Neuner hits wrong target in biathlon blunder

Jan 15, 2012, 14:45 GMT

Nove Mesto, Czech Republic - World Cup leader Magdalena Neuner threw away victory in a World Cup biathlon pursuit race Sunday when she shot at the target in the neighbouring lane.

The 24-year-old German was in tears after the race in Nove Mesto after the crossfire error contributed to a total of eight penalty rounds in a race won by Norway's Tora Berger.

'I must admit I had to have a little cry,' Neuner said.

The record world champion was leading in the 10km pursuit race when she came to the third shooting stage and began hitting what she thought was her own target, before realizing too late she had been aiming at the neighbouring target on the range.

'That's never happened to me before and is really annoying,' a tearful Neuner said. 'I was really focused and just didn't look at the number of the stand.'

The blunder cost Neuner four penalty rounds as she eventually finished seventh, one minute 20.4 seconds behind Berger (31:00.3/ three errors), with Helena Ekholm of Sweden second, 17.9 seconds back and Marie Laure Brunet of France third, at 25.1 seconds.

Neuner (588 points) still leads overall, followed by Darya Domracheva of Belarus (531) and Olga Saizeva of Russia (521).

Anton Shipulin of Russia triumphed in the men's 12.5 km pursuit, ahead of Germany's Arnd Pfeiffer and Martin Fourcade of France.

Pfeiffer had finished the race fifth but the race jury granted a German appeal after it was confirmed that one of the circular targets was hit but had not flipped from black to white.

Pfeiffer, who had finished with three shooting errors, was granted a 20-second advantage following the appeal, putting him 10.1 seconds behind Shipulin. Fourcade's brother Simon dropped to fourth.