Ilmārs Bricis of Latvia took 19th place in the men’s 20-kilometer individual biathlon event as the first day of competition began Feb. 11 at the Winter Olympics in Italy.

Bricis finished the course in a time of 57 minutes, 19.2 seconds, according to the official Web site of the games, www.torino2006.org. In the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Bricis finished 39th, but with a faster time of 56:24.4.

The gold medal in this year’s event went to Germany’s Michael Greis, who finished the course in a time of 54:23.0. Norway’s Ole Einar Bjørndalen, a five-time Olympic champion favored by some observes to repeat a gold medal performance this time, took the silver. His teammate, Halvard Hanevold, won the bronze medal.

The biathlon event took place at Cesana San Sicario.

Latvia’s Jānis Bērziņš took 37th place with a time of 59:24.3, Kristaps Lībietis finished 69th with a time of 1:03:13.4, and Edgars Piksons finished in 80th place with a time of 1:06:12.5.