Jump to content

Biathlon at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Men's pursuit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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
1st place, gold medalist(s) Björn Ferry  Sweden
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Christoph Sumann  Austria
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Vincent Jay  France
← 2006
2014 →

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.

Competition

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]
Rank Bib Name Country Start Time Penalties (P+P+S+S) Deficit
1st place, gold medalist(s) 8 Björn Ferry  Sweden 1:12 33:38.4 1 (0+0+0+1)
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 12 Christoph Sumann  Austria 1:25 33:54.9 2 (0+0+1+1) +16.5
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 1 Vincent Jay  France 0:00 34:06.6 2 (0+0+1+1) +28.2
4 11 Simon Eder  Austria 1:24 34:09.4 3 (0+0+2+1) +31.0
5 21 Michael Greis  Germany 1:48 34:29.6 1 (0+0+0+1) +51.2
6 10 Ivan Tcherezov  Russia 1:18 34:29.6 2 (1+0+1+0) +51.2
7 17 Ole Einar Bjørndalen  Norway 1:41 34:29.8 2 (0+0+0+2) +51.4
8 2 Emil Hegle Svendsen  Norway 0:12 34:30.4 4 (0+1+2+1) +52.0
9 4 Klemen Bauer  Slovenia 0:17 34:33.8 5 (1+0+2+2) +55.4
10 22 Serhiy Sednev  Ukraine 1:49 34:50.0 0 (0+0+0+0) +1:11.6
11 6 Jean-Philippe Leguellec  Canada 0:50 34:51.9 2 (0+1+0+1) +1:13.5
12 13 Thomas Frei  Switzerland 1:29 34:56.4 1 (0+1+0+0) +1:18.0
13 23 Andreas Birnbacher  Germany 1:59 35:03.4 2 (1+0+1+0) +1:25.0
14 34 Dominik Landertinger  Austria 2:16 35:06.7 3 (1+0+1+1) +1:28.3
15 15 Evgeny Ustyugov  Russia 1:40 35:07.4 4 (1+1+2+0) +1:29.0
16 7 Pavol Hurajt  Slovakia 1:07 35:12.8 3 (1+0+0+2) +1:34.4
17 24 Halvard Hanevold  Norway 2:00 35:13.1 2 (1+1+0+0) +1:34.7
18 29 Tomasz Sikora  Poland 2:08 35:14.3 3 (1+1+0+1) +1:35.9
19 42 Carl Johan Bergman  Sweden 2:34 35:14.6 1 (0+1+0+0) +1:36.2
20 30 Anton Shipulin  Russia 2:11 35:34.4 3 (0+1+2+0) +1:56.0
21 40 Sergey Novikov  Belarus 2:30 35:35.2 2 (0+0+1+1) +1:56.8
22 53 Vincent Defrasne  France 3:07 35:35.6 0 (0+0+0+0) +1:57.2
23 46 Lars Berger  Norway 2:45 35:37.2 2 (0+0+0+2) +1:58.8
24 9 Jeremy Teela  United States 1:14 35:45.4 4 (0+0+2+2) +2:07.0
25 3 Jakov Fak  Croatia 0:14 35:45.6 4 (2+1+0+1) +2:07.2
26 5 Andriy Deryzemlya  Ukraine 0:41 35:48.7 6 (1+0+3+2) +2:10.3
27 39 Yan Savitskiy  Kazakhstan 2:27 35:49.6 1 (0+0+1+0) +2:11.2
28 26 Matthias Simmen  Switzerland 2:04 35:55.0 1 (3+0+0+0) +2:16.6
29 18 Michal Šlesingr  Czech Republic 1:43 35:58.8 3 (0+0+1+2) +2:20.4
30 19 Christoph Stephan  Germany 1:43 36:02.3 4 (1+0+1+2) +2:23.9
31 20 Alexandr Syman  Belarus 1:46 36:13.9 2 (0+0+1+1) +2:35.5
32 14 Ilmārs Bricis  Latvia 1:34 36:14.9 4 (0+0+2+2) +2:36.5
33 38 Fredrik Lindström  Sweden 2:26 36:25.5 4 (0+1+1+2) +2:47.1
34 35 Martin Fourcade  France 2:18 36:28.4 5 (1+0+2+2) +2:50.0
35 32 Zhang Chengye  China 2:12 36:28.7 5 (0+2+1+2) +2:50.3
36 36 Lowell Bailey  United States 2:19 36:34.0 3 (0+2+1+0) +2:55.6
37 37 Arnd Peiffer  Germany 2:21 36:44.9 4 (0+0+1+3) +3:06.5
38 28 Zdeněk Vítek  Czech Republic 2:06 36:45.1 5 (1+1+1+2) +3:06.7
39 33 Serhiy Semenov  Ukraine 2:13 36:55.7 4 (3+1+0+0) +3:17.3
40 49 Evgeny Abramenko  Belarus 2:50 36:56.0 1 (0+0+1+0) +3:17.6
41 45 Daniel Mesotitsch  Austria 2:38 36:56.0 4 (0+0+3+1) +3:17.6
42 43 Rustam Valiullin  Belarus 2:36 37:05.5 5 (1+0+2+2) +3:27.1
43 16 Simon Hallenbarter  Switzerland 1:41 37:07.9 6 (1+2+1+2) +3:29.5
44 59 Michail Kletcherov  Bulgaria 3:15 37:08.1 0 (0+0+0+0) +3:29.7
45 25 Krasimir Anev  Bulgaria 2:01 37:24.2 3 (2+0+0+1) +3:45.8
46 47 Tim Burke  United States 2:47 37:26.8 5 (0+2+1+2) +3:48.4
47 27 Janez Marič  Slovenia 2:05 37:28.4 5 (0+1+3+1) +3:50.0
48 31 Indrek Tobreluts  Estonia 2:11 37:29.0 5 (2+0+2+1) +3:50.6
49 51 Alexsandr Chervyhkov  Kazakhstan 3:02 37:30.5 3 (1+0+1+1) +3:52.1
50 48 Kauri Koiv  Estonia 2:48 37:45.5 4 (0+1+2+1) +4:07.1
51 52 Jaroslav Soukup  Czech Republic 3:03 38:04.9 4 (1+1+1+1) +4:26.5
52 41 Timo Antila  Finland 2:30 38:22.1 6 (0+1+2+3) +4:43.7
53 44 Markus Windisch  Italy 2:37 39:50.8 6 (0+2+3+1) +6:12.4
54 56 Lukas Hofer  Italy 3:11 39:50.9 5 (2+0+2+1) +6:12.5
55 60 Mattia Cola  Italy 3:17 39:50.9 4 (0+0+0+4) +6:12.5
56 55 Lee-Steve Jackson  Great Britain 3:10 39:54.7 4 (0+1+3+0) +6:16.3
57 54 Jay Hakkinen  United States 3:10 40:33.2 6 (1+2+3+0) +6:54.8
58 50 Andrejs Rastorgujevs  Latvia 2:58 41:35.9 9 (2+2+3+2) +7:57.5
59 57 Vasja Rupnik  Slovenia 3:13 41:59.2 11 (1+2+4+4) +8:20.8
58 Peter Dokl  Slovenia 3:13 LAP 5 (0+3+2+ )

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  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. ^ a b Agence France-Presse (2010-02-16). "Biathlon (Sprint): Sweden's Ferry wins men's 12.5km pursuit". Vancouver 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-02-17. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  3. ^ Gustus, Lauren, (Gannett News Service), "Starter error frustrates biathletes, guardsman Archived 2012-05-13 at the Wayback Machine", Military Times, February 18, 2010.
[edit]