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Humble Svendsen wins gold for Norway

WHISTLER, B.C.–Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen defeated the greatest biathlete of them all to win the Olympic gold medal Thursday, then paid tribute to his silver-winning teammate Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.

"I don't think I would be here if it weren't for Bjoerndalen. I train with him every day and I try to copy everything he does," Svendsen said after taking the 20-km individual event in 48 minutes, 22.5 seconds. "I owe him a great deal of thanks. I'm very humble to be on the same team with him."

Bjoerndalen reaffirmed his position as the greatest biathlete in history, becoming the first in the sport to win a medal in the same event at three consecutive Olympics. The 36-year-old veteran tied for the silver with Sergey Novikov of Belarus for his 10th Winter Games medal. Among men, he trails only the great Norwegian cross-country skier Bjorn Daehlie, who won 12 medals.

"The most important thing for me is to be satisfied with my race, not if I get a gold or silver medal," he said, adding that he wasn't totally satisfied because he had one more target miss than did the winner.

Svendsen, who won silver in the 10-km sprint, missed only one target. Bjoerndalen missed two and was timed in 48.32. Novikov, with zero misses, ended with exactly the same time as Bjoerndalen.

Jean-Philippe Le Guellec continued a very good Olympics, finishing 13th in 50:47.1. Le Guellec, of Quebec City, previously was sixth in the 10-km sprint, the best finish by a Canadian male in Olympic biathlon history, as well as 11th in the 12.5-km pursuit. He had two clean shooting rounds and two with one miss in each.

"Even with my two penalties, I'm still satisfied," he said, adding, "It was difficult to recuperate after the pursuit, when I had breakfast and lunch at the same time."

In the women's 15-km, Norway's Tora Berger outskied rather than outshot the competition to take gold over Elena Khrustaleva of Kazakhstan and Darya Domracheva of Belarus.

Berger missed one target, in the final session, but her skiing was so strong that her time of 40:52.8 was 20.7 seconds ahead of Khrustaleva, who shot cleanly. Domracheva, one miss, finished 28.2 seconds back.

Canada's top performer was Megan Tandy of nearby Squamish, B.C., in 50th place, missing three targets. Megan Imrie of Canmore, Alta., finished 62nd with four targets missed and Rosanna Crawford, also of Canmore, was 76th, likewise missing four shots.

Top-rated Canadian Zina Kocher of Canmore finished in 72nd position. She was in 15th place, having missed one target in the first three shooting sessions, but missed all five targets in the final standing session to drop. She said she was "in shock."


Source:Toronto Star

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