Fourcade finally wins world title in Nove Mesto
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ByEurosport
Updated 15/02/2013 at 08:49 GMT
Martin Fourcade claimed the only individual gold medal missing from his collection at the World Championship in Nove Mesto and with it finally his first of the 2013 edition.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
The 24-year-old had to make do with silver in the first two individual events in the Czech Republic, the 10km sprint and 12.5km pursuit, behind Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen.
He also had to settle for second behind Svendsen and the Norwegian mixed relay team in the opening event of the World Championships having won triple gold last year in Ruhpolding.
However with Svendsen pulling out of the third individual event in Nove Mesto, the 20km, with a sore throat Fourcade had his chance and he ensured it wouldn’t be taken from him.
The 20km individual is the only world title Fourcade hasn't won after taking the sprint, pursuit and mass start crowns last year with the Frenchman winning by over 20 seconds.
Fourcade led for all but a few kilometres after the first shoot in the Czech Republic with no one able to better him as American Tim Burke claimed silver and Fredrik Lindstrom bronze.
Racing into the lead after the start, Fourcade fell to second behind Henrik L'Abee-Lund after his first trip to the range but was up to first by nearly nine seconds after the second.
That was cut to less than five by Lukas Hofer after the third shoot, despite Fourcade going clear once again, however the Frenchman proceeded to drastically extend it thereafter.
He may have missed his one and only target on his last trip to the range but by then his lead was 21.5seconds with Fourcade extending it to 23.5 by the finish.
Burke and Lindstrom was forced into an agonising wait until their silver and bronze medals were confirmed but they eventually were with the rest of the field unable to catch up.
Lindstrom was just over ten second shy of Burke in second and 33.7 behind Fourcade overall with Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic fourth on his own snow in Nove Mesto.
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