March 01, 2012 (Ruhpolding, GER) – In a controversial ruling Team Norway captured the first gold medal of the IBU World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany on Thursday, while the silver was claimed by Slovenia, as host nation Germany finished in the bronze medal position.

Slovenia’s Jakov Fak crossed the line first alone and well ahead of Norway with Germany trailing in third but behind the scenes the Jury was deliberating over a faulty target that caused Norwegian Ole Einar Björndalen to ski a penalty loop on the third leg. That rare occurance caused them to drop to third as Germany and Slovania surged ahead.

In the closing stages Germany’s Arnd Peiffer faltered and suffered a penalty in the final prone stage as Fak shot clean to take over the lead. Peiffer also fell victim to Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen who took over second in final push to the finish.

The malfunctioning target took the wind out of Slovenia’s sails as the Jury ruled that Björndalen skied an unnecessary penalty loop calculated at 28.4 seconds moving the Norwegians into first with no penalties and 10 spare rounds

“One of the International Referees, as well as the Norwegian coaches saw that the target did not function properly. He informed me as head of the Jury,” IBU Technical Director Max Cobb told Biathlonworld.com. “We checked the target after the competition and it was clearly a hit target.

“We then checked with the SIWIDATA timing system and the Hora target people to find out exactly how long Björndalen needed to run the unneeded penalty loop and the time for the extra spare round. That came to 28.4 seconds” explained Cobb.

“That time was presented to the jury and they agreed to it, resulting in the time adjustments and Norway moving to first ahead of Slovenia.”

Team USA, made up of Sara Studebaker, Susan Dunklee, Tim Burke, and Lowell Bailey finished 2:39 behind the Norwegians in 12th position while Canada’s Megan Imrie, Zina Kocher, Jean Philippe Leguellec, and Nathan Smith finished at 5:06 off the winning pace to claim 18th place.

Competition resumes on Saturday with the Men’s 10 km and the Women’s 7.5 km Sprint races.

Full results HERE.