After two incredibly sunny days beforehand, day three saw a change in the conditions with a dark and bleak morning casting a shadow over Hochfilzen.

Additionally, the bitterly cold overnight temperatures of -10C kept the tracks hard and fast for the riders.

These conditions helped 34-year-old Thingnes Boe cement his place at the top of the podium as his track speed could not be matched by any other riders.

France’s Martin Fourcade was his closest challenger in second but, despite being precise in the shooting sections, he could not match Thingnes Boe’s speed in the sprint, eventually finishing 15.4 seconds behind the Norwegian.

Following his 15^th World Cup victory, Thingnes Boe said: “It is always better to be first rather than second.

“I was lucky to shoot clean today.

“That is what I needed to get the win

“My plan was ‘Go until you die, attack all the way. If you want to win, you cannot conserve power.’

“I was quite tired in the last loop, but I managed to hold on.”

Silver medalist Forcade admitted that he had little chance of matching Thingnes Boe today:

“I cannot comment on any fight because Johannes had too big of an advantage after the standing shooting.

“I am just happy that I was able to make up some seconds in the end.”

Slovenia’s Jakov Fak claimed the bronze medal, and his second podium finish in a row, but still finished 41.3 seconds behind Thingnes Boe.

In the women’s 7.5km sprint event, it was Belarus’s Darya Domracheva who came out on top with a total time of 22:40.2, finishing 22.1 seconds ahead of Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia, despite starting the day a minute behind.

After the bleak conditions that surrounded the men’s event, the weather, once again, turned for the women’s race with heavy snow falling an hour before the start. This made the shooting aspect of the competition particularly difficult as the snowfall made visibility difficult whilst there were also heavy winds to contend with.

Speaking after her win, Domracheva said: I am grateful that I was able to handle these challenging weather conditions today. It has been a long time since I was on top of the podium, since March 2015, so it is nice to be here.”

Although Kuzmina could only finish second, she too was pleased with her performance after her first podium finish since 2014.

“This is a great day for me and my team. I am full of emotions.”

The bronze medal was taken by Italy’s Dorothea Wierer.

Tomorrow sees the athletes compete in the pursuit competitions in which the men will race 12.5km and the women 10km.