February 19, 2010 (Whistler, BC) – Tora Berger of Norway came back from a 5th place near-miss in Tuesday’s Pursuit to claim the

gold medal in the women’s 15km Individual competition on Thursday. A few hours later, her teammate Emil Hegle Svendsen captured his second medal of these Olympic Winter Games with a victory in the Men’s 20km Individual.

Berger had only one penalty as she completed the five three-kilometer loops in 40:52.8. Her victory brought her from the depths of 33rd place in Saturday’s Sprint competition where she had two penalties, while finishing 1:46.5 behind Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia. The 29-year-old Berger shot clean in Tuesday’s 10km Pursuit competition to jump ahead 28 places in the results. Her dominating victory on Thursday completed her charge from near the bottom, to the top of the results list.

After the competition, during interviews, the usually reserved Berger was filled with emotion over winning the 100th Olympic Winter medal for Norway. “It was a good feeling and the tears were coming. Those were not bad tears; they were happy tears.”

The silver medal went to the unheralded Elena Khrustaleva of Kazakhstan, who shot clean and finished just 20.7 seconds behind Berger. Khrustaleva’s silver was the first-ever in biathlon for her country. Darya Domracheva of Belarus, who took the bronze medal at 28.2 seconds back, with one penalty was extremely happy with her day. “I am quite pleased to have only one penalty today. It was a hard day for me with a lot of striving and struggle. The struggle was with me; struggling with the distance and the shooting, all within myself, not my competitors.”

The US women had a good day in the 15km, with Lanny Barnes shooting clean to finish 23rd at 2:39 back. Her performance was the best by a female US Biathlete since the

1994 Lillehammer Olympic Winter Games. Her teammate, Sara Studebaker also had a good day, picking up just one penalty on her way to a personal best 34th place, 3:34.5 back. Megan Tandy once again led the home team Canadian team, in 50th place, with three penalties, 5:11.5 back. Megan Imrie placed 62nd, with four penalties, 6:13 back.

Canada’s top female biathlete Zina Kocher of Canmore continued to struggle. In the early stages, Kocher looked like she might have a good result today. She only had a single prone penalty after the first three stages. However in the final standing stage, she missed all five shots. “I’m kind of in shock,” an upset Kocher

said following the race. “I was feeling quite good. . . I missed my first shot, was shaking like mad; felt lactate burning in my legs. (It was) a bit of a shocker, not what I wanted.”

In the afternoon men’s 20km, Svendsen added Norway’s the second biathlon gold medal of the day to the country’s collection. Finishing in 48:22.5, he was almost perfect on the shooting range with just a single miss in the final standing stage. He had previously won a silver medal in the 10km Sprint on Sunday.

After over 48 minutes of hard skiing and shooting, the silver medal went to Svendsen’s teammate, the legendary Ole Einar Björndalen, and Sergey Novikov of Belarus. The two men tied with the exact same time, 9.5 seconds behind Svendsen, and accordingly, each won a silver medal. Björndalen had two penalties, while Novikov shot clean.

Svendsen attributed his gold medal to his teammate, Björndalen. “I can say for sure that I would not be sitting here today without him. He was in Nagano in 1998 winning gold and I was a little boy sitting at home watching him. Ever since then, I have tried to copy him and train like him. I would not be here without him and I would like to say thank you.”

Likewise, Björndalen complimented his gold medalist teammate, “He was the best athlete today and had a perfect performance.” The “King of Biathlon” was satisfied with his day, but still wanted to win. “I tried to catch him, but Emil was very strong on the last lap. I may have

started a little too late and could have made up 4 or 5 seconds more, but 10 seconds was too much.”

Nicolay Kruglov of Russia could be called the “medalist who never was, today.” The veteran Kruglov, one of the most likeable Russian athletes shot clean, but possibly lost a medal as a result of a fall on the tracks. Kruglov took a hard tumble in the fourth loop. At that point, he was just a few seconds behind Novikov, who actually was 9.5 seconds ahead of Svendsen at the time. The fall broke the harness on

Kruglov’s rifle. He spent more than a minute repairing it himself, before continuing to the shooting range. Although the Russian veteran shot clean once again, his medal hopes were gone, as he finished 2:17.9 back. After retelling the story, he said, with tears in his eyes, “My plan was to win a medal today.”

Once again, Canada’s Jean Philippe Le Guellec, was the top North American with his two-penalty 13th place at 2:24.6 back. He commented, “I did the best I could, I shot 18 for 20 which is not good enough for the podium but I am happy with my performance.”

US biathlete Tim Burke, who skied well, had five penalties and finished 5:00.1 back in 45th place. Lowell Bailey had four penalties, while finishing 57th at +6:00.6. Jeremy Teela did not start due to not feeling 100% – Teela finished ninth in the Sprint on Sunday.

Le Guellec, Burke and Teela all have one more shot at an individual medal as all three made the 30-man Mass Start field up next on Sunday.

Full results here

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Results (brief)
1. Emil Hegle Svendsen (NOR) T/1, 48:22.5
2. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (NOR) T/2, +9.5
2. Sergey Novikov (BEL), T/0, +9.5

13. Jean Philippe LeGuellec (CAN), T/2, +2:24.6
32. Tim Burke (USA), T/5, +5:00.1
51. Lowell Bailey (USA), T/4, +6:00.6
68. Jay Hakkinen (USA), T/7, +8:39.3
76. Wynn Roberts (USA), T/8, +10:26.7