Russia strike relay gold
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ByEurosport
Published 10/02/2007 at 11:15 GMT
Russia produced an utterly dominant performance to strike gold in the men's 4x7.5km relay at Antholz-Anterselva. The winning quartet missed just one out of 40 targets in eight trips to the shooting box, cruising home a minute ahead of Norway with Germany
BIATHLON Nikolay Kruglov Russia
Image credit: Imago
The margin of victory would have been even greater, had anchor man Nikolay Kruglov not eased up towards the end, crossing the line while holding a Russian flag aloft.
Ivan Tcherezov got Russia off to the perfect start, shooting clear and carving out a 30-second lead. Maxim Tchoudov maintained the lead despite missing his team's only shot.
The third leg put the result beyond any doubt, with Dmitri Iarochenko punishing the wayward shooting of the Germans and Norwegians to go nearly 90 seconds clear, before Kruglov brought home a stunning victory.
The Norwegians, anchored by the great Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, missed 11 shots and Frode Andresen had to take a penalty loop.
Germany were consigned to the bottom step of the podium as they missed 13 shots and were forced to take two penalty loops.
Their star man Michael Greis fought valiantly to overhaul Bjoerndalen on the final leg but ran out of steam.
Host nation Italy took a very creditable fourth to the delight of the Antholz-Anterselva crowd, with the Czech Republic fifth, Austria sixth, and mixed relay winners Sweden no better than seventh.
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