Alexander Bolshunov won the third gold medal at the Beijing Olympics

Bolshunov managed to complete the distance in an hour 11 minutes and 32.7 seconds. Yakimushkin lost 5.5 seconds to him.

In third place was the representative of Norway, Simen Hegstad Kruger. His backlog from Bolshunov was 7 seconds.

Note that the competition in the mass start had to be postponed due to strong winds. The delay was an hour. In addition, the distance was reduced from 50 km to 28.4 km.

Bolshunov brought the first medal to the Russian team - gold in the skiathlon. Another gold went to him as part of the national team in the 4x10 relay. He also finished second in the 15 km classic time trial. In the team sprint, Bolshunov won the bronze medal.