CESANA SAN SICARIO, Italy, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Sweden's Anna Carin Olofsson powered to victory in the women's 12.5km mass starthere Saturday, winning her country's first ever gold medal in the women's biathlon at the Turin Winter Olympics.

    Olofsson, a former cross-country skier who only switched to thesport four years ago, demonstrated her superb skiing skill in Saturday's competition. She finished the race in 40:36.5 with one missed shot.

    "It was a very good race from the beginning to the finish. I knew I was good in skiing so I was just waiting for a good shooting day to the podium. It has come," the 32-year-old said.

    Olofsson said she did not feel well before the race since she slept badly the night before.

    "But after the second shooting round I thought, 'this is going to be my day!' After seeing how well the Russian girls were shooting in the relay, I got inspired and thought, 'Well, it can'tbe that difficult, I can do that'."

    Germany's Kati Wilhelm added another silver to her medal list. She missed one target in the race and crossed the finish line 18.8seconds behind.

    The German woman said the Turin Olympics has exceeded her expectations.

    "I feel great about these Olympics because I reached farther than my goals. I wanted a medal in an individual event and relay, and I have two individual medals plus the relay."

    Wilhelm already won the gold in 10km pursuit and silver in the 4X6km relay.

    With satisfaction with her Olympic performance, Wilhelm, the current World Cup leader, said she was going for her next goal. "To be overall World Cup champion."

    Her teammate, five-time-Olympic veteran Uschi Disl, won the bronze despite three missed shots. Disl participated five Olympicsfrom 1992 in Albertville, France to the 2006 Turin Games and won atotal of nine medals

    "I am happy with my nine medals. It isn't important which colorthey are. From every Olympics where I took part I have a medal."

    Disl won the gold in 1998 Nagano Games and 2002 Salt Lake City Games, both in 4X7.5km relay. She also had four silver medals and three bronzes.

    Disl had made an unofficial statement before the Turin Games that she would not compete in another Olympics. Not having a gold in Turin didn't change her decision.

    "(No matter it was) Bronze medal or any medal. My decision has already been made and it is not changed. You will get the official(announcement) later," the 35-year-old said.

    Saturday's women race ended all biathlon events in the Turin Games. Enditem £¨By Chang Ailing £©