Fak, who finished top of the podium for the first time this season in yesterday's sprint race, powered round the course in a time of 37min 24.9sec, ahead of Germany's Simon Schempp and overall World Cup leader Martin Fourcade.

In the women's 10km pursuit, Belarusian Darya Domracheva recovered from her disappointing sprint performance by surging to victory as she beat nearest challenger Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland by 6.8 seconds.

Sprint victor Laura Dahlmeier of Germany came through to take third, while compatriot Vanessa Hinz was fourth in blizzard conditions.

The men enjoyed a much better climate for racing and Fak shot clean as he stretched his early lead to 15 seconds over the rest of the chasing pack.

The Slovenian came to the second prone with a clear advantage over both Schempp and Fourcade, but the Frenchman did manage to claw the gap back to just five seconds.

Fak made a slight mistake on the final shooting stage which meant he had to go around the penalty loop but his lead proved too strong for the rest as he went on to seal a deserved win.

"I never started a pursuit in first and won so I am happy that I did that," he said.

"I wanted to run my own race and did a good job today."

Darya Domracheva returned to form by claiming victory in the women's pursuit despite amassing four penalties ©Getty Images



Three-time Sochi 2014 Olympic biathlon gold medallist Domracheva had to navigate tricky conditions throughout the women's race, and the Belarusian started poorly.

Franziska Hildebrand and Dahlmeier led at the early stages, a full minute ahead of Domracheva, but she showed the character of a champion to reduce the deficit to 19.3 seconds going in to the first standing stage.

Home favourite Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic was in front as the race neared its end, before Domracheva seized control, crossing the line in a time of 35:22.3.

"It was a little of a bit hard race," She said.

"You have to fight to the end; you still have a chance."

The next World Cup event is due to begin on Thursday (February 12) and runs through to the following Sunday (February 15) in Oslo.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
February 2015: Dahlmeier and Fak sprint to first individual IBU Biathlon World Cup victories of season
February 2015: Relay victories for Norway and Russia at biathlon World Cup
January 2015: Norway seal second consecutive Biathlon World Cup relay win in Antholz
January 2015: Formidable duo Schempp and Domracheva both seal hat-trick of victories at biathlon World Cup
January 2015: Imperious Domracheva claims second successive IBU World Cup victory