The German tumbled for the finish line and was given the 15 kilometres win by the narrowest of margins in a time of 35 minutes, 42.8 seconds, just ahead of Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet and Michal Šlesingr of the Czech Republic.

Further back, Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway took fourth place, with team mate Ole Einar Bjørndalen a further 2.6 seconds behind in fifth.

Schempp's tight victory leaves him in third place in the overall standings on 429 points, Russian Anton Shipulin is second and Martin Fourcade of France tops the leaderboard on 516 points.

In the women's event,  Belarusian Darya Domracheva earned her second consecutive 12.5km mass start event win, once again coming from behind before proving too strong for the rest of the field once more.

Domracheva fought back from penalties at the first prone and first standing stage to finish in 37:17.5 in front of Germany's Franziska Preuss, who found herself on the podium at a World Cup event for the first time, and Veronika Vítková of the Czech Republic.

Ukrainian Valj Semerenko claimed fourth place, Anaïs Bescond of France was fifth and Weronika Nowakowska-Ziemniak of Poland finished sixth.

The result means Finn Kaisa Mäkäräinen's lead at the top of the World Cup leaderboard has been cut to 58 points, with Domracheva in second place on 500 points.

Darya Domracheva claimed her second successive mass start win with another comeback victory ©Getty Images



The women's race took place in much clearer conditions than the previous days of competition, with blue skies and very little wind, which made for a superb mass start event.

The first prone stage saw 15 women shoot clean, and the pack was led by German Vanessa Hinz, with Domracheva's penalty leaving her adrift in the middle of the field.

However, she and Mäkäräinen recovered from the early setback and after the second prone they had both rejoined the leading group.

The pair shot clean and took the lead going in to the next standing stage but Domracheva and Mäkäräinen continued to make mistakes, each taking two more penalties.

That opened the door for Russia's Ekaterina Glazyrina, who built up a 10 second advantage over French duo Bescond and Marie Dorin Habert, but comeback queen Domracheva demonstrated her skiing prowess and surged back to the front.

She then shot superbly under pressure which left her opponents trailing behind as she cruised to victory.

Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen still tops the overall standings but her lead has been cut to 58 points following Darya Domracheva's victory ©Getty Images



It was the second time in as many events that Domracheva had to come from behind to win a mass start event after she claimed victory at the last World Cup meeting in Oberhof.

"The third shooting was not one of my dreams," she said.

"I was quite confident, I was not that far back and I know that the last shooting stage often decides the results.

"I like the mass start, the head-to-head battle, just like in the pursuit."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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