By Mitch Phillips and Philip O’Connor
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) -Norway’s Marte Olsbu Roeiseland hit a perfect 10 out of 10 shots before roaring to victory in the women’s 7.5km biathlon sprint race at the Beijing Olympics on Friday, grabbing her second gold of the Games in the process.
Swedish 22-year-old prodigy Elvira Oeberg skied a brilliant final lap to secure the silver, 30.9 seconds behind Roeiseland, with Italy’s Dorothea Wierer picking up the bronze.
Starting fifth in the field, Roeiseland, who also snagged a bronze in the 15km individual race, had an excellent first lap on the skis and then hit a perfect five shouts from the prone position to take an early 10.4 seconds lead at the first shoot.
Once she got her nose in front, there was no looking back and she piled the pressure on the rest of the field by again shooting perfectly, this time from standing, to cement her lead heading into the third and final 2.5km lap of the course.
She never let up, crossing the line a whopping one minute 16.1 seconds ahead of then-leader, compatriot Tirill Eckhoff, as many in the rest of the field struggled to match her pinpoint shooting.
Oeberg, sister of 2018 Olympic champion Hanna, had other ideas, blazing through the first lap before rattling off five perfect hits and briefly taking a lead of 0.4 seconds after the first shoot.
However, that lead quickly evaporated and, though she again shot perfectly from standing, she was left to vainly chase Roeiseland’s superb time of 20:44.3, coming in just over half a minute behind.
Italy’s Wierer was also perfect with her shooting but slightly slower on the skis as evening crept in over the National Biathlon Centre, and Norway were soon celebrating again.
“I wanted so badly to have an incredible run,” Roeiseland said. “It was so wonderful to get that last shot, it was the best feeling ever.”
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Ken Ferris)
