In the men's event, Martin Fourcade of France broke another record held by Norwegian legend Ole Einar Bjørndalen as he sealed his 13th win of the season in the 10km sprint.

Eckhoff produced a clean-shooting display on her way to topping the podium in a time of 19min 18.5sec, with Dahlmeier, who won five gold medals at the IBU World Championships in Hochfilzen last month, taking second.

Dahlmeier finished 18.3 seconds adrift, with Belarusian Darya Domracheva rounding off the podium with third.

The result saw the German extend her advantage in the race for the crystal globe over Gabriela Koukalová of the Czech Republic, who languished down in 13th place today.

Dahlmeier currently has a total of 1,077 points, while Koukalová is second on 939.

"The most important thing this season was to stay healthy," the World Cup leader said. 

"I do not look at the total score.

"It is over when it is over.”

Fourcade had already wrapped up the overall men's crown but continues to assert his dominance over the rest of the field as he powered to victory in 22:17.

Clean-shooting Ondřej Moravec of Czech Republic finished second by a narrow 0.6 second margin.

The bronze medal went the way of Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen.

"I love this track, this is where I had my first win," said Fourcade, a double Olympic champion.

"Today was just perfect Scandinavian conditions.”

The event in Kontiolahti continues tomorrow with the men's 12.5km and women's 10km pursuit races.