Russia wins third straight biathlon

OBERHOF, Germany (AP) -- Russia won its third straight 4x6-kilometer relay of the women's biathlon World Cup season Wednesday.

The Russian quartet of Svetlana Sleptsova, Olga Zaitseva, Ekaterina Iourieva and Olga Medvedtseva finished the race in 1 hour, 16 minutes, 47.7 seconds after one penalty lap and seven missed shots.

The Ukrainian team of Olena Pidhrushna, Vaji Semerenko, Vita Semerenko and Oksana Khvostenko was second, 1 minute, 10.2 seconds behind after zero penalty laps and four misses.

Germany, which was competing without three world champion biathletes, took third place, 1:31.4 back with two penalty laps and 12 misses.

Sleptsova had the lead after the first shooting but surrendered it to France at the next one. Kati Wilhelm missed just once as the second starter to give Germany the lead going into the third exchange.

Iourieva overtook Sabrina Buchholz after the second shooting and Medvedtseva was perfect in the final two rounds to bring home the Russian win.

The Russian women improved to 180 points in the relay standings, followed by Germany with 145 and France with 139.

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