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,^[1] 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[2]
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[3]
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

References