Marte Olsbu Roeiseland wins her third medal of the games with gold in biathlon sprint at Beijing 2022
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Updated 11/02/2022 at 12:08 GMT
World champion and mixed relay champion Tiril Eckhoff made a number of mistakes which ended her chances of a biathlon sprint medal, with Marte Olsbu Roeiseland taking advantage to win her second gold in Beijing and take her overall haul to three medals. Sharp shooter Dorothea Wierer of Italy had second place, before Sweden's Elvira Oberg beat her time to snatch the silver medal.
'Fantastic performance' - Roeiseland storms to emotional biathlon gold
Norway’s Marte Olsbu Roeiseland has won the women’s 7.5km biathlon sprint to take her third medal of the Games.
She finished thirty seconds ahead of the chasing pack, which not only shows her dominance in this race, but also gives her a big boost going into the pursuit later in the Games.
Roeiseland already had gold from the mixed relay, as well as an individual bronze, so her victory completes an impressive hat trick of medals in Beijing, with more still available to her.
World champion Tiril Eckhoff went off first but was quickly up against it after picking up a penalty at the second shoot having already missed once in the first.
Eckhoff was well off the pace and struggled to find the form which saw her take gold as part of the Norwegian mixed relay team - alongside Roeiseland - earlier in the Games. She finished in eleventh position.
Roeiseland went out at a blistering pace and when she hit a perfect 10 in the shooting, the 31-year-old laid down an early marker for the field to chase, coming through the line in 14:24, a time which proved too much for those following her.
Like Eckhoff, French skier Anais Chevalier-Bouchet felt the pressure too despite already taking two silver medals at the Games, and missed targets on her run to slim down her hopes of success.
Italy’s Dorothea Wierer found a perfect ten with rapid shooting rounds, but her ski speed let her down, coming through the line 37 seconds behind Roeiseland.
It would not be enough to take silver, as Wierer was made to settle for bronze by Elvira Oeberg of Sweden, who beat the Italian’s time by seven seconds to finish second.
Speaking after her win, Roeiseland pointed to her perfect ten moment as the defining point of her race, saying, "I wanted so badly to have an incredible run. It was so wonderful to get that last shot, it was the best feeling ever."
The athletes will meet again in the biathlon pursuit, where competitors will begin the race from the same positions they finished the sprint, with the time advantage putting Roeiseland in pole position for more glory.
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