The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Bjoerndalen edged out of record medal
OLE EINAR Bjoerndalen came within 1.7 seconds of making Winter Olympics history before being forced to settle for fourth place in the men’s 12.5km biathlon pursuit.
The 4 0 - year- o l d Norwegian, who had equalled compatriot Bjoern Daehlie’s alltime record of 12 winter games medals by taking gold in Saturday’s 10km sprint, finished behind winner Martin Fourcade of France, with Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic taking silver and another Frenchman, Jean Beatrix, pipping him for third.
Maria Hoefl-Riesch won her second successive Olympic gold medal in the super combined after producing a stellar run in the slalom.
The German found herself in fifth after the downhill, but produced a blistering slalom run to edge out Austria’s Nicole Hosp by 0.4 seconds, with American Julia Mancuso settling for the bronze.
In the 1,500 metres short track, Canadian speed skater Charles Hamelin added to the two golds he won in Vancouver four years ago.
Han Tianyu claimed the silver medal with home favourite Victor An completing the podium.
Michel Mulder claimed Holland’s first gold in the 90-year history of the 500m event.
The 27-year-old held off countryman Jan Smeekens and twin brother Ronald as the Dutch claimed a clean sweep of medals.
Canada claimed a one-two in the final of the men’s moguls, but Russia’s Alexandr Smyshlyaev denied them a clean sweep in the freestyle event.
Defending champion Alex Bilodeau took gold , with last man down Mikael Kingsbury then snatching the silver to push team-mate MarcAntoine Gagnon out of the top three and the medal places.