LILLEHAMMER / ’94 WINTER OLYMPICS : NOTEBOOK

Myriam Bedard of Canada won her second gold medal in biathlon here Wednesday and Russian Sergei Tchepikov won his first.

Bedard, who became the first North American to win an Olympic biathlon last Friday in the 15-kilometer event, won the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint by 1.1 seconds, the closest finish in women’s Olympic history. She missed twice on the rifle range and finished in 26 minutes 8.8 seconds, nosing out Svetlana Paramygina of Belarus. Paramygina also missed twice.

Valentyna Tserbe of Ukraine won the bronze when Inna Sheshikl of Kazakhstan fell two yards from the finish.

The race included two stops at the range for a round each of prone and standing shooting. A penalty lap was skied for each miss.

In the men’s race, a 10-kilometer sprint, Tchepikov’s perfect shooting put him in prime position, then he skiied a fast final segment and knocked Ricco Gross of Germany out of the victory.

Both Tchepikov and Gross shot clean in their two visits to the range, five shots each prone and standing. But Tchepikov, who was third in this race at Calgary in 1988, finished in 28 minutes 7 seconds, six seconds faster than Gross. Sergei Tarasov, also of Russia, winner of the 20k last Sunday, won the bronze.

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Japan practically assured itself of the gold medal in team Nordic combined, taking a big lead over Norway in the ski jumping portion off the normal hill.

Takanori Kono’s 330-foot jump, the longest in either the individual or team combined event, helped Japan to a 61.5-point lead, which means the Japanese will start today’s 30-kilometer cross-country relay with better than a five-minute advantage.

In the team event, each team’s jumpers get two jumps. Kono jumped 310-2 on his second try, then Kenji Ogiwara gave Japan another boost with a second jump of 316-8.

Japan finished the day with 733.5 points to 672 for Norway and 643.5 for Switzerland. Thursday’s relay race will determine the medals.

Norway’s Fred Borre Lundberg, winner of the individual competition last week, jumped 267-4 and 283-9 Wednesday.

The U.S. team was seventh among the 12 teams with 602 points and will start the relay 10 minutes 57 seconds behind.