Biathlon-Vittozzi grabs gold for Italy in women's 10km pursuit

ANTERSELVA, ITALY, Feb 15 - Italy's Lisa Vittozzi put on a superb display of shooting to hit all 20 targets and win gold in a thrilling women's 10km biathlon pursuit race at the Winter Games on Sunday, sending home fans into ecstasy at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena.

The gold medal was Italy's first in the sport and it came in the country's spiritual home of biathlon in front of a raucous and knowledgeable crowd, and they sang and cheered as Vittozzi finally delivered the Olympic victory they had longed for.

Faced with the frightening skiing power and implacable cool of 22-year old Norwegian Maren Kirkeeide, Vittozzi rode the enormous wave of support of the home fans, shooting clean to win by a margin of 28.8 seconds.

The young Norwegian, who won Saturday's sprint, stormed back from her two late misses to take the silver medal ahead of Suvi Minkkinen who took bronze, becoming the first Finnish woman to secure an Olympic biathlon medal.

The  start order in the pursuit was decided by the finishing times of the sprint, meaning Kirkeeide set off first with Vittozzi going 40.6 seconds after.

Consisting of five 2km laps and four visits to the shooting range, the race took place in bright sunshine with a light wind that occasionally made aiming difficult, and each miss meant a trip around the 150-metre penalty loop.

The ding-dong battle began on the second shoot as Kirkeeide missed. But so too did Lou Jeanmonnot of France who had been making the early running with the Norwegian, and Vittozzi hit her five shots in quick succession to take the lead.

However, the Italian was quickly reeled back in by the relentless Kirkeeide, who came into the third shoot in the lead, and the race was soon between the Norwegian and Vittozzi as Jeanmonnot missed twice to drop out of medal contention.

FINAL TWIST

Known for her rapid - and occasionally wayward - firing on the range, Vittozzi again hit all five targets to keep up with Kirkeeide after the third shoot, and it looked like the Norwegian's greater skiing power might see her through.

However, there was one more twist in the tale. As it all came down to the last shoot, Kirkeeide finally cracked with two costly misses and Vittozzi, shooting beside her, rattled off a perfect trademark quick-fire series to ski out and secure the gold.

"I'm so happy. What I've done today, I'm really proud of myself, I had goosebumps in the last few kilometres. It was a dream come true," a delighted Vittozzi told Italian TV.

"I didn't think today that I would reach the gold medal because the level of the women is really high, but I really did a good job at the range and I'm very happy. I was very calm, I tried to work well and I hit all the targets so I'm very happy."

Condemned to two penalty loops and out of contention for the gold, Kirkeeide skied frenetically to get back to third, and a heroic effort on the final lap saw her pass Minkkinen to take the silver medal, leaving the Finn to be content with third place.

"Today I was really shaking, my legs were shaking, but I tried my best," Kirkeeide told Reuters. "The last lap, I just tried to push with everything I had to be able to take the medal."

Minkkinen had the unenviable task of trying to hold off the marauding Kirkeeide and though she came up short, she still managed to secure a historic bronze for Finland.

"I think Maren is the toughest one to fight in that kind of situation, so maybe the fight for the silver wasn't on my side when she caught me," Minkkinen told reporters.

Asked when she knew she had secured the bronze, the Finn gestured to one of sport's most famous symbols.

"On top there, by the Olympic rings," she said. "I look behind me and I see no one, so then I was like, 'now it's mine'." REUTERS