Dahlmeier, a two-time world champion, usurped Gabriela Koukalová of the Czech Republic at the summit of the standings by powering to victory in a time of 44min 45.1sec.

The German amassed two penalties before she crossed the line in front of France’s Anais Chevalier, who was 3.8sec adrift in second place.

Alexia Runggaldier of Italy came through to secure her maiden IBU World Cup podium as she took third, though she was some way off the winning pace, finishing 46sec behind the victorious Dahlmeier.

The result moves the German biathlete to a total of 615 points in the race for the overall crown, 11 more than Koukalová, who came into the opening race of the competition in Antholz in pole position.

Koukalová endured a difficult outing in windy conditions as she languished down in 24^th, over four minutes adrift of the winning time.

“Today was a very hard race for me, I think for everybody else as well,” said Dahlmeier.

“It was important for me to invest more time in the final shooting, and at the end it worked well.”

“Every race is a new race.

“Perhaps for others I am a favourite, but I still have to shoot clean to be on the podium.”

Dahlmeier suffered a disappointing start to the 15km individual race as she recorded two penalties, one in prone and one in standing, early on.

However, the 23-year-old recovered shooting clean during the next two stages.

Chevalier remained hot on the heels of the German and it quickly became evident that it would be a straight battle for the victory between the two after they broke away from the rest of the pack.

“I am satisfied to have only one penalty,” the Frenchwoman said.

“We have a very strong team, I am happy to be second today, but tomorrow everything can change.”

The event in Antholz continues tomorrow with the men’s 20km individual race.