Shipulin picked up one penalty on his way to completing the course in a time of 50min 38.1sec, with current overall leader Fourcade 41 seconds adrift.

The Frenchman, also the reigning Olympic champion in the event, amassed two penalties which proved costly as he was forced to settle for second.

Ukraine’s Sergey Semenov ensured he finished on the podium for the first time this campaign as he came through to take third.

Shipulin had never won a 20km individual competition before today and says he chose the perfect place to achieve the feat.

“I am very thankful to my fans for cheering, and for Martin for giving me this chance,” he said.

“I always wanted to score a win in this discipline, and I am happy to have done it here, in Antholz.”

Fourcade remains the runaway leader at the top of the standings with 784 points, with Shipulin now 284 behind in second.

The double Olympic champion admitted the 20km was “one of the toughest competitions” and confirmed he would not take part in tomorrow’s 4x7.5km relay to preserve his energy for the mass start on Sunday (January 22).

The women’s 12.5km is also due to be held tomorrow, though action is likely to be overshadowed by an extraordinary meeting of the IBU’s Executive Board.

The meeting has been convened to take “further decisions with regard to the McLaren Report".

The second part of the report then revealed around 1,000 Russian athletes were implicated in a doping manipulation programme across Summer, Winter, non-Olympic and Paralympic sport between 2011 and 2015.

The IBU were then given the names of 31 biathletes who are implicated in the report, though this does not necessarily mean they have committed a doping offence.