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Russian Wins Mass Start Biathlon Title
Russia’s Ivan Tchevezov beat World Cup winner Michael Greis and the great Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in a mass start race to win his first World Cup title in Khanty-Mansiysk.
Competition in Khanty-Mansiysk was exciting in both men’s and women’s races. Andre Henkel, who was trailing by six points into the final 12.5 kilometer race, missed all five targets on the first shooting range. There was hardly anyone in the audience who could have thought that the German would leave Khanty-Mansiysk with the World Cup title.
But Kati Wilhelm and Anna Carin Olofsson missed so many targets that their rival was ahead. Wilhelm had five misses and was 2.3 seconds ahead of Henkel after the fourth shooting, but Henkel beat her by 23.5 seconds with one miss on the third shooting range. Wilhelm finished 17th and Olofsson was 20th after missing seven targets. Andrea Henkel ended up 15th, which was enough to give her 870 and the title.
The Russian team scored its first win on the opening day of the competition after silver and bronze winners in a sprint race Maxim Chudov and Andrey Makoveev pushed Russia to number one in the Cup of Nations. Maxim Chudov was back on Saturday with a win in a pursuit.
The most spectacular Russian win was yet to come. Reaching the fourth shooting range with 47.3 seconds ahead in the 15-km race, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen could afford himself two misses to seal a victory. But the great Norwegian missed three targets and the podium. Meanwhile, Ivan Tcherezov’s shooting was smooth as ever. With 12.7 seconds ahead of Michael Greis, the Russian sealed his first World Cup victory this season.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 19, 2007
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