Biathlon at the 1976 Winter Olympics – Individual


The Men's 20 kilometre individual biathlon competition at the 1976 Winter Olympics was held on 6 February, at Seefeld. Each miss of the target cost two minutes, while hitting the outer circle cost one minute.

Results

Defending world champion Heikki Ikola was among the leaders after the first shooting around, but he trailed Soviet Aleksandr Tikhonov, who set a torrid pace. Tikhonov led by thirty seconds at the halfway point, despite missing a shot, and after shooting clear the third time, the Soviet was up by more than a minute on Ikola and Nikolay Kruglov, the worlds silver medalist. However, at the final shot, Tikhonov collapsed, taking six penalty minutes to fall out of medal contention. Ikola took two minutes in penalties as well, meaning Kruglov, who had just one minute penalty, was able to pass him to win the gold medal. Aleksandr Elizarov could have taken silver with a better shooting performance than Ikola, but matched the Finn with two minutes in penalties, and while he cut Ikola's lead in half on the final section, he was left in third place. Tikhonov ended up with the fastest ski time by almost two full minutes, but his late misses meant he ended up in fifth.
RankNameCountrySki TimePenaltiesResultDeficit
Nikolay Kruglov1:12:12.2621:14:12.26–
Heikki Ikola1:13:54.1021:15:54.10+1:41.84
Aleksandr Elizarov1:13:05.5731:16:05.57+1:53.31
4Willy Bertin1:13:50.3631:16:50.36+2:38.10
5Aleksandr Tikhonov1:10:18.3371:17:18.33+3:06.07
6Esko Saira1:15:32.8421:17:32.84+3:20.58
7Lino Jordan1:15:49.8321:17:49.83+3:37.57
8Sune Adolfsson1:16:00.5021:18:00.50+3:48.24
9Tor Svendsberget1:15:10.1331:18:10.13+3:57.87
10Lars-Göran Arwidson1:13:34.3751:18:34.37+4:22.11
11Heinrich Mehringer1:16:49.1521:18:49.15+4:36.89
12Manfred Geyer1:13:11.3761:19:11.37+4:59.11
13Juhani Suutarinen1:17:25.8921:19:25.89+5:13.63
14Hansruedi Süssli1:16:53.7331:19:53.73+5:41.47
15Karl-Heinz Wolf1:15:06.8951:20:06.89+5:54.63
16Gheorghe Voicu1:16:01.5251:21:01.52+6:49.26
17Antonín Kříž1:17:11.3641:21:11.36+6:59.10
18Kjell Hovda1:16:24.4551:21:24.45+7:12.19
19Jan Szpunar1:17:27.2041:21:27.20+7:14.94
20Svein Engen1:14:27.2471:21:27.24+7:15.98
21Alfred Eder1:14:42.5281:22:42.52+8:30.26
22René Arpin1:13:50.9291:22:50.92+8:38.66
23Pierantonio Clementi1:16:08.8671:23:08.86+8:56.60
24Ladislav Žižka1:19:09.0341:23:09.03+8:56.77
25Albert Mächler1:17:28.6661:23:28.66+9:16.40
26Josef Niedermeier1:18:33.6351:23:33.63+9:21.37
27Manfred Beer1:18:42.5051:23:42.50+9:30.24
28Khristo Madzharov1:18:02.6261:24:02.62+9:50.36
29Wojciech Truchan1:16:09.9381:24:09.93+9:57.67
30Graeme Ferguson1:18:18.0961:24:18.09+10:05.83
31Hiroyuki Deguchi1:20:53.8441:24:53.84+10:41.58
32Gheorghe Gârniţă1:17:00.7181:25:00.71+10:48.45
33Jean-Claude Viry1:18:09.5171:25:09.51+10:57.25
34Alois Kanamüller1:17:25.2681:25:25.26+11:13.00
35Lyle Nelson1:15:27.50101:25:27.50+11:15.24
36Malcolm Hirst1:16:52.9791:25:52.97+11:40.71
37Franz-Josef Weber1:16:14.92101:26:14.92+12:02.66
38Manabu Suzuki1:19:35.7971:26:35.79+12:23.53
39Jeffrey Stevens1:18:15.8791:27:15.87+13:03.61
40Christian Danuser1:20:16.4371:27:16.43+13:04.17
41Kazuo Sasakubo1:21:35.3161:27:35.31+13:23.05
42Aimé Gruet-Masson1:18:35.8191:27:35.81+13:23.55
43Iliya Todorov1:20:57.6071:27:57.60+13:45.34
44Josef Malínský1:19:09.1891:28:09.18+13:56.92
45Nicolae Cristoloveanu1:20:15.5381:28:15.53+14:03.27
46Andrzej Rapacz1:18:30.82101:28:30.82+14:18.56
47Martin Hagen1:20:49.2081:28:49.20+14:36.94
48Torsten Wadman1:15:20.34151:30:20.34+16:08.08
49Klaus Farbmacher1:20:31.07161:36:31.07+22:18.81
50Ueng Ming-yih1:32:09.37101:42:09.37+27:57.11
51Shen Li-chien1:49:32.9191:58:32.91+44:20.65
–Peter DascouliasDNF–––