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BIATHLON

Eagle eye Ferry strikes Olympic gold

Swedish biathlete Björn Ferry shot himself into the Olympic history books on Tuesday with a sensational win in the 12.5 kilometre pursuit event in Vancouver.

Eagle eye Ferry strikes Olympic gold

Ferry bagged Sweden’s first men’s biathlon gold in 50 years on Tuesday when he muscled past Austrian Christoph Sumann taking silver and France’s Vincent Jay to win the pursuit title.

Starting with bib eight, the 31-year-old Ferry claimed his first Olympic medal after hitting the front on the last lap following his fourth shooting session to overhaul pace-setter Jay.

He crossed the line in 33min 38.4sec, with a winning margin of 16.5sec.

“Everything came together today,” said Ferry’s German coach Wolfgang Pichler.

Jay’s medal followed his gold success on Saturday in the 10km sprint, which meant he started Tuesday’s race first.

He ended 28.2sec adrift of Ferry, who dethroned French 2006 champion Vincent Defrasne in style, the latter coming in 22nd more than two minutes off the pace.

Ferry’s previous main successes comprised a world title in the mixed relay and two World Cup pursuit races.

This win will allow him to steal back a share of the limelight enjoyed by wife Heidi Andersson, who is a multiple armwrestling world title winner.

Sweden’s only other men’s biathlon gold came 50 years ago, when Klas Lestander won the 20km.

Sumann said silver was a huge result for him.

“I felt really at ease. and I must say the equipment was just perfect, it was absolutely great. What else can I say? silver, wow, amazing.”

While Sweden enjoyed the sweet smell of success fans of neighbouring Norway were glum after top names Emil Hegle Svendsen and five-time Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen failed to shine.

Svendsen, triple world champion two years ago and a silver medalist in the sprint, lost his way after a bright start as he had to turn in three penalty loops for missing shooting targets.

Bjoerndalen also had another off day and could only manage seventh, 50sec behind Ferry.

“I had a good skiing performance but missed two (targets) in the last shooting when I felt very tired,” said the sport’s most decorated athlete with 14 world titles and 91 World Cup race wins.

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DOPING

Norwegian biathlon champ: ‘Make clear example’ out of doping Russians

Olympic biathlon champion Martin Fourcade of France has threatened to lead a boycott of the sport's World Cup series unless the international federation takes tough action against Russian doping.

Norwegian biathlon champ: 'Make clear example' out of doping Russians
Norwegian biathlon champ Emil Hegle Svendsen said he would support a ban of the Russians. Photo: Primoz Lovric / NTB scanpix
Fourcade and other top biathlon competitors, including Norway's 2010 Olympic champ Emil Hegle Svendsen, are furious after the International Biathlon Union said 31 suspicious Russian cases had been raised in the latest report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
 
“It's not like it's only one or two. It's 31 added to the 12 we had over the few past years in biathlon,” French champion Fourcade told Norwegian television channel NRK.
 
“If my federation don't get big balls enough to tackle the problem, athletes have to do it on their own,” added Fourcade, winner of 10 world championship titles, speaking from a World Cup event in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic on Thursday.
 
“If nothing is done in January I will ask my colleagues in international teams, I mean Norway, I mean Germany, I mean Czech Republic, I mean all the nations, to not compete. I will be proud to do it for my sport to be clean,” he said. 
 
For his part, Svendsen said “the IBU must make a clear example to show that this will not be tolerated. I support the IBU if they do it.”
 
Norway's Anders Besseberg, the IBU president, told NRK he could not exclude a total ban on Russian athletes.
 
An IBU body investigating cases brought up by the McLaren inquiry into doping in all Russian sport held its first meeting on Thursday.
 
“Following the report publication, the IBU received 31 executive summaries on investigations related to Russian athletes,” said an IBU statement.
 
“At the moment the group is still reviewing and evaluating the evidentiary disclosure packages that contain detailed information on each individual case.”
 
The expert group is to recommend disciplinary action to the IBU executive board on December 22nd. The 31 athletes involved have not yet been named.
 
“The IBU is truly appalled and deeply saddened by the findings of the McLaren report. The IBU has always emphasised clean sport, the fight against doping and protection of clean athletes as its top priorities,” said the statement.
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