By Philip O’Connor and Mitch Phillips
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) -Another near-perfect shooting performance gave Marte Olsbu Roieseland of Norway her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics when she cruised to victory in the women’s 10 km pursuit race at the National Biathlon Centre on Sunday.
Swedish prodigy Elvira Oeberg took her second Olympic silver medal in 48 hours with Roieseland’s team mate Tiril Eckhoff taking the bronze.
A thick layer of fresh snow covered much of the man-made course as the race got underway, making the going heavy and punishing those who missed shots and had to endure a penalty loop of 150 metres.
With the staggered start based on the results from Friday’s sprint, Roieseland, 31, was not initially troubled as she hit her first five shots.
A miss by Oeberg allowed Dorothea Wierer to slide into second place early on but the Italian was unable to exploit a miss by the Norwegian leader at the third shoot, missing two of her own five shots to fall more than a minute-and-a-half behind during the fourth lap.
With her biggest rivals struggling, Roieseland was never going to turn up her nose at such an opportunity and she flashed off her last five shots in perfect fashion before skiing away from the range, safe in the knowledge that only a broken pole or ski might keep her from gold.
Behind her the battle for silver gathered pace as the rest of the pack followed Wierer on to the range, with the 22-year-old Oeberg making a stunning comeback to retake second place ahead of the final lap.
Norway’s Ingrid Tandrevold was hot on her heels as the two exited the final shoot, but Oeberg quickly dropped her to secure the silver medal, her second at the Games after second place in Friday’s sprint.
Tandrevold’s challenge fell apart completely on the final lap, allowing Eckhoff to glide past and take the bronze, with Tandrevold eventually finishing in 14th place before collapsing. She needed lengthy medical attention before being helped off the course.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Clare Fallon)
