November 29, 2007 (Kontiolahti, Finland) – Martina Glagow of Germany and Vincent Defrasne of France each shot flawlessly Thursday to win the opening biathlon World Cup events of the season. Alaskan Jay Hakkinen was ninth in the men’s 20 km individual race.

Defrasne didn’t have the fastest time in the 20 km – that was Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (49:05.7), but he missed six shots – but shooting clean gave him the win in 51:25.2.

Hanevold, with one miss, was second in 51:48.8 with Russian Maxim Tchoudov in third place, a half-minute off Defrasne’s pace.

Hakkinen missed one shot in his first visit to the range and one in his last trip, adding two penalty minutes to his time. Overall, he finished in 53:32.1. Fellow Alaskan Jeremy Teela was 38th and Robin Clegg was the top Canadian, finishing 43rd.

“This is a good start. I was a little conservative in the shooting range early in the race,” Hakkinen said, “but I realized I needed to go for it. Overall, it was a very solid race for me.”

In the women’s race, Glagow picked off the 11th win of her career, overtaking Russia’s Tatiana Moiseeva in the final stages by 6.7 seconds. Canadian Sandra Keith had the best North American showing, finishing 57th in the field of 104.

Moiseeva, who started 89th, shot clean and finished in 46:35.5. However, Glagow ran 91st and simply out-skied her at the end, shooting clean and finishing in 46:28.8. Third place went to German Simone Denkinger with two missed shots and a time of 47:31.5.

Friday, the women run their 7.5 km sprint and the men have their 10 km sprint Saturday. Sunday, the opening World Cup races conclude with pursuit events.

Full results here.