# 2008–09 Biathlon World Cup – Pursuit Men

The 2008-09 Biathlon World Cup/Pursuit Men started at Sunday December 7, 2008 in Östersund and will finish Saturday March 28, 2009 in Khanty-Mansiysk. Defending titlist is Ole Einar Bjørndalen of Norway.

## Competition format

In a pursuit, biathletes' starts are separated by their time differences from a previous race, most commonly a sprint. The contestant crossing the finish line first is the winner. The distance is 12.5 kilometres (7.8 mi), skied over five laps; there are four shooting bouts (two prone, two standing, in that order), and each miss means a penalty loop of 150 m. To prevent awkward and/or dangerous crowding of the skiing loops, and overcapacity at the shooting range, World Cup Pursuits are held with only the 60 top ranking biathletes after the preceding race. The biathletes shoot (on a first-come, first-served basis) at the lane corresponding to the position they arrived for all shooting bouts.

## 2007-08 Top 3 Standings

| Medal | Athlete | Points |
| Gold: | Ole Einar Bjørndalen | 247 |
| Silver: | Dmitri Yaroshenko | 233 |
| Bronze: | Björn Ferry | 221 |

## Medal winners

| Event: | Gold: | Time | Silver: | Time | Bronze: | Time |
| Östersund | Tomasz Sikora Poland | 34:55.5 (0+2+0+1) | Ole Einar Bjørndalen Norway | 34:58.0 (1+2+0+0) | Emil Hegle Svendsen Norway | 35:00.4 (0+1+2+0) |
| Hochfilzen | Emil Hegle Svendsen Norway | 35:46.3 (1+0+1+1) | Ole Einar Bjørndalen Norway | 35:55.7 (0+0+2+0) | Tomasz Sikora Poland | 35:58.35 (1+0+0+2) |
| Ruhpolding | Ole Einar Bjørndalen Norway | 36:17.4 (0+1+0+0) | Emil Hegle Svendsen Norway | 36:51.8 (1+0+0+0) | Dominik Landertinger Austria | 37:03.9 (1+1+0+0) |
| Antholz | Björn Ferry Sweden | 33:19.4 (0+0+1+0) | Simon Eder Austria | 33:37.0 (0+0+0+0) | Emil Hegle Svendsen Norway | 33:44.1 (1+0+1+1) |
| World Championships | Ole Einar Bjørndalen Norway | 31:46.70 (0+2+0+2) | Maxim Tchoudov Russia | 32:28.40 (0+0+1+2) | Alexander Os Norway | 32:39.50 (0+0+2+1) |
| Trondheim | Ole Einar Bjørndalen Norway | 33:36.3 (1+0+1+0) | Simon Eder Austria | 34:01.4 (0+0+1+0) | Tomasz Sikora Poland | 34:01.6 (0+1+1+0) |
| Khanty-Mansiysk | Emil Hegle Svendsen Norway | 33:03.3 (0+0+1+1) | Ole Einar Bjørndalen Norway | 33:03.4 (1+0+0+1) | Christoph Sumann Austria | 33:27.1 (0+0+2+0) |

