Bjoerndalen secures title

ByEurosport

Published 25/03/2006 at 12:49 GMT

Norwegian Ole-Einar Bjoerndalen assured his overall fourth Cristal globe World Cup title of his career on Saturday with victory in the men's 12.5km pursuit race in Holmenkollen, Norway. While Kati Wilhelm of Germany secured her World Cup title with a stun

Bjoerndalen extended his lead in the standings to 79 points ahead of closest rival Frenchman Raphael Poiree with only one race in the season left and a possible 50 points up for grabs.

BIATHLON 2005-2006 Pokljuka Norway Bjoerndalen Sprint Men

Image credit: dpa

Second-placed Raphael Poiree was so disappointed with his sprint performance on Thursday - he finished 46th and two minutes 17 seconds off the pace - that he chose not to participate in this race, keeping the French number one on 683pts.

Holmenkollen

Ole second to Stenmark

27/03/2006 at 08:49

Third in the World Cup standings, Sven Fischer of Germany, crossed the line in 11th position moving his world cup campaign up to on 683 points which now means the results of Sunday's Mass Start race could shake up the lower podium order.

Bjoerndalen, despite only a clean sheet on the third visit to the shooting range missing four targets in total, powered round the course using his impressive skiing abilities to easily claim the win

Poland's Tomasz Sikora shot a clean last two visits to the range and jumped up through the order and gave a last minute burst to close the gap on Bjoerndalen to claim second spot.

Despite shooting 20 out of 20 targets, Germany's Ricco Gross's skiing wasn't enough to hold of the Pole from overtaking him on the last lap.

But Gross held on skiing on Sikora's heels all the way to the line for third place.

WILHELM SECURES TITLE

Kati Wilhelm of Germany unofficially secured the World Cup title on Saturday with a stunning win in the 10km pursuit race in Oslo, Norway.

Wilhelm started the race down in sixth position but pulled out the perfect race, missed no targets to finally cruise down the final stretch for the win.

The German crossed the line in a time of 32 minutes and 17.7 seconds to collect maximum points and put herself out of reach of second-placed Anna Carin Olofsson of Sweden with one race left in the season's calendar.

Anna Boaliy-Titovets of Russia held her nerve to shoot a clear 20 targets and cracked a smile as she skied over the line to take second place 51.5 seconds off the pace.

Sweden's Olofsson missed three targets - one on prone and two on standing - but used her powerful skiing to jump up the ranks to pip Simone Deniker of Germany to the last podium place one minute 2.9 seconds behind.

BIATHLON 2006 Torino 2006 Anna Carin Olofsson women's 12.5km mass start

Image credit: Reuters

Germany's Martina Glagow - who started first - was let down by her final shoot missing one target and eventually finished down in seventh place.

Sandrine Bailly of France looked to be coming back into the race. After starting in 22nd posision she worked her way back up to 9th but her last couple of visits to the shooting range but her back to tenth place when she crossed the line.

Italian Michela Ponza - started the race second - missed two targets on the last two visits to the range and eventually crossed the line in fifth place 1 minute 18.5 seconds back.

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Bjoerndalen claims double

26/03/2006 at 13:35

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Glagow wins Mass Start title

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The ultimate Mass Start

26/03/2006 at 09:37