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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 8:50 a.m., Sunday, January 11, 2009

Skiing: Sumann, Wilhelm get 1st wins of biathlon season

Associated Press

OBERHOF, Germany — Christoph Sumann of Austria and Kati Wilhelm of Germany collected their first biathlon World Cup victories of the season in Sunday's mass start races.

Sumann won the fourth World Cup race of his career by finishing the 15-kilometer Oberhof course in 38 minutes, 11.9 seconds after two penalty laps.

Sweden's Carl Johan Bergmann was 9.7 seconds behind and just managed to hold off Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in the home stretch as the Norwegian finished 9.9 seconds behind Sumann. Both Bergmann and Bjoerndalen also had two penalties.

Wilhelm collected her first victory of the season and 19th of her career by taking the women's 12.5K mass start. She finished in 39:55.2 after two penalty laps.

Olga Medvedtseva of Russia was 5.8 seconds behind with two penalties. Helena Jonsson of Sweden was third, 11.8 seconds back with two penalty laps.

A sell-out crowd of 25,000 fans came out for Sunday's races, bringing the total for the Oberhof World Cup meet to a record-breaking 98,000.