## Final standings

| # | Name | ÖST | HOC | RUH | ANT | WCH | TRO | KHA | Total |
| 1. | Ole Einar Bjørndalen | 54 | 54 | 60 | – | 60 | 60 | 54 | 342 |
| 2 | Emil Hegle Svendsen | 48 | 60 | 54 | 48 | – | 38 | 60 | 308 |
| 3 | Tomasz Sikora | 60 | 48 | 34 | 43 | 43 | 48 | 32 | 276 |
| 4 | Michael Greis | 43 | 36 | 27 | 38 | 28 | 43 | 43 | 231 |
| 5 | Björn Ferry | 31 | 40 | 7 | 60 | 10 | 34 | 40 | 215 |
| 6 | Simon Eder | – | – | 23 | 54 | 27 | 54 | 28 | 186 |
| 7 | Maxim Tchoudov | 29 | 27 | 21 | 26 | 54 | 17 | 29 | 186 |
| 8 | Ivan Tcherezov | 23 | 2 | 40 | 34 | 15 | 29 | 19 | 160 |
| 9 | Christoph Sumann | 9 | 32 | 32 | 32 | – | 6 | 48 | 159 |
| 10 | Michal Šlesingr | – | 0 | 30 | 27 | 22 | 40 | 38 | 157 |
| 11 | Halvard Hanevold | 38 | 20 | – | 24 | 38 | 36 | 0 | 156 |
| 12 | Dominik Landertinger | 19 | – | 48 | 25 | 7 | 31 | 14 | 144 |
| 13 | Alexander Os | 27 | 18 | – | 11 | 48 | 32 | 7 | 143 |
| 14 | Simon Fourcade | 40 | 0 | 29 | 22 | 31 | – | 21 | 143 |
| 15 | Michael Rösch | – | 13 | 38 | 31 | 32 | 27 | 0 | 141 |
| 16 | Carl Johan Bergman | 22 | 29 | 43 | 23 | – | 19 | 3 | 138 |
| 17 | Alexander Wolf | 34 | 30 | 6 | 20 | 23 | 8 | 13 | 128 |
| 18 | Daniel Mesotitsch | 25 | 8 | 13 | 28 | 17 | 12 | 27 | 122 |
| 19 | Martin Fourcade | – | – | 26 | 16 | 34 | 20 | 22 | 118 |
| 20 | Jean Philippe Leguellec | 24 | 34 | 18 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 117 |
| 21 | Tim Burke | – | –5 | – | 30 | 20 | 28 | 34 | 112 |
| 22 | Evgeny Ustyugov | – | – | 19 | 19 | 21 | 15 | 36 | 110 |
| 23 | Lars Berger | 3 | – | 36 | – | 40 | 21 | – | 100 |
| 24 | Christian De Lorenzi | 5 | 38 | 24 | 0 | 29 | – | – | 96 |
| 25 | Markus Windisch | 26 | 22 | 25 | – | 18 | – | – | 91 |
| 26 | Nikolay Kruglov, Jr. | 32 | 43 | – | 9 | – | – | – | 83 |
| 27 | Andreas Birnbacher | – | 7 | 20 | – | – | 25 | 30 | 82 |
| 28 | Jaroslav Soukup | 18 | – | 2 | 17 | 0 | 30 | 10 | 77 |
| 29 | Zdeněk Vítek | 14 | 14 | 17 | – | 13 | 18 | 0 | 76 |
| 30 | Friedrich Pinter | 4 | – | 31 | 2 | – | 23 | 15 | 75 |
| 31 | Mattias Nilsson | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 24 | 17 | 74 |
| 32 | Andriy Deryzemlya | 12 | 24 | – | – | 36 | – | – | 72 |
| 33 | Christoph Stephan | 36 | 21 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | – | 72 |
| 34 | Vincent Jay | 0 | 31 | – | 13 | 2 | 26 | – | 72 |
| 35 | Rustam Valiullin | 28 | 16 | – | – | 0 | – | 18 | 62 |
| 36 | Pavol Hurajt | 11 | – | 5 | – | 0 | 22 | 24 | 62 |
| 37 | Serguei Sednev | 8 | 1 | – | 40 | – | – | 8 | 57 |
| 38 | Vyacheslav Derkach | 16 | – | – | 14 | 0 | 5 | 20 | 55 |
| 39 | Maxim Maksimov | 0 | 28 | 22 | 0 | – | 2 | – | 52 |
| 40 | Simon Hallenbarter | – | 17 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 23 | 52 |
| 41 | Andrei Makoveev | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 14 | 6 | 51 |
