‘94 WINTER OLYMPICS / LILLEHAMMER : Notebook

LILLEHAMMER, Norway —  Russian Sergei Tarasov missed three shots but skied well enough to offset that deficiency and won the men’s 20-kilometer biathlon.

Biathlon combines target shooting with cross-country skiing and in the 20K, the athletes shoot four times, twice each from the prone and standing positions. Each miss from 50 meters with the .22-caliber rifle brings a one-minute penalty, which is added to the racer’s time.

Tarasov’s winning time was 57 minutes 25.3 seconds, which put him 3.4 seconds ahead of Germany’s Frank Luck, the second-to-last starter in a field of 70, in one of the closest finishes in Olympic history. Luck also missed three shots.

Third was another German, Sven Fischer, in 57:41.9, with two misses.

Patrice Bailly-Salins of France, the World Cup leader, finished more than two minutes behind in 13th place.