Penalty Loop Means Nothing to Biathlon Winner

Filed in archive Water Adventures on December 7, 2006

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen sped through a penalty loop to hold on to his 65th career win in the biathlon World Cup on Saturday.

Bjoerndalen, 32, covered the 10-km distance, plus the penalty loop for misfiring once in the shooting range, in 8 minutes 30.0 seconds. He is a four-time World Cup champion and has earned five Olympic golds and six world titles.

Dmitri Iarochenko of Russia came second, 15.5 seconds behind Bjoerndalen, despite having zero faults. Michael Greis of Germany was third. He missed one target and finished 17.2 seconds off the lead.