February 17, 2008 (Oestersund, Sweden) – The 2008 Biathlon World Championships came to a close on Sunday with Ole Einar Bjoerndalen four-tenths of a second away from history. But still on the podium.

The Norwegian icon, who has 10 world championships on his report card, couldn’t hold off teammate Emil Hegle Svendsen when the 22-year-old pulled past him in the final straight-away of the men’s 15km mass start. Each had missed one shot and Svendsen stalked Bjoerndalen through the final lap before passing him at the end.

“I was really tired in the end, but I just ignored it,” the new champion said. Thursday, he won the 20km race by 31 seconds over Bjoerndalen. Svendsen told reporters, “From beginning to end, it was pure excitement.”

He finished in 36:12.6 with OEB taking the silver medal in 36:13.0. Russian Maxim Tchoudov was bronze medalist – his fourth medal of the championships, too. Lake Placid’s Tim Burke, the lone North American to make the top 30 skiers who got to race in the mass start, missed five shots and was 25th with a time of 38:54.8.

Bjoerndalen, who was looking to tie Germany’s Frank Luck and Russian Alexandre Tikhonov at 11 gold medals, had said earlier in the week it wasn’t as painful to be second if he was behind a Norwegian. Sunday, he said, “If a better competitor beats me, I’ll accept that.” He left Oestersund with five medals – a gold, two silvers and two bronzes.

In the women’s 4x6km relay, Italy was the surprise leader after the first 6km loop. However, Andreas Henkel – who won the first two individual races (the sprint and the pursuit) – put Germany ahead during the second lap and she and her teammates cruised to victory. Heading into the final leg, they were out front by 64 seconds and Kati Wilhelm took it home for the win.

Germany took the gold in 1:10.12.6 with Ukraine second (1:10.43.5) and France third (1:11.48.3). The U.S. biathlon foursome (Tracy and Lanny Barnes, Haley Johnson and Caitlin Compton) was 18th and Canada (Zina Kocher, Sandra Keith, Megan Imrie and Megan Tandy) finished 19th.

Full results here.