Norway 1-2 in men's biathlon sprint

February 18, 1998

Programs
Competitions
Venues
Access
A la carte
Photo Album
From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow

Norway 1-2 in men's biathlon sprint

(Biathlon Venue, Nozawa Onsen Village)
12:15- Start

Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Frode Andresen, the top two sprinters on the World Cup circuit this season, grabbed the top two places in the men's biathlon 10-kilometer sprint at the Nagano Olympics on Wednesday.

Bjoerndalen, currently No. 2 in World Cup overall rankings and spring rankings, completed his run over the Nozawa Onsen course in 27 minutes, 16.2 seconds while hitting all of the targets for an overwhelming victory of over a minute.

The 24-year-old student from Drammen, Norway called Wednesday's performance his best race ever, adding ''I am very satisfied. My shootgin was good and the cross country perfect.''

The victory gave Norway its second gold medal in the biathlon, after Halvard Hanevold won the men's 20-km race last week, seventh gold medal of the Nagano Games. Hanevold was eighth on Wednesday.

Bjoerdalen, No. 2 overall in last year's World Cup rankings, credited Norway's wax man for the country's success, telling reporters ''It is a difficult course here, but we have very good skis. That's the reason we go so fast.''

World Cup sprint leader Andresen, meanwhile, missed two targets and finished with a total finish time, with two laps around the 150-penalty loop, of 28:17.8 for the silver medal.

Ville Raikkonen of Finland took the bronze medal with one missed shot and a time of 28:17.8.

Japan's Kyoji Suga, 14th in the 20-km event last week, missed two shots in the standing position Wednesday and ended with a 29:19.4 for 18th place.

''Things were running so smoothly for me, I guess I started thinking about my ranking (and got distracted),'' said Suga, who is making his first Olympic appearance at the Nagano Games.

Also for Japan, Shuichi Sekiya was 43rd and Atsushi Kazama finished 61st in the 73 competitor field.

The race was held under overcast skies a day after the event was called off during the competition because of snowstorm that prevented the athletes from seeing the targets. (Kyodo News)

Results of biathlon men's 10-kilometer sprint Wednesday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at Biathlon Venue, Nozawa Onsen, Nagano Prefecture:

1. Ole Bjoerndalen, Norway 27 minutes, 16.2 seconds (missing targets 0)

2. Frode Andresen, Norway 28:17.8 (2)

3. Ville Raikkonen, Finland 28:21.7 (1)

4. Victor Maigourov, Russia 28:36.0 (0)

5. Jekabs Nakums, Latvia 28:36.9 (1)

6. Olegs Maluhins, Latvia 28:37.4 (1)

7. Frank Luck, Germany 28:40.3 (1)

8. Halvard Hanevold, Norway 28:40.8 (2)

9. Paavo Puurunen, Finland 28:44.0 (0)

10. Pier Carrara, Italy 28:44.2 (2)

-----

18. Kyoji Suga, Japan 29:19.4 (2)

24. Dmitriy Pozdnyakov, Kazakstan 29:30.1 (0)

31. Valeriy Ivanov, Kazakstan 29:58.8 (5)

43. Shuichi Sekiya, Japan 30:33.4 (3)

54. Dimitriy Pantov, Kazakstan 30:51.8 (3)

61. Atsushi Kazama, Japan 31:41.2 (6)

65. Aleksandr Tropnikov, Kyrgyzstan 31:55.8 (4)

70. Jeon Jae Won, South Korea 35:09.5 (6)

No part of the article, photographs, or illustrations presented here may be printed or used without permission.