The Russian quartet, comprising Anton Shipulin, Evgeniy Garanichev, Maxim Tsvetkov and Dmitry Malyshko, largely had Shipulin to thank as he overtook Germany's Simon Schempp in the dying embers of the contest to snatch a dramatic late win, crossing the line in a total time of 1hr 16min 16.6sec.

The German team, who led for large parts of the race, finished just off the pace in second, losing out on victory by a mere 0.5 seconds, while Austria came through to take third.

Germany had surged into an early advantage as Erik Lesser managed a perfect opening leg, which saw them head the leading pack in front of the Czech Republic and Belarus, with Ukraine, Russia and Austria all within nine seconds.

Russia briefly snatched the lead in the second leg, but Jakov Fak, who has been in impressive individual form of late, produced another excellent display to give Slovenia a slight 0.6 second advantage going into the third exchange.

A topsy-turvy third leg followed as Malyshko did battle with yesterday's sprint winner Arnd Peiffer of Germany, and it was Peiffer who began to pull away heading into the crucial last stage.

Despite trailing, Shipulin demonstrated his skiing prowess once again as he wiped out a 31-second deficit to Schempp with accurate shooting, before the two were locked in a fascinating duel as a thrilling race veered towards its climax.

Schempp seized the advantage midway through the final 2.5km and looked as though he would clinch victory, but Shipulin fought back, overtaking in the last 50 metres before crossing the line to seal the win for the jubilant Russians.

"I am satisfied today and we have a victory," Shipulin said.

"We had to take some risks and that helped us win."

Veronika Vítková seized control of the race in the final leg to give the Czech Republic a third relay victory of the season ©Getty Images



The women's 4x6km race, which was a much less dramatic affair, saw the Czech Republic claim their third World Cup relay win as they beat nearest challengers Italy by 28.3 seconds, while France came third.

The Czech team of Eva Puskarčíková, Gabriela Soukalová, Jitka Landova, and Veronika Vítková raced round the course in a time of 1:11:10.9, with Vítková being the key to her nation's success as she took control of the last leg, leaving the rest of the field in her wake.

"We are a small team," Soukalová said.

"Over the past couple of years, we have become bigger and stronger; our success has come from experience."

The relay races rounded off the eighth World Cup event of the season, and the competition concludes in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from March 18 to 22.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
February 2015: Domracheva surges to top of IBU World Cup overall leaderboard with victory in Oslo
February 2015: Fourcade and Mäkäräinen shoot clean to take IBU World Cup wins
February 2015: Fak claims second consecutive IBU Biathlon World Cup win as Domracheva returns to top
February 2015: Dahlmeier and Fak sprint to first individual IBU Biathlon World Cup victories of the season
February 2015: Relay victories for Norway and Russia at biathlon World Cup