Strong winds initially caused the organisers to cancel the women’s 12.5 kilometre mass start event at the Russian course.

Despite hopes for the men's event, there was no change in the conditions with the wind eventually causing a light pole on the shooting range to fall down.

As a result, organisers opted to cancel the men’s 15km mass start competition for safety reasons.

The cancellation would have come as a particular disappointment to France’s Martin Fourcade, who skipped yesterday’s pursuit competition to prepare for the mass start.

Fourcade, who won four gold medals at the World Championships earlier this month, had already won the men’s overall World Cup ahead of the final event.

The Frenchman had also already been confirmed as the individual, sprint, mass start and pursuit champion.

The Czech Republic’s Gabriela Soukalova is the women’s World Cup champion, and also won the sprint, pursuit and mass start titles.

Italy's Dorothea Wierer won the overall individual title.