Russia wins women's Olympic relay again

World champions Russia won the women's biathlon relay Olympic gold for the second straight time on Tuesday over France and a German team lacking two-time gold medallist Magdalena Neuner, dpa reported.

Svetlana Sleptsova, Anna Bogaliy-Titovets, Olga Medvedtseva and Olga Zaitseva dominated the 4x6-kilometres in 1 hour 9 minutes 36.3 seconds.

Sandrine Bailly passed Andrea Henkel in the final skiing portion to get silver for France, 32.8 seconds behind and with two penalty loops. The Germans trailed by 37.1 seconds for bronze.

Bogaliy-Titovets had to reload twice in her leg and so did Zaitseva in the final shooting portion, but by then the Russian lead was already too big.

Medvedtseva had decided the race in the third leg by grabbing a 45-second lead after the three top teams were neck to neck at the halfway mark.

Neuner withdrew from the German relay after adding mass start gold to the pursuit tile and a sprint silver, saying she was mentally drained and that other team members also deserved a chance to medal.