CESANA, Italy, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Florence Baverel-Robert of France, who had never won a World Cup race, captured the Olympic women's 7.5-kilometer biathlon sprint Thursday.
It was the first individual biathlon Olympic gold medal ever for France. Baverel-Robert's top World Cup finish had been a third and she ranks 20th overall on the circuit this season.
Baverel-Robert was perfect on her 10 shots and turned in a time of 22:31.4. That put her 2.4 seconds in front of Anna Carin Olofsson of Sweden, who would have won the race had not she suffered one miss on the shooting range.
Lilia Efremova of Ukraine won the first medal of these Olympics for her country by finishing third.
France equaled its largest gold medal total at the Salt Lake City Games with four and that country already has two at these Olympics. Antoine Deneriaz won the men's downhill for France on Sunday.
