By Chang Ailing

    TURIN, Feb. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The German women retained their dominance in biathlon with Kati Wilhelm and Martina Glagow taking the gold and silver medals respectively at the Turin Winter Olympics here on Saturday.

    Wilhelm, a current World Cup leader who failed to get a medal in Monday's 15km individual and Thursday's 7.5 sprint, finally got to hold her head high by finishing first in 36:43.6.

    Her teammate Glagow, who missed two shots in the race, won the silver by 1:13.6. Russia's Albina Akhatova got the bronze.

    Wilhelm started the seventh in the race, but skied incredibly fast and left all the competitors far behind.

    Holding high a German national flag, which her coach gave to her at the last turn, Wilhelm passed the finish line with ease and in smile.

    "This is the biggest moment of my career. The greatest moment was at the end when I could wait for Martina (Glagow)," Wilhelm said after the race. Glagow won a bronze in Monday's 15km individual.

    As a double-gold medalist in Salt Lake City, Wilhelm has been under great pressure to win more in Turin.

    "Before the race I felt nervous. The pressure was not only from the others, but also from myself. I wanted so much to win a medal," she said at the press conference.

    Wilhelm said she realized that she would win when she finished the fourth shooting range. "My coach told me to slow down and enjoy the rest of race. He told me nobody could catch me anymore,"she said.

    "I am completely happy. I didn't have much luck over the last couple of days ... I enjoyed the race so much. It's great," she said.

    To Glagow, the silver was a reward for persistence.

    "Until the last lap, I was going for the bronze medal. But then I saw Akhatova (bronze medalist of Russia) getting tired. So in the last lap I was just going for it," she said.

    But Akhatova blamed her poor shooting for the last-minute defeat. "Had I shot better I would have finished higher up," she said.

    Akhatova missed one shot out of 20 and was taken over by Glagow before the finish line with a time difference of 0.078 seconds.

    China came close to overcoming their shooting woes with Liu Xianying breaking into the top-10. Liu missed three shots and ranked 9th, which is the best record ever achieved by the Chinese biathletes in the Turin Games.

    In the women's pursuit, athletes ski five loops of 2km with four shooting bouts. The competitors must ski a 150m penalty loop for each missed target immediately after shooting. Enditem