Martin Ponsiluoma of Sweden held his nerve and hit his final five shots to win the men's 12.5km pursuit Olympic race in spectacular fashion on Sunday.
Norway's Sturla Holm Laegreid came in 20.6 seconds behind the Swede to take the silver medal, with Emilien Jacquelin of France securing the bronze despite two late misses. Ponsiluoma secured Sweden's first biathlon medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Games.
The start order in the pursuit was decided by the finishing times of the sprint, giving Quentin Fillon Maillet of France the chance to set off first with Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen of Norway following him 13.7 seconds later.
Few gave Ponsiluoma a chance of gold as he set off in 7th place. Consisting of five 2.5km laps and four visits to the shooting range, the race took place in bright sunshine with a changeable wind that made aiming difficult, and each miss meant a trip around the 150-meter penalty loop.
"Right now it is difficult to understand what I've done, it will be later tonight before I understand what a super race it was," a delighted Ponsiluoma told Swedish TV. "I can't do it any better — I shot fast, I shot well and I skied well. It was tough on the last lap, but it was nice to get over the finish line."
True to form, Jacquelin came flying out of the blocks and steamed away from the second shoot with a comfortable lead, and a patient five shots at the third visit looked to have set him up for gold.
With the race on the line and Ponsiluoma hot on his heels, Jacquelin collapsed under pressure as the Swede skied into the final shoot, missing twice. As the Frenchman headed to two punishing penalty loops, Ponsiluoma needed no second invitation.
"It was a special moment, because during the last lap, I was really thinking that maybe I would finish fourth again (as he did in the 10km sprint)," Jacquelin said. "So, when I understood that I would be on the podium, I was really happy."
Norway's Laegreid spotted his chance and slipped into second place, but neither could close the gap on the Swede, who banished all thoughts of his nation's poor start to the Games with a glorious spurt to gold.
“It was all about what every race has been this last period. Just do one thing at a time," Laegreid said. "Ski one meter at a time. Shoot one shot at a time. Do my best with what I can right now, and, in the end, we can count the results.”
Team USA's Campbell Wright raced to 8th with the second-fastest ski time of the day, and Paul Schommer finished 48th.
U.S. Biathlon Team wrote on social media: "@wright_campbell raced to 8TH in the men’s pursuit, tying the best-ever Olympic finish by a U.S. man AND rewriting the best-ever Olympic pursuit finish for a U.S. athlete."
NBCOlympics.com's Allison Hageman contributed to this report.