Lindstroem held his nerve as Svendsen struggled
on the final shoot, skiing away to win by 56 seconds.
Simon Schempp used all his sprinting prowess to make up for poor
shooting and deliver the bronze for Germany.
The Germans got off to a great start and by the end of the third
lap the field was starting to spread out. When the first switch
was made the top six teams were all within half a minute of each
other.
Benedikt Doll immediately set about increasing Germany's lead,
shooting well on his first visit to the range to open a gap of
over 35 seconds to Semenov of Ukraine in second.
But Doll missed five of his eight shots to throw the lead away,
allowing Michal Slesingr of the Czech Republic to take over at
the front of the pack, with Austria's Simon Ebhard and Sweden's
Jesper Nelin close behind.
Many of the 18 teams chose to have their top-ranked racer go out
third and a frantic battle ensued as Jaroslav Soukup of the
Czech Republic was chased down by Austria's Julian Eberhard,
Sweden's Sebastian Samulesson and Johannes Thingnes Boe of
Norway.
Olympic sprint champion Arnd Peiffer and individual winner Boe
both skied brilliantly to drag their teams back into contention
as the leading group of Norway, Sweden and Germany opened up a
gap of a minute over the rest of the field.
Svendsen and Lindstroem shot clean and raced away as Schempp
lost ground with wayward shooting to set up a dramatic finale.
Lindstroem arrived at the final shoot fractionally ahead of
Svendsen, but the latter's four misses handed the gold medal to
Sweden and Lindstroem had time to high-five his coaching staff
as he headed for the line.
France's Martin Fourcade, who won three gold medals in
Pyeongchang, had a night to forget as his team put in a poor
performance overall, finishing fifth and several minutes behind
the leaders.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Ed Osmond)
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