Torino's top five

ByEurosport

Published 01/03/2006 at 07:41 GMT

Eurosport.com's Ian Holyman takes a look at five moments that defined the 2006 Winter Olympics biathlon competition. From Michael Greis' gold medals at the start and end, through Vincent Defranse's Pursuit triumph and the Russian women's relay win, the Tu

BIATHLON 2006 Torino 2006 Mass Start Men

Image credit: Reuters

DEFRASNE BEATS THE LEGEND

A Pursuit race that had everything came down to a toe-to-toe battle between the legendary Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Vincent Defrasne, so often the best man never the groom.

Emerging from the penalty loop, few would have given the Frenchman - who only got his first World Cup win last month - much hope of holding off the great Norwegian.

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But Defrasne dug in, and even came back from slipping on the final corner to accelerate past Bjoerndalen for a superb gold medal triumph.

Defrasne sprint finale earns gold

THE CLOSEST FINISH EVER

Raphael Poiree may have seen Olympic gold elude him again, but he produced one of the performances of the Games to snatch France a relay bronze from the grasp of Sweden.

After again suffering on the range, Poiree found the energy to haul himself back from 13 seconds down to get within touching distance of Carl Johan Bergman.

Coming into the final straight, Bergman appeared to have the beating of the out-of-form Frenchman only to stumble within centimetres of the line, Poiree grabbing third with a desperate lunge.

BIATHLON 2006 Torino 2006 Relay Men Poiree Poirée Bergman

Image credit: Reuters

Must mention Ole Einar Bjoerndalen's sensational anchor leg for Norway, which saw its greatest exponent take the sport to new levels, dragging his team up to fifth - making up a minute on winners Germany - and declaring the superhuman effort one of his "best ever" races.

Doubting Poiree relieved

FISCHER REELS IN OLYMPIC FIRST

There could have been very few in the biathlon world who begrudged Sven Fischer a first individual gold medal as he crossed the line to win the Sprint.

In his fourth Olympic Games, the broad-chested German - one of the sport's most popular figures - drew on all his experience and talent to shoot flawlessly and ski powerfully to leave Norwegian pair Halvard Hanevold and Frode Andresen battling for the minor medals.

BIATHLON 2006 Torino 2006 Sprint Men Fischer slideshow

Image credit: Reuters

Flying Fischer hooks gold

RUSSIAN RELAY QUEENS

Germany went into the women's 4x6km relay as the overwhelming favourites - they finished it comprehensively beaten by a Russian quartet who were invincible on the range.

Anna Bogaliy, Svetlana Ishmouratova, Olga Zaitseva and Albina Akhatova - who never finished out of the top ten in all five races - shrugged off the scandal of Olga Pyleva's positive drug test needing only two spare rounds to leave a fearsome German foursome trailing by fifty seconds.

BIATHLON 2006 Torino 2006 Relay Women Russia Zaitseva

Image credit: Reuters

Eagle-eyed Russia shoot to gold

GREIS' GOLDEN HAT-TRICK

All the pre-Games talk was about Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Raphael Poiree.

All of the post-Olympic chat will be about Michael Greis.

Three gold medals - a clinical Individual win, a collected relay anchor leg and a cool Mass Start triumph - leaves the German undoubtedly the man of the Games and has perhaps seen the 29-year-old elevated to the ranks of biathlon legend.