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The 40-year-old Bjoerndalen won his seventh gold at Winter Olympics, finishing 1.3 seconds ahead of Dominik Landertinger of Austria and 5.7 seconds ahead of Jaroslav Soukup of the Czech Republic.

Fak, the bronze-medallist from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, has struggled with illness for the most part of the season, which makes his 10th place in the first biathlon race in Sochi a great result.

Fak won the bronze at the Vancouver Games while still competing for Croatia, before joining in 2010 the Slovenian team, with which he had been training for years.

Also competing for Slovenia in men's 10km sprint were Klemen Bauer (26th, two penalties), Janez Marič (51st, one penalty) and Peter Dokl (72nd, one penalty).

Earlier in the day, Slovenia's Barbara Jezeršek finished 19th in women's 15km cross-country double pursuit, falling almost two minutes behind the winner, Marit Bjoergen of Norway.