Biathlete Laura Dahlmeier remains on course to claim a record-breaking six gold medals at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics after winning the women’s 10km Pursuit.
Setting off with a 24-second lead over her closest competitor following her victory in the Sprint on Saturday, Dahlmeier was pressurised at the halfway stage of the race by eventual runner-up Anastasiya Kuzmina, but a cool hand at the range which saw her miss just one of 20 shots powered her to a second gold in 48 hours.
Kuzmina had started 54 seconds behind Dahlmeier heading out at the start, but the Czech athlete powered through the field to take silver despite her four misses, just edging out France’s Anais Bescond who claimed the bronze.
In the men’s 12.5km Pursuit, Martin Fourcade wrote the wrongs of Sunday’s Sprint right, missing just one shot on his way to a defence of his Olympic crown.
With none of the 60 starters going clear, Fourcade’s one error at the range, coupled with an early start just 22 seconds behind Sprint champion Arnd Peiffer, the Frenchman eased to his third Olympic gold.
Young Swede Sebastian Samuelsson fought off the challenge of Benedikt Doll to take silver, with Norway’s big hope Johannes Thingnes Boe continuing his awful start to the Olympics with a 21st place finish.
Wüst becomes most successful Dutch Olympian of all-time as favourites rule on day three
Alongside Dahlmeier and Fourcade’s top placings in the Biathlon races, Monday saw a number of gold medal favourites live up to their billing to top the podium in a variety of events.
In the Speed Skating, the Netherlands prevailed once more, with Ireen Wüst taking gold in the 1,500m event. Having medalled in this race at the previous three Olympics, the 31-year-old produced a stunning final lap to top the timing sheets.
Young Japanese skater Miho Takagi became the first non Dutchwoman to claim a medal at these Games, finishing 0.20 seconds behind Wüst to claim silver, with just one hundredth of a second splitting the Dutch duo of Marrit Leenstra and Lotte van Beek in the battle for bronze.
Treacherous conditions continue to cause difficulties for the organisers, and the decision to run the women’s Slopestyle final was met with some criticism. A lot of the skiers failed to land jumps due to large gusts of wind, but the competition went ahead and America’s Jamie Anderson defended her title after score of 83.00 proved to be untouchable.
Later in the day, Maren Lundby jumped 110.0 metres in the final round to take gold in the women’s Ski Jumping competition. Lundby has been a constant force in the World Cup this season, and after seeing her closest competitors Sara Takanashi and Katharina Althaus lay down big jumps to move into the top two spots, she produced the competition’s biggest jump to take gold.
Canada claim first gold’s of PyeongChang with Monday double
Following victory in the Team Event of the Figure Skating, Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury helped his nation bag two gold’s on Monday with victory in the men’s Moguls event.
After qualifying in first place on Friday, Kingsbury produced an exquisite run in the super final, which involves the top six finalists, to win gold by some distance.
His score of 86.63 was more than four points clear of the other two medallists, with Australia’s Matt Graham and Japan’s Daichi Hara joining him on the podium. Having finished in silver medal position four years ago, Kingsbury went one better at the Phoenix Snow Park in South Korea.