She hit all the marks on her way to a time of 20 min 51.8sec in the 7.5 kilometre sprint race, which was 22sec faster than the Czech Republic’s Gabriela Koukalová, who is still the overall World Cup leader.

Laura Dahlmeier finished 30.1sec behind to claim third in front of a home crowd.

After the first loop, Mäkäräinen held a 16sec lead and by the time she had got round the second lap, the Finn was just under a minute in front of the field.

However, neither Koukalová and Dahlmeier had started their runs at this point and pressure looked to be on the leader as both also shot cleanly.

But they could not match the ski speed of Mäkäräinen and had to settle for second and third.

Mäkäräinen’s victory was the 20^th of her career and the Finnish biathlete believed her clean shooting was key to the success today.

“In biathlon, it’s better not to expect anything before the race, as anything could happen,” she said.

“Here in Ruhpolding, you need to shoot clean, as there are so many athletes who shoot clean here, but today’s weather was not typical for this venue.”

Today’s win saw Mäkäräinen jump to first in the sprint World Cup standings on 251 points, 25 ahead of Koukalová in second and 46 in front of France’s Marie Dorin Habert in third.

Koukalová remains top of the overall World Cup table on 533, with Dahlmeier second on 512 and Mäkäräinen a further four points behind the German.

Tomorrow, there will be a 12.5km pursuit for the men and a 10km pursuit for the female biathletes at the venue.