (Germany) at 14.1 sec (1); 3 Jakov Fak (Croatia) 17.1 (1); 4 Simon Fourcade (France) 18.0 (2); 5 David Ekholm (Sweden) 26.3 (1); 6 Dominik Landertinger (Austria) 36.0 (2); 7 Ivan Tcherezov (Russia) 37.8 (1); 8 Andriy Deryzeml (Ukraine) 39.1 (2); 9 Tomasz Skiora (Poland) 44.9 (4); 10 Maxim Tchoudov (Russia) 49.3 (2).
Overall individual standings after three out of four races:
1 Michael Greis (Germany) 125; 2 Ivan Tcherezov (Russia) 120; 3 Maxim Tchoudov (Russia) 119; 4 Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (Norway) 104; 5 Daniel Mesotitsch (Austria) 97.
World Cup overall standings after 17 out of 26 competitions:
1 Tomasz Sikora (Poland) 658 points; 2 Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (Norway) 630; 3 Maxim Tchoudov (Russia) 573; 4 Emil Hegle Svendsen (Norway) 570; 5 Michael Greis (Germany) 495.—Agencies
