Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen (left) pips France’s Martin Fourcade to victory in the men’s 12.5km race.

Norway’s Emil Svendsen denied Martin Fourcade a third gold medal at the Sochi Games with a dramatic photo-finish victory at the end of yesterday’s men’s biathlon 12.5km mass start.

Svendsen, himself a double gold medallist at the Vancouver Games in 2010, fought back in the finish straight and thrust one ski over the line to pip the Frenchman, with both men recording the same 42 minutes 29.1 seconds finish time.

Fourcade had already won gold medals in the 20km individual and 12.5km pursuit in Sochi, and looked dejected having initially believed he had done enough to win a third.

Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic took bronze for his second medal of the Games after winning silver in the 12.5km pursuit.

Norwegian veteran Ole Einar Bjoerndalen looked in contention for an historic 13th Winter Olympics medal as he was one of the breakaway four before fluffing his chances on the final shooting range, missing four shots to drop out of contention.

Tina Maze earned her second gold medal at the Games with victory in the women’s giant slalom in difficult conditions.

The Slovenian, who made history by sharing the top of the podium with Dominique Gisin in the downhill last week, claimed the outright win in the pouring rain with an overall time of two minutes, 36.87 seconds.

That was just 0.07secs ahead of Anna Fenninger with defending champion Viktoria Rebensburg settling for bronze.

Norway took gold and silver in the Nordic combined large hill/10km event as Joergen Graabak beat compatriot Magnus Moan by 0.6 seconds in the cross-country race.

Graabak, 22, who started 42 seconds behind event leader and pre-games favourite Eric Frenzel after a leap of 118.4 metres in the ski jump, led down the home straight and had enough to win with a time of 23 minutes 27.5 seconds.

Fabian Riessle claimed bronze for Germany.

David Wise overcame difficult conditions at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park to take gold for the US in the men’s ski halfpipe final. A score of 92.00 on his first of two runs was enough to keep him ahead of the pack in heavy snow, with Canada’s Mike Riddle in second place and Kevin Rolland of France completing the podium.

Jorrit Bergsma won gold ahead of compatriots Sven Kramer and Bob de Jong and smashed the Winter Olympic record for the 10,000m as Holland continued their domination of speed skating.

Bergsma glided home in 12 minutes 44.45 seconds to secure his place at the top of the podium.

Kramer was just 4.57 seconds slower than Bergsma, with De Jong, the event leader with just two runs remaining, finishing 22.74 seconds back in third.

South Korea claimed their first short track gold medal of the Games with victory in the 3000m ladies final, finishing in four minutes 09.498 seconds.

Canada claimed silver while Italy were awarded bronze after China were disqualified for impeding Korean skater Shim Suk Hee on the final lap.

Pierre Vaultier edged out home favourite Nikolay Olyunin on the last jump in the final of the men’s snowboard cross to win gold at a murky Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.

Alex Deibold secured bronze in a tense final race, but fellow American Nate Holland, the reigning champion at the Winter X Games, failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals.