February 17, 2010 (Whistler, BC) – Bjorn Ferry of Sweden moved from eighth at the start on Tuesday to capture the 

gold medal in the Men’s 12.5km Pursuit at Whistler Olympic Park, while German biathlon star, Magdalena Neuner, made good capturing her Olympic gold medal by winning the Women’s 10K Pursuit.

Ferry had one penalty in the final standing stage, but managed to pull away to a 33:38.4 victory. Neuner toured the slushy course in 30:16, after having two penalties on the

shooting range.

Women’s Pursuit
After a morning of wet, heavy snowfall, the precipitation ended about 20 minutes before the start of the women’s competition. However the damage had been done and the tracks were slushy for both

competitions.

Sprint gold medalist Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia also had two penalties but finished 12.3 seconds back, in the silver medal spot in the women’s competition. The bronze went to clean-shooting Marie Laure Brunet of France, who finished 28.3 seconds back.

Neuner is already known as Germany’s “Golden Girl” after winning three gold medals in the 2007 World Championships. Now at the age of 23, she today captured her second Olympic medal. The

young Neuner is also known at times as erratic on the shooting range, but has blazing ski speed. One day, she can be deadly accurate on the range and the next much less so. Recently that has changed and she seemed unfazed by her two penalties today. “I was very calm coming into the last shooting stage. I was very relaxed. But on the last shot, I told myself, ‘if you hit this, you will be Olympic champion.’ I missed. But I know that I am very strong on the tracks and can fight. Going around the penalty loop, I could only run and run and fight; my dream was to be Olympic Champion and I am now.”

On the other hand, the bronze medalist Brunet is consistently strong and confident on the shooting range as shown by her perfect shooting. She was confident of winning a medal after the final shooting stage. “I knew the medal was possible after that final shooting, because the girl behind me was 20 seconds back.”

The two North Americans in the field, Canada’s Megan Tandy and the USA’s Sara Studebaker had good days on the shooting range, despite being farther down the results sheet. Tandy missed one prone shot as she finished 36th, 3:46.2 back commentin, “I would say this is one of the best races I have done this season. With 19 out of 20 in shooting, I am very satisfied, that is pretty good, and I felt way better out on the course. Sprint day I was missing that little kind of snap, but in the pursuit I felt much better. I had the power to make that little sprint at the end; it simply way a fun race. I love pursuits.” Studebaker had two penalties to finish 46th at 4:44.1 back.

Men’s Pursuit
The 31-year-old Ferry moved from eighth at the start to take the men’s Pursuit gold for Sweden. Ferry had one penalty in

the final standing stage, but managed to pull away to claim the victory.

He did not take the lead until after the first standing stage when he shot clean and France’s Vincent Jay had a penalty. As Jay exited the penalty loop, Ferry slid in just behind the recent Olympic Sprint champion and soon after moved into the lead. The two rivals came to the shooting range together for the final standing stage. Both missed a single shot and headed to the penalty loop. At that point, Ferry gained some confidence. “I saw that Vincent was a little tired. So from the time we left the penalty loop, I was at full speed for the final loop. I realized then that I could be the Olympic champion.”

The Austrian veteran Christoph Sumann had a penalty in each of the two standing stages, yet was strong enough to overtake Jay for the silver medal. Sumann finished 16.5 seconds behind Ferry, but 11.7 seconds ahead of Jay, who had two penalties. Sumann is well known on the biathlon circuit as a “character” with a playful sense of humor. His comments about rival Ole Einar Björndalen (NOR) reflected that. “. . . My skiing was quite good today. . . I had really great material, which was a key factor today for sure, and two misses, well I can just say this was a perfect race.”

Part of Sumann’s perfect race was a duel with Ole Einar Björndalen in the final standing shooting stage. “I thought Ole had a good race today. He started 17th, and finished seventh. He had three times zero; I was next to him when he missed those two shots in standing; I could hear him crying.”

The day was not so perfect for Canada’s Jean Philippe Le Guellec.  A mistake that happened at the start caused some confusion during the whole competition. Le Guellec of Canada, who finished sixth in the Sprint, should have started 50 seconds behind Vincent Jay. However, due to a race attendant error Le Guellec left the starting gate too early. Thus, Jeremy Teela from the US started in his place. Both had the time added to their final time once the competition was completed.

Le Guellec, who crossed the Pursuit finish line in 5th place but ended up 11th in the results, understood that mistakes like this can happen. “The volunteers have been doing a great job up to now. It is hectic, we’re at home, these guys have competitors from home starting here and everybody is a bit excited. It’s unfortunate but you can’t blame the guy. We’re experienced and should know what’s going on, but with the hype and everything, things like this can happen. It’s just unfortunate.”

The US Team’s Teela, with four penalties finished 24th, 2:07 back after the adjustment. He was followed by teammates Lowell Bailey in 36th place, with three penalties, 2:55.6 back, Tim Burke in 46th, with five penalties, 3:48.4 back, and Jay Hakkinen, in 57th, with six penalties, 6:54.8 back.

The next biathlon competitions are on Thursday with the women’s 15km Individual at 10am local time and the Men’s 20km Individual at 1pm local time.