March 03, 2012 (Ruhpolding, GER) – Germany’s Magdalena Neuner gave local fans the win they wanted today as she shot clean en route to claiming the gold medal in the women’s 7.5km Sprint race at the 2012 IBU World Championships, in biathlon cathedral of Ruhpolding.

Neuner captured the win with a 15-second victory over silver medalist Darya Domracheva of Belarus and finished 38 seconds ahead of bronze medalist, Ukraine’s Vita Semerenko.

Out of the 116 women who started, the top North American result went to Canadian Zina Kocher, who finished 18th suffering two penalties at 1:48 behind of the gold medal finishing time. “I was a bit distracted in the mixed relay [on Thursday] and really messed up that race for the team so I’m satisfied that I bounced back and had a decent result today,” Kocher told SkiTrax post-race. “It’s not a perfect race with two misses, but it’s my best Sprint WCHS result and I’m in a great position for tomorrow’s pursuit.”

Temperatures were well above zero, but according to Kocher the organizing committee did a solid job in maintaining the course as best as possible considering the warm temperatures. Kocher has been getting great support from her wax technicians as well.  “My skis have been excellent this week. We have a superb team of wax techs and once again were on top of the conditions and did an incredible job for all of us. “

Other North American results included USA’s Sara Studebaker 49th place with Canadian’s Megan Imrie and Megan Heinicke finishing in 51st and 52nd respectively.  Americans Susan Dunklee and Annelies Cook placed 55th and 62nd respectively with Lanny Barnes of the US in 67th followed by Canadian Yolaine Oddou in 104th.

Full results HERE.