ANTERSELVA, ITALY, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Martin Ponsiluoma held his nerve and hit his final five shots to win the men's 12.5km pursuit Olympic race in spectacular fashion on Sundayto finally secure a biathlon medal for Sweden at the Winter Games.
Norway's Sturla Holm Laegreid came in 20.6 seconds behind to take the silver medal.
Emilien Jacquelin of Franceraced with his usual devil-may-care style, but ultimately two late misses cost him the gold medaland he had to be content with bronze after a dramatic final lap.
The start order in the pursuit was decided by the finishing times of the sprint, giving Quentin Fillon Maillet of France the chance to set off first with Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen of Norway following him 13.7 seconds later.
Few gave Ponsiluoma a chance of gold as he set off in seventh place.
Consisting of five 2.5km laps and four visits to the shooting range, the race took place in bright sunshine with a changeable wind that made aiming difficult, and each miss meant a trip around the 150-metre penalty loop.
True to form, Jacquelin came flying out of the blocks and steamed away from the second shoot with a comfortable lead, and a patient five shots at the third visit looked to have set him up for gold.
With the race on the line and Ponsiluoma hot on his heels, Jacquelin collapsed under pressure as the Swede skied into the final shoot, missing twice. As the Frenchman headed to two punishing penalty loops, Ponsiluoma needed no second invitation.
Norway's Laegreid spotted his chance and slipped into second place, but neither could close the gap on the Swede, who banished all thoughts of his nation's poor start to the Games with a glorious spurt to gold.
"Right now it is difficult to understand what I've done, it will be later tonight before I understand what a super race it was," a delighted Ponsiluoma told Swedish TV.
"I can't do it any better - I shot fast, I shot well and I skied well. It was tough on the last lap, but it was nice to get over the finish line."
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
