The Norwegian flag was once again carried over the finish line today in what has become a rather common sight at the Whistler Olympic Park.
As heavy snow came down, Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen anchored his team in the men's 4x7.5-kilometre relay, taking the final gold of the biathlon portion of the Olympics and the country's 300th goal of their Olympic history.
It was the sixth gold in four Olympics for the veteran, 36-year-old biathlete.
Norway won the competition with a time of one hour 21 minutes 38.1 seconds beat Austria by 38.6 seconds and Russia by 38.8 seconds.
The Canadian foursome of Robin Clegg of Edmonton, Marc-Andre Bedard of Valcartier, Que., Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T., and Jean-Philippe Le Guellec of Quebec City placed 10th out of 19.
It was a strong showing for the team, with leader Clegg missing just one shot. The second leg's racer, Bedard, even took the lead briefly before falling behind in the shooting portion by taking seven shots to hit five targets. The Canadians remained in the top 10 for the entire race, and had 7th place in its sights before Green also fell behind at the shooting range, taking eight shots to hit five targets.
Anchor Le Guellec ended the Olympics with the same surprisingly strong showing he began, missing one shot to maintain a top 10 position, andtying the best ever Canadian men's biathlon relay standing set in 1992 in Albertville, France.
The Austrians were strong from the start, exchanging first and second spot with the Russians for the first quarter of the race.
When it came to the anchor leg, Bjoerndalen held a lead of just 0.2 seconds as he was tagged, but the lead grew as Austrian Christoph Sumann ran a penalty loop after a poor shooting performance.
The mass start biathlete gold medalist, Russia's Evgeny Ustyugov, anchored the race to take bronze.
