Early surprise sees Jay storm to biathlon gold

Jay stormed to the gold on his Olympic debut in a time of 24 minutes, 7.8 seconds with Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen taking the silver 12.2 seconds adrift.

Croatian Jakov Fak, who claimed the bronze medal, was a further 1.8 seconds behind.

Jay was among the early starters and benefited when snow showers made conditions more testing for the pre-race favourites.

Norwegian biathlon great Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, with five Olympic gold medals to his name, saw his bid for another hit by four penalties. He could only finish 17th, one minute and 41.1 seconds behind Jay.

In the Nordic combined competition, Finland's Janne Ryynaenen led the way after the ski jumping thanks to a leap of 105 metres for a points score of 135.5.Todd Lodwick of the United States was his nearest challenger with 127 points after his jump of 101.5 metres.

Britain's Lee-Steve Jackson finished 51st.

Jackson, 29, who was competing in his first Winter Olympics, was 48th after the prone shooting and 38th after the standing shooting.

Jackson, who lives in Stockton-on-Tees, serves in the British Army as a Lance-Corporal with Second Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment.

Two endurance skiers have been prevented from competing after returning high haemoglobin values in pre-competition blood tests.

Nordic combined skier Niyaz Nabeev of Russia and Estonian cross-country skier Kasper Kokk will not be allowed to race until after February 16 for health reasons.

British Olympic Association performance director Sir Clive Woodward, meanwhile, is hoping for a Games to remember from a British perspective but said: "You don't want to put pressure on people in terms of the number of medals. We've just got some outstanding athletes.

"Today the four skeleton athletes arrived. They've all got a chance – Shelley Rudman, Kristan Bromley, Adam Pengilly and Amy Williams are four outstanding athletes in that event alone.

"So there's a lot of talent here, we've got Chemmy Alcott in the skiing who I think has got a good chance, and the men's and women's curling teams.

"You just hope on the day they can all do their very best and the medals table takes care of itself."