Russia beats Norway in men's biathlon World Cup relay

OBERHOF, Germany (AP) Anton Shipulin pulled away from eight-time Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen to give Russia the win in a biathlon World Cup men's relay Thursday that was in danger of being called off because of rain and fog.

Evgeniy Garanichev, Timofey Lapshin, Dmitry Malyshko and Shipulin missed 12 targets and had one penalty round before completing the 4x7.5-kilometer race in 1 hour, 15 minutes, 24.1 seconds.

''The hardest thing today was to stay warm out there,'' Lapshin said.

Shipulin overtook Bjoerndalen on the final leg to leave Norway 2.3 seconds behind.

Bjoerndalen and teammates Vetle Sjastad Christiansen, Alexander Os and Johannes Thingnes Boe had 10 missed targets and one penalty round.

France finished 1:32.3 behind in third, while Germany was fourth.

The race had been delayed 30 minutes because of the adverse conditions.

The Czech Republic did not complete the race after Michal Krcmar crashed early on. His was one of four crashes in the first leg.