ANTERSELVA, ITALY, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Norwegian biathlete Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen took inspiration from his compatriot, cross-country ski king Johannes Klaebo, in Friday's men's 10km biathlon sprint with a lung-bursting drive up the final hill and across the finish line to secure the Olympic silver medal.
A video of Klaebo's trademark uphill rush went viral earlier in the week and on Friday he won his eighth Olympic gold medal just before the men's sprint got underway at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena, with Sjaastad Christiansen happy to emulate his compatriot.
"We learned in that cross-country race today that pacing is important. He (Klaebo) was really, really fast the last kilometre," Christiansen told Reuters.
"I tried the whole race today to keep it a bit slower than I wanted, so I had some extra power for the last kilometre."
In a race won by Quentin Fillon Maillet of France,Sjaastad Christiansen was as good as his word, flying up the final hill, into the stadium and across the finish line to beat fellow Norwegian Sturla Holm Laegreid to the silver medal by a margin of 2.2 seconds.
"I heard like I was one second behind Sturlaor something, and the only thing I heard is that (Emilien) Jacquelin) is tired," Sjaastad Christiansen said of the coaching he received late in the race.
His late surge succeeded as he bumped compatriot Laegreid down into the bronze-medal position, while Frenchman Jacquelin missed out on the podium by two-tenths of a second.
Sjaastad Christiansen revealed that he had done some practising for his final attack.
"I did some 30-seconds sprints here at the stadium yesterday, just (on) that hill, so I just thought, OK, now you have just one more 30-second sprint in you, and then you are finished," he said.
"So I'm happy I did those sprints yesterday, because I think that was the difference for me the last 500 meters today."
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
