The Men's 4 × 7.5 kilometre

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not ti ...

relay competition at the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

took place on 11 February, at

Makomanai Biathlon Site Makomanai Park (真駒内公園) is a city park in Minami-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. It is home to attractions such as Makomanai Open Stadium, Makomanai Ice Arena and the Sapporo Salmon Museum. It also contains a small gymnasium, restaurant an ...

. Each national team consisted of four members, with each skiing 7.5 kilometres and shooting twice, once prone and once standing. 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.

Results

The last three

Biathlon World Championships The first Biathlon World Championships (BWCH) was held in 1958, with individual and team contests for men. The original team event, Team (time), was held for the last time in 1965, to be replaced in 1966 by the team event, Relay (4 × 7.5 km) ...

saw the Soviet Union take the relay title ahead of the Norwegians; at the first exchange in Sapporo, however, both were in surprising positions.

Alexander Tikhonov Alexander Ivanovich Tikhonov (; born 2 January 1947) is a former Soviet-Russian biathlete. He is a four-time Olympic champion, winning his gold medals in relays. On 23 July 2007, he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and senten ...

had to take two penalty loops, and ended up more than a minute behind the surprise leaders from Japan, as Isao Ono stormed to a big lead. The British were also well placed, in third, with the East Germans splitting the two surprise contenders. In the second leg, the surprise teams fell off, the Japanese taking five penalty loops and the British four. It was the Soviets who asserted their authority,

Rinnat Safin Rinnat Ibragimovich Safin (; 29 August 1940 – 22 October 2014) was a Soviet biathlete. At the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, he won a gold medal with the Soviet relay team. Biathlon results All results are sourced from the International Bia ...

putting together the only sub 27-minute leg of the race to stake them to a one-minute lead. The Americans were now surprisingly in bronze medal position, while Norway's

Kåre Hovda Kåre Hovda (24 January 1944 – 13 February 1999) was a Norwegian biathlete. His achievements include a world championship bronze medal, and participation in the Olympics. Career Hovda represented Norway at the 1972 Winter Olympics, ...

took three penalties to leave them more than two minutes behind. Ivan Biakov needed a penalty loop on the third leg, but still managed to extend the lead over Dieter Speer of East Germany, with Sweden coming up into third place through some good shooting by Torsten Wadman. Viktor Mamatov had a quick final leg to ease the Soviets home to victory, while the other medal placing changed after some shooting struggles.

Holmfrid Olsson Holmfrid Olsson (20 May 1943 – 27 January 2009) was a Swedish biathlete. He competed at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics and finished in third and fifth place in the 4×7.5 km relay, respectively. He placed 20–21st in the individual 20 km race. H ...

of Sweden and

Horst Koschka Horst Koschka (born 8 September 1943 in Altenberg) is a retired East German biathlete. He represented the sports club Sportvereinigung (SV) Dynamo / SG Dynamo Zinnwald. References 1943 births Living people People from Altenb ...

of East Germany each missed twice, dropping the Swedes out of the medals and the East Germans to bronze, behind a Finnish team that had a great final leg from Mauri Röppänen. As for Norway, all four of their shooters needed at least one penalty leg, but they still managed to finish fourth, though there was a substantial gap between them and the top three.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biathlon at the 1972 Winter Olympics - Relay

Relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switc ...