Ukraine's biathlete Oleg Berezhnoy beat the Russian favorite Artem Gusev to win the men's 12.5 kilometers pursuit on Wednesday at the 24th Harbin Winter Universiade.

Oleg shrugged aside one missed target and let his superior skiing propel himself to finish the distance first in 33 minutes 47.3 seconds.

Artem, double gold medallists at the Universiade after his triumphs in the individual and sprint race, failed to shoot in steady form. He missed eight of twenty targets in total and cost himself eight extra laps, trailing the winner by one minute 12.9 seconds.

Jaroslav Soukup of the Czech Republic took the bronze with 1:17.2 adrift and had three missed targets.

The five-day biathlon events will continue with both men's and women's mixed relay on Friday. The Russian biathletes have swept five of six golds on offer up to now.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2009)