| 42 | Vincent Defrasne | 17 | – | 28 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 47 |
| 43 | Tobias Eberhard | – | 10 | 9 | 21 | – | 4 | 0 | 44 |
| 44 | Arnd Peiffer | – | – | 8 | 9 | – | 0 | 26 | 43 |
| 45 | Magnús Jónsson | 0 | – | 16 | 0 | 26 | – | – | 42 |
| 46 | Ronny Hafsas | 22 | 0 | 15 | – | – | 0 | 4 | 41 |
| 47 | Jay Hakkinen | 30 | 0 | 10 | – | – | – | – | 40 |
| 48 | Rene Laurent Vuillermoz | 10 | 0 | – | 29 | 0 | – | – | 39 |
| 49 | Janez Maric | 0 | – | 14 | – | 6 | 16 | 0 | 36 |
| 50 | Ivan Joller | – | 23 | – | 0 | 11 | – | 0 | 34 |
| 51 | Sergey Novikov | 20 | 5 | – | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 34 |
| 52 | Matthias Simmen | 0 | 25 | – | 7 | – | 0 | – | 32 |
| 53 | Tomáš Holubec | 2 | 15 | – | 4 | – | 11 | – | 32 |
| 54 | Simon Schempp | – | – | – | – | – | – | 31 | 31 |
| 55 | Klemen Bauer | – | – | – | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 30 |
| 56 | Lowell Bailey | – | – | – | – | 19 | 10 | – | 29 |
| 57 | Olexander Bilanenko | – | – | 0 | 18 | – | – | 9 | 27 |
| 58 | Zhang Chengye | 13 | 0 | 4 | 10 | – | – | – | 27 |
| 59 | Stian Eckhoff | – | 26 | – | – | – | – | – | 26 |
| 60 | Paavo Puurunen | – | – | 0 | – | 25 | 0 | – | 25 |
| 61 | Artem Gusev | – | – | – | – | – | – | 25 | 25 |
| 62 | Jakov Fak | 0 | – | – | – | 16 | 3 | 0 | 19 |
| 63 | Roland Lessing | 0 | – | 0 | 5 | – | 13 | – | 18 |
| 64 | Toni Lang | 7 | 11 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 18 |
| 65 | Frode Andresen | 6 | – | 11 | – | – | – | – | 17 |
| 66 | Rune Brattsveen | – | – | – | – | – | – | 16 | 16 |
| 67 | Roman Dostál | 15 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | 15 |
| 68 | Robin Clegg | 0 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 15 |
| 69 | Anton Shipulin | – | – | – | – | – | – | 12 | 12 |
| 69 | Oleg Berezhnoy | – | 12 | – | – | – | – | | 12 |
| 69 | Hans Martin Gjedrem | – | – | – | 12 | – | – | | 12 |
| 72 | Sergey Balandin | – | – | – | – | – | – | 11 | 11 |
| 73 | Hidenori Isa | – | 4 | 0 | 6 | – | – | – | 10 |
| 74 | Jörgen Brink | 0 | 9 | – | – | – | – | – | 9 |
| 75 | Christian Martinelli | – | – | – | – | 9 | – | – | 9 |
| 76 | Roman Pryma | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 8 | – | – | 8 |
| 77 | Alexis Bœuf | – | – | – | – | – | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 78 | Alexandr Syman | 0 | – | – | – | 5 | 0 | – | 5 |
| 79 | Zhang Qing | – | – | – | – | 4 | – | – | 4 |
| 80 | Lois Habert | 0 | – | – | 3 | – | – | – | 3 |
| 81 | Ilmārs Bricis | – | – | 0 | – | 3 | – | – | 3 |
| 81 | Dušan Šimočko | – | – | 3 | – | – | – | – | 3 |
| 83 | David Ekholm | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 84 | Mattia Cola | – | 0 | – | – | – | 1 | – | 1 |
| 85 | Jeremy Teela | 1 | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 86 | Christoph Knie | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 1 |