Emil Svendsen of Norway wins gold in men's 20-kilometer individual biathlon

Norway's Emil Svendsen denied Ole Bjoerndalen his sixth Olympic gold, beating his mentor in the men's 20-kilometer individual biathlon race.   

Bjoerndalen missed the first target on his final standing shoot and finished 9.5 seconds behind Svendsen's winning time of 48 minutes, 22.5 seconds.

Sergey Novikov of Belarus, who hit all 20 targets, tied Bjoerndalen for the silver medal. Svendsen missed one target and Bjoerndalen two.

The highest American finisher was Tim Burke, who was 45th with a time of 53:22.6. Burke missed five targets.

-- Houston Mitchell in Vancouver

Photo: Emil Svendsen during Thursday's competition. Credit: Alberto Pizoli / AGP/Getty Images