Martin Fourcade of France won his first-ever Olympic Mass Start Gold medal in a thrilling photo-finish over Germany’s Simon Schempp in 35:47. Fourcade overcame a first prone penalty to end up in a heated battle in the final loop with the two battling until the final meters when both crashed in a finish line lunge. The now double Olympic Champion in these games had two penalties, to Schempp’s one, with both receiving the same time. Sochi Mass Start Gold medalist Emil Hegel Svendsen, with two penalties won the Bronze medal in a similar tight finish over Germany’s Erik Lesser, 11.2 and 11.6 seconds back, respectively.

With this win, Fourcade now has three mass start medals: Silver in both Vancouver and Sochi, plus his Gold today.He also owns an Olympic title in the individual and pursuit.

Lesser finished fourth; his teammate pursuit Bronze medalist Benedikt Doll, with one penalty was fifth, 18.8 seconds back while Austria’s Julian Eberhard was sixth, with three penalties, 30.7 seconds back.

Mild Conditions; Fourcade in the LeadJust like the women yesterday, the men were treated to very mild conditions: minus 2C temperatures and a very light wind. The wind flags were completely flat.

Fourcade set the tone immediately, taking the lead right off the starting line and leading up to the first prone stage. He missed a shot and went to the loop, also crashing as he exited, falling 30 seconds back. Timofey Lapshin led a group of fourteen men, who cleaned, with Fak hot on his heels and Doll, Dominik Windisch, Jesper Nelin and Fredrik Lindström in close pursuit. Just after the pack left the stadium, Doll took the lead, setting the pace until just before  the second prone stage, when Samuelsson took lane one. Doll and Lesser shot extremely fast and were out in the lead, four seconds ahead of Lindström and Erlend Bjoentegaard with Schempp and Fak right in the mix. Fourcade cleaned and was up to eighth, now 9.4 seconds off the pace. Now, only eight men in the field of 30 were still perfect on the shooting range. The biggest casualty was Johannes, who had three penalties, leaving him 1:04 back.

Fast, Clean; Back in the LeadHeading to the first standing, the German trio of Doll, Schempp, and Lesser led the pack, with Fourcade tucked just behind them. Fourcade shot very fast and clean, regaining the lead. Schempp, Lesser, Eder and Moravec all matched, heading out within 13 seconds of the French star. This group of five now was separated from the rest of the field by almost 15 seconds.

Last Standing PenaltiesFourcade surged several times as they covered the next 3K loop, with Schempp holding tight to his shoulder and Lesser a second back. Moravec and Eder fell off the pace, now more than 25 seconds back. Lesser jumped into lane one and had two penalties, while Fourcade and Schempp had just one; they left the penalty loop virtually side-by side. Doll, Svendsen, Lesser left in a small group, 20 seconds back.

Sprints with Martin

​This was not Schempp’s first photo-finish, so he knew how to react in the closing meters as he and Fourcade battled, just as they did earlier this season in the Hochfilzen pursuit. “I have a lot of experience in sprints with Martin, like in Hochfilzen this year. I chose my corridor very late here. I know that if he sees where I am going, he will choose it and I will lose a lot of speed. Today, sadly the finish line was 5 meters too close.”