BIATHLON: Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen has made a mockery of his 40 years to equal the record for Winter Olympic medals when victory in the sprint in Sochi took him to 12 for his career.

The veteran went level with compatriot Bjorn Daehlie, who also gathered 12 medals in his Olympic Cross Country career, and he also became the oldest gold medallist in an individual event in Games history.

Bjoerndalen finished in 24 minutes, 33.5 seconds ahead of Austria's Dominik Landertinger, in 24:34.8, and Jaroslav Soukup of the Czech Republic, who clocked 24:39.2.

It was Bjoerndalen's seventh Olympic gold to add to his four silver and one bronze and was achieved in his sixth Olympic Games.

The man nicknamed "The Cannibal" has also devoured 19 World Championship titles and his performance on Saturday put his critics firmly in their place after he was written off four years ago.

Despite winning a lone gold in Vancouver in 2010 in the relay event, he had swept four gold in four events in Salt Lake City eight years earlier.

France's Martin Fourcade, the leader of the overall World Cup standings, endured another miserable Olympic experience with the 25-year-old down in sixth place.

Fourcade, 25, is a five-time world championship gold medallist and two-time overall World Cup champion who is comfortably on his way to a third title.

But his only Olympic medal so far is a silver from the mass start race in Vancouver.

AFP