Biathlon at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Men's pursuit

The men's pursuit competition in biathlon at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was held at Whistler Olympic Park in Whistler, British Columbia on February 16, 2010. It was won by Swedish athlete Björn Ferry, after both Ferry and second place finisher Christoph Sumann of Austria successfully pursued and overtook the leader at the start of the race, France's Vincent Jay.

Men's pursuit
at the XXI Olympic Winter Games
The medalists for the event. From left: Christoph Sumann (silver), Björn Ferry (gold) and Vincent Jay (bronze)
VenueWhistler Olympic Park
DateFebruary 16
Competitors60 from 24 nations
Winning time33:38.4
Medalists
Björn Ferry  Sweden
Christoph Sumann  Austria
Vincent Jay  France

Competition

The pursuit takes place over a distance of 12.5 km (8 mi). The start of the competition was marred by irregularities in how officials released athletes at the beginning of their runs. In pursuit competitions, athlete's start times are staggered by the differences in their times in a previous sprint, in this case the 10km sprint event held on February 14. Thus, officials need to release athletes to begin the event at exact times. Athletes in both the men's and women's pursuit competitions were started earlier and later than their appropriate times, resulting in a number of complaints from coaches and athletes. Officials attempted to correct the errors by making alterations in the final times of competitors. Nonetheless, media reports cited the incident as embarrassing for the International Biathlon Union. Norbert Baier, the chief technical delegate from the IBU at the Games and the official responsible for ensuring that the rules were implemented correctly by officials, called it, "the worst day of my career."[1]

Following the sprint, Vincent Jay of France led the field and started first. Jay would continue to set the pace throughout much of the race. Björn Ferry of Sweden, who started the race in 8th place more than a minute behind Jay, pushed hard through much of the race and finally overtook Jay in the final lap. Following Ferry, Austrian Christoph Sumann also overtook Jay and won the silver medal. Jay held on to third place, beating his closest opponent by less than three seconds at the finish line, and securing the bronze medal. Ferry's victory was the first Olympic biathlon gold medal won by a Swedish athlete in 50 years.[2] Norwegian competitors Emil Hegle Svendsen and Ole Einar Bjørndalen, a five-time Olympic champion, were expected to do well before the race but failed to live up to those expectations. Svendsen missed four shooting targets and Bjørndalen finished nearly a minute behind Ferry.[2]

Confusion and starter errors

Observers and participants reported that several starter errors occurred during the race start. Competitors Jeremy Teela and Jean-Philippe Leguellec were started too early, before racers who were seeded higher than them. Teela stated that the early start threw-off his strategy, contributing to his missing two targets in his first two shooting range stops. Said Teela, "We have a couple more races this week. Hopefully the organizers figure this problem out and they make the races fair." Starter confusion was reportedly also present during the Women's pursuit earlier that day. U.S. coach Per Nilsson stated that he had never seen an Olympic biathlon as poorly managed as the February 16 women's race.[3]

