March 12, 2011 (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia) – Despite missing four targets, Germany’s biathlon goddess, Magdalena Neuner, battled back to win gold at Saturday’s 12.5km Mass Start at the IBU World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The legendary biathlete struggled with her shooting but was able to overcome her Belarus rival, Darya Domracheva, on the final leg to take the win.

Domracheva, who pole-vaulted nine spots after shooting clean on the final stage, left the stadium for the final time holding a slim lead. But the valiant Belarus skier could not hold off a hard-charging Neuner, who suffered a penalty on the final round, but utilized fast skis to overtake Domracheva for the win by a narrow 4.8 seconds.

It was a see-saw day for Neuner, who lead early in the race, but fell behind the leaders with poor shooting. However aggressive skiing allowed her to remain in contention for the podium.

“It looked like an easy day for shooting, but it was not. When you look at the results, you see many mistakes. I had to fight on the shooting range and on the tracks,” Neuner said in an IBU Report. “Darya was very strong on the last loop and we had a hard battle, but I have the gold medal now. That is very good for me.”

It was a tough day as well for the determined Domracheva who fell on the first lap, and missed three targets in the first two stages. Perseverance and composure allowed her to clean both standing loops to secure the lead, only to relinquish it and end up with the silver medal, finishing in a time of 36:53.3.

“Biathlon is a sport. You must fight to the finish,” Domracheva said of her rough start, “You can fall down and have penalty loops, but you must fight to the finish.”

The race for the bronze medal became a battle between Norway’s Tora Berger and WCup leader Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland. Berger, who missed three targets in the prone stages, cleaned the last two laps to beat out Mäkäräinen, who suffered a costly miss in the third lap. Berger’s time of 37:02.5 put her 14 seconds out of gold, and 10.2 seconds ahead of her Finnish rival.

“I hoped to win a gold medal here, but my shooting was not so good this week – three penalties today were too many. Kaisa was very strong on the next-to-the-last loop and I was concerned that we would be fighting for the medal. So I used all of my power to get away from her,” commented the veteran Norwegian athlete.

No US or Canadian Biathletes qualified for Saturday’s mass start, which consists of the top 15 racers from the season, as well as the remaining top 15 from the current World Championship events.

Full results HERE.

Results (Brief)

1. Magdalena Neuner, GER (0+1+2+1) 36:48.5
2. Darya Domracheva, BLR (2+1+0+0) 36:53.3
3. Tora Berger, NOR (2+1+0+0) 37:02.5