Maren Kirkeeide of Norway takes gold

Bangla Press Desk: In her Olympic debut, Maren Kirkeeide of Norway bested two Frenchwomen to take gold in a snowy women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint biathlon race at the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Saturday.

Kirkeeide cleared all 10 of her shots and crossed the finish line in 20 minutes and 40.8 seconds. Oceane Michelon of France also shot clean and came in 3.8 seconds behind. Lou Jeanmonnot missed one but held on for a podium position, 23.7 seconds back.

Jeanmonnot has stood on the podium in every race she has entered so far in these Winter Games. She took silver in the 15-kilometer individual race on Wednesday and joined Julia Simon, Eric Perrot, and Quentin Fillon Maillet to take gold in the mixed relay last Sunday.

Simon missed two of her standing shots and finished a disappointing 34th — 1 minute 55.8 seconds behind the Norwegian.

Reigning biathlon sprint champion Marte Olsbu Røiseland has retired. Elvira Oeberg of Sweden took silver in the sprint at the Beijing Olympics, while Dorothea Wierer of Italy won bronze.

This time out, Oeberg missed two shots and finished 27th in the sprint race. Wierer missed three and came in 44th.

The sprint race is the shortest biathlon discipline. Racers head out at 30-second intervals and ski three, 2.5-kilometer loops, shooting once in the prone position and once standing. Biathletes must ski a 150-meter penalty lap for each miss.

Only the top 60 biathletes finishing the sprint race can participate in the pursuit race, which takes place on Sunday. Time gaps are critical in the sprint, because racers in the pursuit go out in the seconds-back order based on their sprint finish.

Source: daily Sun

BP/SP