Bjørndalen wins 2nd straight biathlon gold after protest
Ole Einar Bjørndalen. Photo: E24
Norwegian Biathlon legend Ole Einar Bjørndalen won a record 12th World Championship gold medal in Pyeongchang, South Korea on Feb. 15, after a controversial 12.5km pursuit, followed by protests and counter protests.
Bjørndalen, who on Saturday Feb 14 won his fourth sprint title, missed four shots on Sunday, still crossed the finishing line first in a time of 31 minutes 46.7 seconds.
However, after the race Bjørndalen and nine others were penalised one minute for deviating slightly from the course at the beginning of the race, when they crossed a bridge rather than skiing around it, a change from Saturday’s sprint event.
This meant that Russian Maxim Tchoudov, who started fifth and finished 41.7 seconds behind Bjørndalen, was awarded gold.
However, this led to an appeal by seven nations, France, Germany, Ukraine, USA, Austria, Poland and Norway, and the appeal court ruled that the time the ten competitors had gained by the mistake was negligible, and Bjørndalen was reinstated to first place ahead of Tchoudov with fellow Norwegian Alexander Os claiming bronze.
Bjørndalen now has 86 World Cup wins to his career.
Source: NorwayPost.no / NRK.
