March 12, 2011 (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia) – Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen knew it was his final chance to take home an individual gold medal from the 2011 IBU World Championships. The veteran biathlete said as much prior to today’s competition as he shot superbly, with only one miss during the final round adding drama to the finish.

Svendsen matched all rivals save Russia’s Evgeny Ustyugov who had an incredible no-miss day, and drew immense praise and admiration from the partisan crowd in Khanty-Mansiysk. Ustyugov was one of only two biathletes to shoot clean on the day, the other being his Russian teammate Andrei Makoveev.

Yet despite his stellar day on the range and lead on the final section Ustyugov was up against a Goliath of a foe in Svendsen, who bided his time and played his cards perfectly, trumping the stalwart Russian for the gold with a time of 38:42.7 while Italy’s Lukas Hofer won the bronze.

The USA’s Leif Nordgren continued his stunning surge of excellent results with a strong 17th place effort at his mass start debut

Svendsen, who took the lead for the first time in the race with only 400 meters left of tracks, looked formidable and brilliant but somehow it seems you’re never sure of the outcome.

“I was never quite sure. Ten seconds is a lot [to make up], especially on the last loop. I was never confident, but I raced full speed to catch [Ustyugov] and then tried to save some energy for the sprint,” Svedsen told Biathlonworld.com. “When the sprint came, I had a good feeling and thought it was going my way; it was an incredible feeling.”

For Ustyugov it was a day for the record books as he won his first ever World Championship medal in front of wild and appreciative fans. The talented Russian also holds a gold medal from the Vancouver Olympics mass start. His incredible shooting gave him the lead out of the stadium on the final leg and everyone could taste the gold as he surged ahead to the finish line.

But Svendsen was not going to be denied easily as he soon caught and sat on Ustyugov while behind Hofer, who was also having a strong day and enjoyed the lead for a time, fought desperately to bridge to the two leaders.

As Hofer found new spark and edged closer Svendsen decided the game was up and began his power push up a climb to pass Ustyugov and take no prisoners as he claimed the individual gold that he was seeking. Ustyugov tried to stay with the Norwegian while ever aware of Hofer charging from behind.

“Emil was very strong today,” said the elated Russian silver medalist. “My purpose on that final loop was if he caught me, to stay behind him and not let Lukas [Hofer] catch me.”

Hofer, who stayed in contention throughout the competition, had a solid day in the range, missing just one shot in his final loop to finish 14 seconds out of 1st with a time of 38:57.0. The Italian’s bronze medal marks the first at these World Championships for his home country.

“I have been trying to get to the podium in every race. It was really hard because there are so many strong athletes in the World Cup,” Hofer commented, “But today, everything was perfect, especially my shooting, so I was able to climb up to my first podium.”

For the US Biathlon team is was a day of mixed emotions. Nordgren, who hit 17 of 20 targets, was once again the shining light for the team as he finished with a time of 40:26.7.

“It was his first mass start and he handled it really well,” said Head Coach Per Nilsson in a US Biathlon report, “He just treated it as a normal race and showed a good shooting with three misses. His running time was again impressive despite being pretty tired after the long race week.”

But the team had to deal with surprise and disappointment when Tim Burke was first listed as start number 30 only to be shuffled to the first reserve athlete when the start lists suddenly changed.

“I was pretty bummed when I saw that,” said Burke. “What happened was that Maxim Tchoudov from Russia had the same points as I had, but apparently has better placements. So they suddenly changed the list.”

Full results HERE.

Results (Brief)

1. Emil Hegle Svedsen, NOR (0+0+0+1) 38:42.7
2. Evgeny Ustyugov, RUS (0+0+0+0) 38:47.7
3. Lukas Hofer, ITA (0+0+0+1) 38:57.0

17. Leif Nordgren, USA (1+0+1+1) 40:26.7