Ole: 'Greis was too good'

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen admitted Michael Greis was just too good for him as the German claimed 20km Individual gold on Saturday. Bjoerndalen missed a target on each of his first two visits to the range, leaving Greis - who missed only one - to pip him to go

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"The competition is harder now than in Salt Lake," said the Norwegian, who won gold in all four events four years ago.

"If you are going to win you have to do everything perfect. You need to be in top shape shooting, your skis have to be perfect. Everything has to be perfect.

"Today Michael Greis was too perfect for me. He was the best guy today."

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Bjoerndalen would have finished even closer to - though perhaps not nipped in front of - Greis had a rifle jam on his last visit to the range not hampered his progress.

But the 32-year-old - who missed nine World Cup races through illness in the build-up to Turin - insisted he was still optimistic with four medals still at stake.

"This was my best race since coming to San Sicario," he said. "My body was working perfectly, so this is promising for the rest of the Olympics."

He added: "We have four more races. We have one competition more this year than Salt Lake. But that is not so important. I think it's more important to have a good race.

"Last week I wasn't feeling very well...so the silver medal is a good result."

Venue: Cesana San Sicario

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