TURIN, Feb. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Biathlon king Ole Einar Bjoerndalen lost gold medal to France's Vincent Defrasne in Saturday's men's 12.5km pursuit at the Winter Olympics.

    Starting at 12th place, Norwegian Bjoerndalen was fast enough to get near top after the first two laps. But shooting brought him down when he had to ski 450m penalty after missing three shots.

    He was 2.7 senconds behind Defrasne at the finish for the silver.

    Defrasne missed two shots and won the gold in 35:20.2.

    Sven Fischer of Germany was third at 15.6 seconds after missing four shots. Enditem