updated 9:48 a.m. ET Feb. 26, 2006

CESANA, Italy - Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen was denied gold again Saturday when France’s Vincent Defrasne sped past him on the final straightaway to win the men’s 12.5km biathlon pursuit.

“I’m happy with my race, but disappointed with the finish and not getting a gold medal,” said Bjoerndalen, who expended too much energy at the start, when he went from 12th to the head of the pack.

“Before the race, I decided to be offensive and go the fastest I could,” Bjoerndalen said, “but on the last hill I didn’t manage to create any speed, so I had nothing at the end.”

Except for another silver to go with the one he won in the 20km race.

Defrasne, who skied in Bjoerndalen’s slipstream for the final, grueling kilometer uphill, stumbled at the top as he turned onto the straightaway but recovered in time to outsprint Bjoerndalen, who settled for his second silver medal, finishing 2.7 seconds behind Defrasne’s winning time of 35 minutes, 20.2 seconds.

Sven Fischer of Germany, who started in the lead, won the bronze, 15.6 seconds back.

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Defrasne, who started fifth, 43 seconds after the leader, didn’t miss any of his first 15 targets even though he made a “beginner’s blunder” of only loading four .22-caliber bullets into his magazine for the first shoot, which meant he had to load an emergency spare by hand from his rifle stock or be disqualified.

He recovered nicely but came in too hard on the uphill to his final turn at the shooting range and, with his rifle shaking, missed two targets.

Bjoerndalen missed one of his shots, however, so Defrasne had company on the 150-meter penalty loop.

Bjoerndalen, who missed three shots altogether, was just 1.8 seconds behind Defrasne at the 11km marker, and he went past the Frenchman on the final uphill with Defrasne right behind him.

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It looked as though Defrasne was running out of steam as he kept looking over his shoulder in Bjoerndalen’s shadow. But Bjoerndalen isn’t known as a great sprinter — and that’s where Defrasne won gold.

“My legs were hurting, my whole body was tired. But I must say, I had some really good skis,” Defrasne said. “So, on the flat part and on the slope and on the final sprint I really went for it. During the last turn I got a little mixed up with my poles, but in the end, I just decided I shouldn’t be thinking about all this and I should just go all out for it.”

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Norway’s Halvard Hanevold was in line to add a gold medal to the silver and bronze he’s already won in the Italian Alps, but the leader at the halfway point missed three targets on his third shooting stage and finished fifth.

Americans Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey finished 38th and 50th, respectively. The U.S. team got some good news afterward when they learned Jay Hakkinen had qualified for the mass start, which is limited to the top 30 skiers, despite his stunning collapse in the 10km race, where he finished 80th.

Bjoerndalen swept all four gold medals at the Salt Lake City Games and was expected to challenge for the gold in all five races in Italy. He still has a shot in the relay, where Norway is a favorite, and in the mass start.

The starting times in the pursuit were based on the finish times of the previous race. Fischer, who won the 10km gold medal, had an 8-second head start on Hanevold. Bjoerndalen began 1 minute, 14 seconds behind Fischer.

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