January 11, 2008 (Ruhpolding, Germany) – Emil Hegle Svendsen put Norway into the lead on the first lap Thursday night and Norway rolled to a 19.3-second biathlon victory over Russia. U.S. men finished eighth in the 21-team field.

Svendsen and Rune Bratsveen each shot clean to give Norway a 20-second bulge heading into the third 7.5km loop. Halvard Hanevold missed on shot but Norway held onto a 13-second lead as Russia moved up one notch, thanks to Dmitri Yaroshenko who had the fastest lap under the lights..

On the final lap, Michael Greis produced the fastest time, despite one penalty shot, but Germany remained locked in third place. World Cup leader Ole Einar Bjoerndalen also had a miss, but he stayed in stayed as Russia’s anchor, Maxim Tchoudov, missed three shots.

“I wanted to set Ole Einar under pressure, was therefore in a hurry,” Tchoudov said, explaining his disappointing anchor leg.

Norway’s winning time for the 4×7.5km relay was 1:27.06.9 with Russia second at 1:37.26.2. Germany completed the podium in 1:27.52.2. The U.S. foursome finished in 1:31.06.0. No Canadians raced.

U.S. coaches shuffled the deck for their athletes, leading off with Lowell Bailey, who tagged Jay Hakkinen. Third skier was Tim Burke with Jeremy Teela skiing fourth.

“I followed my plan today,” Bailey said. “I was very happy with my range procedure and the skiing is coming up. Most importantly, I put Jay close [10th by nine seconds out of fifth place]. At one time, I even hard the announced use the word ‘incredible’ when he was talking about my race at that point.”



From there, Hakkinen had the second-fastest time on the second lap, lifting the Americans into fourth place, nine seconds behind Russia in third place.

“It is all about the shooting,” Hakkinen said. “I’m glad it came around today. Lowell really put me in a good position, so I was able to relax and do my own race.”

Full results here.