OSLO, Norway -- Martin Fourcade of France earned his fourth gold medal at the biathlon world championships in the 20-kilometre individual race on Thursday.
It was his third consecutive world 20K title, which he also won at the Sochi Olympic Games two years ago.
Fourcade, with a one-minute penalty, won by 5.1 seconds from Dominik Landertinger of Austria, who shot cleanly. Another Austrian, Simon Eder, also with a clean sheet, was 14.4 seconds back in third.
Fourcade missed his last target at the second standing station, and the mistake added instant interest to the competition. But his pace on the track proved the difference.
After the second and third shooting stations, Fourcade was more than 30 seconds down on leader Johannes Thingnes Bo, but the Norwegian very narrowly missed his first shot on the last station and had a minute added to his time. Fourcade suddenly trailed the leading Landertinger by only 0.3 seconds and slowly powered ahead over the last kilometres at the Holmenkollen Ski Centre.
Scott Gow of Canmore, Alta., finished 18th, his best-ever result in a world championship or World Cup event. He missed two targets and was 3:04.9 behind Fourcade.
In other Canadian results, Nathan Smith of Calgary was 42nd, Christian Gow of Canmore was 46th and Brendan Green of Hay River, NWT was 47th.
The Canadian women start in the fourth row at Friday's team relay. Julia Ransom of Kelowna will take the lead the leg, followed by Rosanna Crawford of Canmore, Sarah Beaudry of Prince George, and anchor Zina Kocher of Red Deer, Alta.
Beaudry placed 60th in Wednesday's individual race after starting her first world championships with a 71st-place result in the sprint.
"The individual was a hard race with the challenging course in Oslo," said Beaudry, in an email sent to the Citizen. "I am not feeling as good on the skis as I would have hoped but I am pleased with only two misses and a top-60 It was definitely a good day for the Canadians with two (Green and Crawford) in the top 20!"
A month ago at a World Cup event in Canmore, the same four Canadian women raced to a best-ever sixth-place finish.
"I am looking forward to the relay with the girls," said the 21-year-old Beaudry. "It is always fun to race as a team."
