In the tightest race in any Biathlon event, Martin Fourcade was the one to finish with a gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Sunday. By the smallest of margins, the Frenchman won by a foot with Simon Schempp of Germany taking silver in the men’s 15km mass start. Emil Hegle Svendsen had the bronze on a big push earning his first of these Olympics.
Norwegian and Frenchman had a shot to repeat as medalist for a second year with Fourcade hunting down a possible gold to go with the last two consecutive silver finishes. He missed three times in Vancouver and once in Sochi to still make it into the silver medal spot. Despite missing out on gold with a matched finish time against Svendsen, the 33 year old would do everything to not let that happen in the five lap race spanning three kilometers with four stops at the shooting range.
Through the first two minutes, three packs formed out with Fourcade leading the way at the 1.6km mark Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway and Arnd Pieffer of Germany behind him. When they came into the shooting range, there were many in tow with the top three that would lead them to concentrate while lying on the ground. Fourcade missed one early with Peiffer while Boe got away cleanly. South Korea’s Timothy Lapshin also finished clean to take off first going to the front with cheers from the home crowd. A cause for concern came from Fourcade as his ski clipped one of the boards that took him down for a moment.
He got back up to go into the second lap where at the midway point, he found his way back into 17th while Boe contained the lead up front. When the second round of shooting was completed, Germany went 1-2 with Benedikt Doll leading them out to the second lap with teammate Erik Lesser behind him. Fourcade was in eighth out of the range finishing clean to regain ground and stay with the main pack.
He got into fourth at the halfway checkpoint where a lot of effort had him fighting back for control. He sat in fourth where three Germans came into the range together hoping to intimidate their opponents with their presence. Fourcade came out way before them with Doll missing once to regain the lead with Schempp and Lesser trailing by a small margin.
They remained in formation into the last round of shooting where Fourcade and Schempp both missed once with Lesser missing more. Their 35 second gap was enough to hold off everyone else leaving the bronze medal up for grabs.
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It was a fight for gold with Fourcade up front and Schempp behind by nine tenths of a second. Svendsen had to battle both Doll and Lesser who made it out in third and fourth but right on their tails.
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It was a fight for gold with Fourcade up front and Schempp behind by nine tenths of a second. Svendsen had to battle both Doll and Lesser who made it out in third and fourth but right on their tails.
The gap for first and second was 25 seconds that gave them plenty of time to hang on to their positions while the others battled it out for the final podium finish still undetermined. With half a kilometer to go, the gap between Fourcade and Schempp was three tenths. Svendsen found another gear and pushed to get out front on the downhill section gaining
While the battled continued behind, it was a neck and neck race with Fourcade and Schempp both coming in on a photo finish. Svendsen came in clearly in third while the Frenchman saw the photo which determined he won the gold medal.
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