Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen celebrates on the podium after winning the season opening 20 km individual World Cup Biathlon in Ostersund, Sweden, 30 November 2006. German Andreas Birnbacher finished second followed by countryman Michael Greis.
Photo: AFP
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Bjoerndalen Wins in Ostersund
Legendary Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won the men's season opening 20km Individual event at the IBU World Cup Biathlon competition in Ostersund November 30, 2006. He was followed by Germany's Andreas Birnbacher in second and Germany's Michael Greis in third. Russia’s Ivan Cherezov shot flawlessly but finished the race in the sixth place.
In Ostersund, nearly all biathlon elite was in the first starting group at the 20km Individual yesterday, but for Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway. Bjoerndalen joined the competition very late, making it exciting till the very end.
Even though Bjoerndalen missed two targets yesterday, he easily compensated for shooting errors by magnificent running. His strongest rival, Birnbacher, shot flawlessly but was 14.3 seconds behind the Norwegian. Greis missed with his final shot and was the third with a gap of 32.7 seconds.
Of 115 biathletes, five Russians - Ivan Cherezov, Dmitry Yaroshenko, Maxim Chudov, Sergey Rozhkov and Nikolay Kruglov - were among the top 30 and got qualified for the World Cup.
“For me, it is still a long way towards ideal form,” Cherezov acknowledged after the competition. “But everything came out as I had planned for the race. The main thing is that I managed the shooting, my functional condition is good and I feel well. I will take a run yet.”
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All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 01, 2006
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