February 10, 2008 (Oestersund, Sweden) – Ole Einar Bjoerndalen overtook Russian Maxim Tchoudov to win the men’s pursuit Sunday at the biathlon World Championships while Germany’s Andreas Henkel won her second gold medal in 24 hours. American Tim Burke was 10th in the men’s 12.5km race.

Saturday, after finishing third in the opening 10km sprint by Tchoudov (and fellow Norwegian Halvard Hanevold), Bjoerndalen said he felt he would do better in the pursuit. Starting 30 seconds back of Tchoudov, he missed two shots but took charge on the third visit to the shooting range and went on to win by 10.1 seconds in 31:04.5 for the 10th World Championships gold medal of his career.

Tchoudov was silver medalist in 31:14.6 after four penalties with German Alexander Wolf taking the bronze. He missed one shot and moved up from 19th place to finish 41.8 seconds back. The top nine skiers were less than a minute apart.

Burke, who was ninth Saturday in the sprint, had two misses and finished in 32:23.1 for the third Worlds top-10 of his career. Burke, who lives in New York’s Adirondacks region (the village of Paul Smiths) and represents the Olympic Regional Development Authority, was the lone North American to compete in the pursuit, which was made up of the top 60 finishers from the sprint.

In the women’s 10km, the women’s top three skiers – although not the same as in Saturday’s sprint – again shot clean. Henkel cruised to the win in 28:56.0 while Russian Ekaterina Iourieva, advancing from ninth place, was runner-up 29:16.5. Albina Akhatova, another Russian, was third (29:34.5).

Canadian Sandra Keith moved up seven places to finish 49th while teammate Zina Kocher, troubled by six missed shots, fell back from 38th to 51st. Teenager Haley Johnson, another Lake Placid biathlete, missed five shots but moved up a place to 52nd.

Monday is an off day at the championships.

Full results here.