Russia’s Team Takes Mixed Gold in Biathlon
The last round at Biathlon World Cup Final World Championships finished in Khanty-Mansiysk yesterday. Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Sandrine Bailly of France won overall titles, first of all, following the problems experienced by their competitors. German Sven Fischer was too ill to compete and eased the task for Bjoerndalen. Olga Pyleva failed Mass Start, though she was only nine scores behind Bailly before it.
At the Mass Start, Poiree was victorious among men, just ahead of Bjoerndalen, as Fisher was too ill to compete. As a result, the Overall Title went to Bjoerndalen.
The situation was different in the Ladies Race. Before the Saturday Mass Start, there were only nine scores between Sandrine Bailly and Olga Pyleva. At the start of the race, Pyleva shot all five targets, while Bailly lost one. Still, Bailly was running much faster than Puleva, who missed five shots in the remaining three rounds. As a result, Bailly finished No. 13 in the Mass Start, Pyleva was five scores lower. The Ladies Race went to Zaitseva of Russia, who missed only one target and was far ahead of German Wilhelm, who finished the second. Anna Bogali was the third Svetlana Ishmuratova – the fourth.
Russians were the favorite in the Mixed Race held the next day. In this new kind of race, a team comprises two men and two women. The fight for the gold medals was exclusively between two national teams of Russia. The first one - Olga Pyleva, Svetlana Ishmurantova, Ivan Cherezov and Nikolay Kruglov was victorious.
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All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 21, 2005
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