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SOCHI

Svendsen’s biathlon gold breaks losing streak

Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen on Tuesday held off a desperate late charge from the fast-finishing Martin Fourcade of France to take gold in the men's 15km biathlon mass start after a photo finish.

Published: 18 February 2014 13:02 CET
Svendsen's biathlon gold breaks losing streak
Emil Hegle Svendsen - Photo: Heiko Junge/Scanpix
The race, which had been repeatedly postponed due to bad weather, was run in a swirling wet snow, which provided a suitable backdrop to the dramatic scenes.
   
Svendsen slowed up as he raised his hands in victory just before crossing the line but he had apparently failed to notice Fourcade, who flung himself across the finish.
   
Both were given the same time of 42min 29.1sec but Svendsen, who will count himself lucky, was awarded the gold by a whisker on the photo. Fourcade was aiming for his third gold at Sochi after winning the pursuit and the individual.
   
Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic took the bronze.
 
Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, seeking a record 13th medal at Winter Olympic Games, will have to wait until the relays after coming 22nd following a nightmare four missed targets on his final standing shooting.

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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.

Published: 16 December 2016 12:22 CET
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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