The 31-year-old shot clean on her way to victory at the Snezhinka Stadium in Chaykovskiy, finishing in a winning time of 20min 22.1sec.

Sleptsova was also part of the Russian relay quartet which won the mixed title on day one of the Championships yesterday.

She won Olympic gold in the 4x6km relay at Vancouver 2010 after winning the world title in Pyeongchang - the host of February's Winter Olympics - a year earlier.

She has now announced that the Championships in Chaykovskiy will be her last.

"Now my emotions are the most pleasant because I really wanted to please the fans not only with the relay medal, but also an individual one," she said following her surprise announcement. 

"Those are my last competitions and I want to finish them at the high note." 

Slovakia’s Paulina Fialkova won silver behind Sleptsova, missing twice and finishing 41.3 seconds behind.

Russia also won bronze as Olga Dmitrieva finished on two penalties while 42.9 behind the winner.

The summer event is a good gauge of biathlon form before the winter season gets underway in November.

Competitors use roller-skis.

In the men's sprint, Vladimir Chepelin won gold for Belarus.

He finished with a single penalty in a time of 24:12.3 with Russia's Alexey Volkov shooting clean but finishing 3.4 behind for the silver medal. 

It meant a second medal for Volkov, the Sochi 2014 relay Olympic gold medallist who was also in the mixed team which triumphed yesterday.

Slovakian Tomas Hasilla ended on one penalty for bronze, nine seconds behind. 

Pursuit events will be held tomorrow.