Results

RankBibNameCountryStartTimePenalties (P+P+S+S)Deficit
8Björn Ferry Sweden1:1233:38.41 (0+0+0+1)
12Christoph Sumann Austria1:2533:54.92 (0+0+1+1)+16.5
1Vincent Jay France0:0034:06.62 (0+0+1+1)+28.2
411Simon Eder Austria1:2434:09.43 (0+0+2+1)+31.0
521Michael Greis Germany1:4834:29.61 (0+0+0+1)+51.2
610Ivan Tcherezov Russia1:1834:29.62 (1+0+1+0)+51.2
717Ole Einar Bjørndalen Norway1:4134:29.82 (0+0+0+2)+51.4
82Emil Hegle Svendsen Norway0:1234:30.44 (0+1+2+1)+52.0
94Klemen Bauer Slovenia0:1734:33.85 (1+0+2+2)+55.4
1022Serguei Sednev Ukraine1:4934:50.00 (0+0+0+0)+1:11.6
116Jean-Philippe Leguellec Canada0:5034:51.92 (0+1+0+1)+1:13.5
1213Thomas Frei Switzerland1:2934:56.41 (0+1+0+0)+1:18.0
1323Andreas Birnbacher Germany1:5935:03.42 (1+0+1+0)+1:25.0
1434Dominik Landertinger Austria2:1635:06.73 (1+0+1+1)+1:28.3
1515Evgeny Ustyugov Russia1:4035:07.44 (1+1+2+0)+1:29.0
167Pavol Hurajt Slovakia1:0735:12.83 (1+0+0+2)+1:34.4
1724Halvard Hanevold Norway2:0035:13.12 (1+1+0+0)+1:34.7
1829Tomasz Sikora Poland2:0835:14.33 (1+1+0+1)+1:35.9
1942Carl Johan Bergman Sweden2:3435:14.61 (0+1+0+0)+1:36.2
2030Anton Shipulin Russia2:1135:34.43 (0+1+2+0)+1:56.0
2140Sergey Novikov Belarus2:3035:35.22 (0+0+1+1)+1:56.8
2253Vincent Defrasne France3:0735:35.60 (0+0+0+0)+1:57.2
2346Lars Berger Norway2:4535:37.22 (0+0+0+2)+1:58.8
249Jeremy Teela United States1:1435:45.44 (0+0+2+2)+2:07.0
253Jakov Fak Croatia0:1435:45.64 (2+1+0+1)+2:07.2
265Andriy Deryzemlya Ukraine0:4135:48.76 (1+0+3+2)+2:10.3
2739Yan Savitskiy Kazakhstan2:2735:49.61 (0+0+1+0)+2:11.2
2826Matthias Simmen Switzerland2:0435:55.01 (3+0+0+0)+2:16.6
2918Michal Šlesingr Czech Republic1:4335:58.83 (0+0+1+2)+2:20.4
3019Christoph Stephan Germany1:4336:02.34 (1+0+1+2)+2:23.9
3120Alexandr Syman Belarus1:4636:13.92 (0+0+1+1)+2:35.5
3214Ilmārs Bricis Latvia1:3436:14.94 (0+0+2+2)+2:36.5
3338Fredrik Lindström Sweden2:2636:25.54 (0+1+1+2)+2:47.1
3435Martin Fourcade France2:1836:28.45 (1+0+2+2)+2:50.0
3532Zhang Chengye China2:1236:28.75 (0+2+1+2)+2:50.3
3636Lowell Bailey United States2:1936:34.03 (0+2+1+0)+2:55.6
3737Arnd Peiffer Germany2:2136:44.94 (0+0+1+3)+3:06.5
3828Zdeněk Vítek Czech Republic2:0636:45.15 (1+1+1+2)+3:06.7
3933Serhiy Semenov Ukraine2:1336:55.74 (3+1+0+0)+3:17.3
4049Evgeny Abramenko Belarus2:5036:56.01 (0+0+1+0)+3:17.6
4145Daniel Mesotitsch Austria2:3836:56.04 (0+0+3+1)+3:17.6
4243Rustam Valiullin Belarus2:3637:05.55 (1+0+2+2)+3:27.1
4316Simon Hallenbarter Switzerland1:4137:07.96 (1+2+1+2)+3:29.5
4459Michail Kletcherov Bulgaria3:1537:08.10 (0+0+0+0)+3:29.7
4525Krasimir Anev Bulgaria2:0137:24.23 (2+0+0+1)+3:45.8
4647Tim Burke United States2:4737:26.85 (0+2+1+2)+3:48.4
4727Janez Marič Slovenia2:0537:28.45 (0+1+3+1)+3:50.0
4831Indrek Tobreluts Estonia2:1137:29.05 (2+0+2+1)+3:50.6
4951Alexsandr Chervyhkov Kazakhstan3:0237:30.53 (1+0+1+1)+3:52.1
5048Kauri Koiv Estonia2:4837:45.54 (0+1+2+1)+4:07.1
5152Jaroslav Soukup Czech Republic3:0338:04.94 (1+1+1+1)+4:26.5
5241Timo Antila Finland2:3038:22.16 (0+1+2+3)+4:43.7
5344Markus Windisch Italy2:3739:50.86 (0+2+3+1)+6:12.4
5456Lukas Hofer Italy3:1139:50.95 (2+0+2+1)+6:12.5
5560Mattia Cola Italy3:1739:50.94 (0+0+0+4)+6:12.5
5655Lee-Steve Jackson Great Britain3:1039:54.74 (0+1+3+0)+6:16.3
5754Jay Hakkinen United States3:1040:33.26 (1+2+3+0)+6:54.8
5850Andrejs Rastorgujevs Latvia2:5841:35.99 (2+2+3+2)+7:57.5
5957Vasja Rupnik Slovenia3:1341:59.211 (1+2+4+4)+8:20.8
58Peter Dokl Slovenia3:13LAP5 (0+3+2+ )

See also

References

  1. Wright, Chris (2010-02-16). "Protests over start foul-ups mar biathlon". Agence France-Presse. CTV Olympics. Archived from the original on 2010-03-12. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  2. Agence France-Presse (2010-02-16). "Biathlon (Sprint): Sweden's Ferry wins men's 12.5km pursuit". Vancouver 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  3. Gustus, Lauren, (Gannett News Service), "Starter error frustrates biathletes, guardsman", Military Times, February 18, 2010.
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