Biathlon at the 1976 Winter Olympics – Relay

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Men's biathlon relay
at the XII Olympic Winter Games
Venue Seefeld
DatesFebruary 13, 1976
Competitors60 from 15 nations
Winning time1:57:55.64
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svgFlag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union
Aleksandr Elizarov
Ivan Biakov
Nikolay Kruglov
Aleksandr Tikhonov
Silver medal icon.svgFlag of Finland.svg  Finland
Henrik Flöjt
Esko Saira
Juhani Suutarinen
Heikki Ikola
Bronze medal icon.svgFlag of East Germany.svg  East Germany
Karl-Heinz Menz
Frank Ullrich
Manfred Beer
Manfred Geyer
  1972
1980  

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] [2]

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. [3]

Summary

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.

Results

[1]

RankBibTeamPenalties (P+S)TimeDeficit
Gold medal icon.svg11Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union
Aleksandr Elizarov
Ivan Biakov
Nikolay Kruglov
Aleksandr Tikhonov
0
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
1:57:55.64
29:47.44
30:16.79
29:04.80
28:46.61
Silver medal icon.svg5Flag of Finland.svg  Finland
Henrik Flöjt
Esko Saira
Juhani Suutarinen
Heikki Ikola
2
0 1
0 0
0 1
0 0
2:01:45.58
32:00.19
29:12.47
30:52.23
29:40.69
+3:49.94
Bronze medal icon.svg20Flag of East Germany.svg  East Germany
Karl-Heinz Menz
Frank Ullrich
Manfred Beer
Manfred Geyer
5
0 0
2 2
0 1
0 0
2:04:08.61
31:02.18
32:47.28
31:30.01
28:49.14
+6:12.96
43Flag of Germany.svg  West Germany
Heinrich Mehringer
Gerd Winkler
Josef Keck
Claus Gehrke
4
0 0
1 0
3 0
0 0
2:04:11.86
30:38.46
30:42.83
32:15.08
30:35.49
+6:16.21
523Flag of Norway.svg  Norway
Kjell Hovda
Terje Hanssen
Svein Engen
Tor Svendsberget
6
0 2
0 3
0 0
0 1
2:05:10.28
33:24.66
31:20.50
29:20.67
31:04.45
+7:14.63
615Flag of Italy.svg  Italy
Lino Jordan
Pierantonio Clementi
Luigi Weiss
Willy Bertin
3
0 1
0 0
0 1
0 1
2:06:16.55
31:52.53
31:45.82
30:59.51
31:38.69
+8:20.91
724Flag of France.svg  France
René Arpin
Yvon Mougel
Marius Falquy
Jean-Claude Viry
5
0 2
0 0
1 0
0 2
2:07:34.42
32:17.67
29:58.45
31:40.41
33:37.89
+9:38.78
818Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden
Mats-Åke Lantz
Torsten Wadman
Sune Adolfsson
Lars-Göran Arwidson
8
0 3
1 2
0 2
0 0
2:08:46.90
32:44.58
32:45.74
31:59.45
31:17.13
+10:51.25
912Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg  Czechoslovakia
Ladislav Žižka
Miroslav Soviš
Antonín Kříž
Zdeněk Pavlíček
4
0 0
0 1
2 1
0 0
2:09:06.63
31:45.67
31:49.07
32:32.81
32:59.08
+11:10.99
1017Flag of Romania (1965-1989).svg  Romania
Nicolae Cristoloveanu
Gheorghe Voicu
Victor Fontana
Gheorghe Gârniţă
7
1 3
0 0
1 0
0 2
2:09:54.40
35:23.57
30:26.75
32:01.12
32:02.96
+11:58.75
1121Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Lyle Nelson
Dennis Donahue
John Morton
Peter Dascoulias
4
0 0
0 2
0 1
0 1
2:10:17.72
30:29.17
33:11.78
33:09.08
33:27.69
+12:22.08
126Flag of Poland (1928-1980).svg  Poland
Jan Szpunar
Andrzej Rapacz
Ludwik Zięba
Wojciech Truchan
9
4 2
0 2
0 0
1 0
2:11:46.54
36:25.42
32:24.37
30:33.06
32:23.69
+13:50.90
1314Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
Malcolm Hirst
Jeffrey Stevens
Paul Gibbins
Graeme Ferguson
8
0 3
0 1
0 2
1 1
2:11:54.36
33:33.15
32:20.13
32:37.31
33:23.77
+13:58.71
148Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg  Japan
Isao Ono
Hiroyuki Deguchi
Manabu Suzuki
Yoshiyuki Shirate
10
3 0
0 1
2 1
0 3
2:17:09.04
33:19.43
33:08.62
34:27.07
36:13.92
+19:13.40
159Flag of Austria.svg  Austria
Franz-Josef Weber
Alfred Eder
Klaus Farbmacher
Josef Hones
11
0 2
2 3
0 1
1 2
2:18:06.78
33:10.35
34:27.12
34:23.90
36:05.41
+20:11.14

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "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. "Biathlon at the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Games: Men's 4 x 7.5 kilometres Relay". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  3. Wallechinsky, David (1976). The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics. New York: The Overlook Press. p. 320. ISBN   1-58567-185-1.