France and Norway claim biathlon relay golds

The French men have already claimed two golds in Italy with Emilien Jacquelin's success in the pursuit and Martin Fourcade's victory in the individual.

Those two joined Fillon Maillet and Simon Desthieux in taking 4x7.5km success, missing just four targets over the course of the race.

It was Germany who led for the first three legs of the race, only for last man Benedikt Doll to crack at the worst time, missing six targets and having to do one penalty loop as he had to settle for bronze.

Norway, with the Boe brothers, overcame a poor start to take the silver, finishing 21.5 seconds behind the French.

Earlier in the day, Marte Olsbu Roieseland made it four Biathlon World Championship golds and six medals in all as she helped Norway to victory in the women's 4x6km relay.

Roieseland now has three relay golds in Italy, in addition to her success in the 7.5km sprint, and she shot clear on the final leg of the relay to snatch victory.

It was the home nation who had taken early control in the race thanks to Lisa Vittozzi and Dorothea Wierer, with Norway more than a minute back after Synnoeve Solemdal and Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold.

However with Tiril Eckhoff and Roieseland on the second half, Norway were always going to finish strongly, while the Italians fell apart with some terrible shooting, missing 12 targets and being forced to ski three penalty loops.

Instead it was Poland who held an unlikely lead going into the final lap, but Roieseland then powered home, taking gold by 10.7 seconds from the German team, with Ukraine rounding out the podium.

The final day of action on Sunday will see both the men and the women competing in the mass start.

Sportsbeat 2020