Biathlon at the 1976 Winter Olympics – Relay

Men's biathlon relay
at the XII Olympic Winter Games
VenueSeefeld
DatesFebruary 13
Competitors60 from 15 nations
Winning time1:57:55.64
Medalists
 
 
 
Biathlon at the
1976 Winter Olympics
Individual   men
Relay   men

The Men's 4 x 7.5 kilometre biathlon relay competition at the 1976 Winter Olympics took place on 13 February, at Seefeld. Each national team consisted of four members, with each skiing 7.5 kilometres and shooting twice, once prone and once standing.[1]

At each shooting station, a competitor has eight shots to hit five targets; however, only five bullets are loaded in a magazine at one - if additional shots are required, the spare bullets must be loaded one at a time. If after the eight shots are taken, there are still targets not yet hit, the competitor must ski a 150-metre penalty loop.[2]

Results

The Soviet Union had lost just one major championship in the last nine years, but it was also the most recent one, as they were beaten to the 1975 world championship by the Finns. The chances of this repeating were all but eliminated after the first leg, however; while Aleksandr Elizarov went through in the fastest time, more than 30 seconds clear, Henrik Flöjt missed a shot and finished the leg 7th, well over two minutes behind. Esko Saira made up some ground on the Soviets, and pulled Finland into second, but Kruglov and Tikhonov put together the two of the three fastest legs of the competition to close out a gold medal win.[1]

The Finns were in a battle with the West Germans after two legs, but Josef Keck took three penalties, and left Finland with a big gap, which they easily took to a silver medal. East Germany had been floundering in 7th after three legs, as Frank Ullrich struggled with her shooting, taking four penalties. However, Manfred Geyer shot clear and had the second fastest leg overall, pulling them up past four teams to get the bronze medal.

Rank Team Penalties Result
1st, gold medalist(s) Soviet Union
Aleksandr Elizarov
Ivan Biakov
Nikolay Kruglov
Aleksandr Tikhonov
0
0
0
0
0
1:57:55.64
29:47.44
30:16.79
29:04.80
28:46.61
2nd, silver medalist(s) Finland
Henrik Flöjt
Esko Saira
Juhani Suutarinen
Heikki Ikola
2
1
0
1
0
2:01:45.58
32:00.19
29:12.47
30:52.23
29:40.69
3rd, bronze medalist(s) East Germany
Karl-Heinz Menz
Frank Ullrich
Manfred Beer
Manfred Geyer
5
0
4
1
0
2:04:08.61
31:02.18
32:47.28
31:30.01
28:49.14
4 West Germany
Heinrich Mehringer
Gerd Winkler
Josef Keck
Claus Gehrke
4
0
1
3
0
2:04:11.86
30:38.46
30:42.83
32:15.08
30:35.49
5 Norway
Kjell Hovda
Terje Hanssen
Svein Engen
Tor Svendsberget
6
2
3
0
1
2:05:10.28
33:24.66
31:20.50
29:20.67
31:04.45
6 Italy
Lino Jordan
Pierantonio Clementi
Luigi Weiss
Willy Bertin
3
1
0
1
1
2:06:16.55
31:52.53
31:45.82
30:59.51
31:38.69
7 France
René Arpin
Yvon Mougel
Marius Falquy
Jean-Claude Viry
5
2
0
1
2
2:07:34.42
32:17.67
29:58.45
31:40.41
33:37.89
8 Sweden
Mats-Åke Lantz
Torsten Wadman
Sune Adolfsson
Lars-Göran Arwidson
8
3
3
2
0
2:08:46.90
32:44.58
32:45.74
31:59.45
31:17.13
9 Czechoslovakia
Ladislav Žižka
Miroslav Soviš
Antonín Kříž
Zdeněk Pavlíček
4
0
1
3
0
2:09:06.63
31:45.67
31:49.07
32:32.81
32:59.08
10 Romania
Nicolae Cristoloveanu
Gheorghe Voicu
Victor Fontana
Gheorghe Gârniţă
7
4
0
1
2
2:09:54.40
35:23.57
30:26.75
32:01.12
32:02.96
11 United States
Lyle Nelson
Dennis Donahue
John Morton
Peter Dascoulias
4
0
2
1
1
2:10:17.72
30:29.17
33:11.78
33:09.08
33:27.69
12 Poland
Jan Szpunar
Andrzej Rapacz
Ludwik Zięba
Wojciech Truchan
9
6
2
0
1
2:11:46.54
36:25.42
32:24.37
30:33.06
32:23.69
13 Great Britain
Malcolm Hirst
Jeffrey Stevens
Paul Gibbins
Graeme Ferguson
8
3
1
2
2
2:11:54.36
33:33.15
32:20.13
32:37.31
33:23.77
14 Japan
Isao Ono
Hiroyuki Deguchi
Manabu Suzuki
Yoshiyuki Shirate
10
3
1
3
3
2:17:09.04
33:19.43
33:08.62
34:27.07
36:13.92
15 Austria
Franz-Josef Weber
Alfred Eder
Klaus Farbmacher
Josef Hones
11
2
5
1
3
2:18:06.78
33:10.35
34:27.12
34:23.90
36:05.41

References

  1. 1 2 "Final Report - XII. Olympische Winterspiele Innsbruck 1976" (PDF). Organizing Committee for the XIIth Winter Olympic Games 1976. LA84 Foundation. 1976. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
  2. Wallechinsky, David (1976). The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics. New York: The Overlook Press. p. 320. ISBN 1-58567-185-1.
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