December 2, 2007 (Kontiolahti, Finland) – After a flawless 10km pursuit victory, Norwegian star Ole Einar Bjoerndalen shot like a rookie on Sunday in erratic winds, missing four shots and dropping to second place in the 12.5km biathlon pursuit. Russian Ivan Tcherezov got the early Christmas present, shooting clean and finishing first by 27.7 seconds.

“My performance today was not too bad,” Bjoerndalen said, “but not too good, either.”

The fastest skier in his sport, Bjoerndalen missed once in each of his prone shooting stages, but dropped all chance for the win when he missed two shots in his final standing stage. Tcherezov, starting sixth, 28 seconds back of Bjoerndalen, went on to win in 32:51.9.

“To miss two targets in the final shooting like I did today, that’s actually not allowed,” the Norwegian said. “Therefore, I’m really happy with my second place.

Tcherezov said he was concerned Bjoerndalen could catch him in the final 2.5 km loop, but once the Norwegian champion missed his shots, he said, “There was no way I could close up to Ivan.”

Saturday, Bjoerndalen won the sprint event in 23:13.4 with Dmitri Yaroshenko of Russia second in 23:26.1 with two penalty misses. Carsten Pump of Germany was third with American Tim Burke 12th. In the pursuit, Burke missed six shots in the pursuit and dropped to 28th while Jay Hakkinen, 22nd in the sprint, finished 22nd in the pursuit after also missing six shots.

Hakkinen said he couldn’t find the rhythm in the pursuit and “couldn’t settle down” in the standing stages. Burke said he was pleased to be 28th, given the winds and six missed shots.

In the women’s 10 km pursuit, Norway’s Tora Berger, who was third in the 7.5km sprint, won her first World Cup. She missed two shots and had a time of 31:59.7. German Andrea Henkel was second (32.18.5) with teammate Martina Glagow – who won the sprint – third, 42.5 seconds back.

Canadian Sandra Keith was 41st in the sprint and finished 52nd in the pursuit, which includes only the top 60 from a sprint event.

For all results click here.